The collective lawsuit that Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) of the Canary Islands filed in 2011 so that commerce workers in the Canary Islands would legally have two days off per week, resulted in a favorable ruling from the High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC) in 2013.
Since then, very few businesses in Lanzarote have implemented the measure. "Only five or six businesses complied, 90% did not," Vanessa Frehija of CCOO explained to La Voz.
The new collective agreement for commerce in the province of Las Palmas, which was published in the BOE on February 23, obliges commerce companies to grant two days off per week.
"They have two months to implement the measure from the publication in the BOE. Employers who do not will face direct labor inspections by CCOO," Frehija adds.
The agreement recommends that the two days off per week be consecutive, although it allows other formulas that employers and unions can agree on or directly with the workers.
"There are already several companies that have been doing it since the ruling came out, some have found consecutive formulas and others have not, but in any case, it is a measure with which workers gain quality of life and improve their work-life balance," explains Frehija.
A pioneering advance in Spain
"There were many colleagues from other provinces who asked us for the ruling because it was a leading decision in Spain and in some provinces it has been introduced since then," explains Frehija.
The new agreement includes other improvements, including a 10.25% salary increase in four years and the right to receive 100% of the salary when a worker suffers from cancer, beyond 90 days.
