Comisiones Obreras claims to be "surprised" by the criticism it has received from Sindicalistas de Canarias and wanted to defend the actions they have taken with the chambermaid who suffered an attempted sexual abuse in a hotel on the island, both by the works council and the union. "One thing is how the company acted and another is how the committee acted," Ignacio López, general secretary of the CCOO Services Federation in the Canary Islands, told La Voz.
"We deny that the work corresponding to the workers' representatives has not been done," he responded, after Sindicalistas de Canarias denounced this Thursday that when the victim went to ask for "protection and assistance" at the Comisiones headquarters, this union "limited itself to sending her to the association of battered women of Mararía".
"She spent an hour with a person who attended her at the union and told her what had to be done. She has been given the coverage that can be given in these cases," he said. However, he added that "effectively" they do not have doctors or psychologists "who could give her a quality service", and that is why they informed her that she could go to Mararía. "She came in a high state of anxiety," he pointed out.
"The works council has acted correctly"
Regarding the works council, which is chaired by CCOO and which has been criticized by both Sindicalistas de Canarias and Las Kellys and the Feminist Platform 8M, who even accuse it of "omission of the duty of rescue" for not having reacted when the young woman told them what happened, Ignacio López also denies it.
"The union has requested a report from everyone who has dealt with the affected person, we have received a report with everything that has been done and we understand that it has been done correctly from the works council," he defended. That report was requested by the union this week, a month after the events occurred, since the general secretary of Services of CCOO affirms that he learned about the case last Tuesday "through the press", after Las Kellys and Plataforma 8M made it public.
Regarding the day on which the victim suffered the attempted sexual abuse, López confirms that the young woman called the president of the works council, but he "was on vacation outside the island". Asked what this union representative did then, he pointed out that he "contacted his colleagues on the committee and the director".
"She wanted to continue working"
In addition, while the associations that denounced the case maintain that when the victim told her superiors at the hotel what had happened, they "did not help her at all, they did not call a doctor, they did not call the police" and "far from that, they assigned her more work near the room where the crime was committed", from CCOO they affirm that it was she who "wanted to continue working", because "she had one room left and said she wanted to finish".
However, Ignacio López does criticize the company's actions. "We agree that the company has not acted with the diligence it should," he says, pointing out that she should not have continued working and that they should have "attended to her in what she needed" and "sent her to the mutual insurance company, so that they could evaluate her".
Regarding whether they have taken steps to determine responsibilities - as the Canarian Institute of Equality has now done, which after learning about the case through the complaint of Las Kellys has asked the Labor Directorate to open an investigation - López affirms that what the works council did was to forward "a complaint to the director" of the hotel.
"We even have a written thank you from the worker"
The general secretary of the CCOO Services Federation in the Canary Islands also wanted to emphasize that when the president of the works council returned to the island, he accompanied the young woman to the quick trial that was held against the client, who has already been convicted of a crime of sexual abuse in the degree of attempt. "In the union there is no complaint from the worker that she has been mistreated," he defended, even assuring that they gave him "even a written thank you".
In addition, he emphasized that they are now focused on reviewing the procedures established in this hotel for cases of harassment, pointing out that this same Friday they had a meeting with the management of the establishment. Regarding these plans, he has recognized that they must be reviewed because they are made "to cover cases of harassment between workers", but "we do not often think about the external", in this case the tourist who was staying in the room where the events occurred.
