"They didn't want to do an ERTE, they fired us, and on top of that they don't even give us compensation." This is the complaint made by a worker, who was fired by the Association of People with Disabilities of Lanzarote (Adislan) last March 31st alleging "economic causes."
In addition to him, he assures that Adislan has fired another eleven people, some of them "with permanent contracts" for years. "Four or five have been in the same conditions and the rest I imagine the same, because otherwise they would have done an ERTE," says this man, who accuses Adislan of failing to comply with the Government's decree, which temporarily prohibited, until the health crisis ends, dismissals due to force majeure or objective causes justified by the impact of the coronavirus.
According to him, all the dismissed employees were workers "from different departments" of the day center until, after its closure due to the state of alarm, they were relocated "to provide support in the residence and in the homes" that the association has.
However, he states that last March 31st he received "a call from the director", in which she informed him of the dismissal and told him that "there was no possibility of an ERTE." "And the next day I received a burofax with the dismissal letter," he says.
Adislan alleges economic losses for four years
In that letter, to which La Voz has had access, Adislan states that it has made the decision to proceed "with his objective dismissal for economic reasons." "The company has been continuously experiencing economic losses for years, due to a percentage of instability in the income received, and because the real cost of the services is not covered by the income we receive annually," the association alleges in the letter.
Specifically, Adislan states that in 2015 it had losses of 11,894 euros and that in 2016 they skyrocketed to 174,022 euros, reducing to 135,526 euros in 2017. Regarding 2018, the association acknowledges that it closed "with a positive" of 133,631 euros, but attributes it to "a one-off income of 250,000 euros" that accommodated the result, but assures that in 2019 it reached losses "for the value of 342,898.23 euros."
"This chained situation of recent years has put the economic and liquidity sustainability of the entity at risk," adds Adislan, who points out that "as the dismissal is based on economic causes", under the Workers' Statute, "the company does not have liquidity to pay the compensation" that would correspond to him, which would be 20 days of salary per year of work, with a limit of twelve monthly payments.
They are studying filing a lawsuit
"On top of the moment we are living, they make us go through this too, that from one day to the next they fire us without anything," says this worker, who says he feels "disappointed" with Adislan. "Because they asked us for tact and empathy with the users and they have not had it with us," he says.
This man, who also highlights that Adislan is "subsidized by the Cabildo", also accuses the association of "using bait" to prevent the dismissed from reporting. "They made us the promise of a possible return within a while and I don't think it's real," he says.
For this reason, this worker states that, through the Works Council, they have contacted UGT with the aim of filing a joint lawsuit. "We are studying the documentation," the general secretary of the union in Lanzarote, Cesar Reyes, told La Voz, who explained that they must study what type of contract each worker had in case they were subject to some contract-program that had ended and the reasons why each one has been dismissed, in order to determine if it is appropriate to file a lawsuit.
However, given the state of health alarm that continues to be in force in the country, these workers will have to wait for normality to return to the Justice system in order to report their dismissals.
