The Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands has corrected the criteria of the Social Court and has sided with the thesis defended by the workers of the Tourist Centers, thus overturning the arguments sustained by the CACT management during the strike that took place a little over a year ago. For the moment, the TSJC has upheld the appeal of one of the workers, annulling the judgment of first instance and marking what could be the guideline for future rulings pending resolution on the rest of the staff.
As the workers stated during the strike that began in August 2017, the Court concludes that the Tourist Centers were not complying with a previous ruling regarding the application of the collective agreement and the payment of bonuses. "It is not claiming something new that comes to increase what was agreed, but rather what was agreed is being claimed, so there is not properly a pay increase, but a breach of the Collective Agreement," says the new ruling, dated November 16.
This judgment annuls the one from the Social Court Number 3 of Arrecife, which, like others that have been issued in that instance, dismissed the claim of this worker, who demanded the payment of the availability bonus, the transportation bonus, and the laundry bonus corresponding to the vacation period. Now, the TSJC recognizes that right, clarifying that what was agreed was a prorated payment.
"The company is obliged to pay the aforementioned bonuses in 12 installments and has done so in 11 installments, so the breach that is denounced has been committed," it states, condemning the Centers to pay this worker the sum he claimed. In his case, the amount amounts to 766.48 euros corresponding to the years 2015 and 2016, which were the ones that had elapsed when this lawsuit was filed. In addition, this figure will have to be added "the default interest", as the payment arrives years late.
"Nothing to do" the personal supplement with the bonuses
Both publicly and in the courts, the management of the Tourist Centers had been arguing that the money that was deducted from the workers, eliminating one of the 12 annual payments of that bonus, had been compensated with the personal supplement that each worker receives. However, the TSJC rejects this argument and points out that "nothing has to do" that personal supplement with the bonuses that the workers claim, since "it responds to a different purpose and is made up of different remuneration concepts".
In this regard, it cites a letter that the company itself sent to the workers in its day, in which it is explained that the supplement "groups and fully replaces the concepts of seniority, March payment and October payment", and the Court points out that those are "concepts that have nothing to do with the transportation, laundry and availability bonus".
"The company has breached the ruling on this point"
"When the company set the personal supplement and, in addition, on the other hand, stopped paying the supplements on vacation, its idea was that the latter were paid in 11 months because the article of the collective agreement so provided. Hence, it promoted a collective dispute to discuss, among others, this specific point," the ruling recalls. At that time, the Courts already sided with the workers, but the staff later denounced that the management of the Centers was not properly executing that ruling, since it continued without paying the bonuses in 12 installments, alleging that the difference was included in the personal supplement.
"The plaintiff claims such unpaid concepts in June 2015 and 2016 and on this point he is right, because the tenor of the court's ruling is clear," the TSJC now points out, which concludes that "the company has breached the ruling on this point" and insists that "nothing has to do with it the personal supplement, which responds to another purpose". In addition, it recalls that the Centers have other lawsuits related to that supplement and points out that in any case its scope "will be resolved" in those lawsuits, but as regards the claim for the payment of bonuses, it sides with the workers.
