The Justice system has ruled that the 54 chambermaids of the Hesperia Lanzarote hotel, who were dismissed in 2013 and subsequently subcontracted by an external company, have the "right" to have the hotel industry agreement of the province of Las Palmas applied to them. The ruling thus recognizes one of the demands of Comisiones Obreras, the majority union of the hotel, which promoted a collective dispute after the outsourcing of this service, which was given to the Constant Business Services Group. For the representative of the Federation of Services of CCOO on the island, Vanesa Frahíja, the ruling "will set a precedent, not only in Lanzarote, but throughout the province".
This first instance ruling, issued on the 9th by the Social Court 1 of Arrecife, "acquits" however the Inversor Hesperia group and the company that operates it on the island, Bercuma S.L., of the other claim made by CCOO, which considered that there was an "illegal transfer" of workers with that outsourcing. Despite this, the union considers the ruling a victory. "We understood that we were going to win, for justice. And finally it has been so", Frahíja celebrates, after the Court has partially admitted her claim.
"We have achieved the rights of the chambermaids of the Hesperia hotel and at the union level we believe that it will set a precedent", insists the representative of Comisiones Obreras, who denounces that, "unfortunately, the outsourcing of services has increased scandalously throughout the province" in recent years. In this regard, she emphasizes that the hotel industry agreement of Las Palmas "does include the possibility of outsourcing, but what it does not include at any time is the non-application of the agreement".
For this reason, she states that CCOO "undertook a campaign" about four years ago, "due to the increase in outsourcing and after detecting that the agreement was not being complied with". Thus, she emphasizes that this is not the first favorable ruling they have achieved in the Canary Islands, although it is the first on this island. In fact, she assures that this hotel chain was "the one that initiated the outsourcing as a pilot test in Lanzarote".
"In Lanzarote this has increased scandalously"
"These companies, in order to earn more money, hire workers through the external company paying them much less money and with much fewer rights in the social part. What we understand, and the judge has once again given us the reason, is that the agreement must be applied", she emphasizes.
According to the union's complaint, "in Lanzarote this has increased scandalously, especially in Playa Blanca. And in the end it is not due to occupancy issues. They keep the entire staff throughout the year, but hired by temporary employment agencies and subcontractors without applying the agreement". This, according to Vanesa Frahíja, represents a salary difference of between 4,000 and 5,000 euros per year for a worker.
So far, the union has taken about 40 cases to the Labor Inspectorate and has initiated a dozen collective disputes in Lanzarote. "With this ruling in our favor, it will go further, because unfortunately we have detected that it is much more", she warns.
Offer of agreement and going back on outsourcing in the last month
Frahíja recalls that in September 2013, "without communicating it to the union or the works council", the hotel dismissed 54 chambermaids, giving them compensation of 20 days per year, alleging "economic and organizational reasons". At that time, CCOO launched the inspection. "We tried to redirect the situation with the company and there was no way, so we started legal proceedings then", she explains.
Since then, according to the unionist, the company tried to "slow down the process with legal tricks". However, just before the trial was held, the Constant group (that is, the subcontractor) "contacted CCOO to seek an agreement". According to Frahíja, they then offered to cover the salary difference of the chambermaids, but the union decided to reject the proposal. "We said no, because 54 colleagues went to the street unfairly in our opinion and also had to claim the difference of many years back, not 3 or 4 months. We rejected the agreement because we understood that we were going to win for justice", she explains.
In fact, she believes that the company also "suspected" that the union was going to win this lawsuit. "This same month there have been many changes and the hotel was re-subrogated to all the chambermaids. They have returned to the parent company and the Constant Group has disappeared from Lanzarote", she points out.
