Coalición Canaria (CC) Tías denounces the critical state of the urban cleaning and garden maintenance service in the municipality, awarded by the City Council to the company FCC, and warns of possible serious breaches of contract, in addition to an alarming lack of supervision by the PSOE government group.
According to the municipal spokesperson for the Canarian nationalist formation, Amado Vizcaíno, “we have been requesting documentation from the mayor for months to clarify the current situation of the contract, including the TC1, TC2, replacement contracts and proof of invoicing for the last year without obtaining a response; and, meanwhile, the municipality is getting dirtier and dirtier, both in tourist areas and in towns.”
Work overload
CC Tías denounces that the staff assigned to cleaning and gardens is practically the same as years ago, despite the increase in population and tourism. In addition, many of the long-term absences are not being covered, which generates a work overload that directly affects the physical and emotional well-being of the workers.
According to Vizcaíno, “the daily sweeping routes exceed 12 kilometers in many cases, which makes effective cleaning unfeasible. Workers not only cannot comply with what is established, but must give explanations to residents who rightly complain about the dirt in their streets. That generates enormous emotional wear and tear,” he emphasizes.
Precariousness of the service
The collection of furniture and pruning service is also clearly insufficient for current demand. “Residents who call to request removal must wait up to three weeks,” Vizcaíno points out. In addition, the precariousness of the service is such that, according to CC Tías, the vans - barely three for the entire municipality - lack a hydraulic ramp and are operated by a single driver, without laborers, which forces him to stop in the middle of the road with the engine running and load bulky objects such as mattresses, sofas or appliances.”
Material in poor condition
The nationalist formation emphasizes that many workers lack tools in good condition, including brushes, shovels and adequate gloves, which has even caused cuts with glass. In addition, the vehicle fleet is obsolete and far exceeds its useful life, which increases the workload of the FCC workshop staff in Tías, who - according to complaints received by CC Tías - are also repairing FCC vehicles that operate in other municipalities such as Yaiza, Tinajo or even in state ports.
“We want to know if FCC has the authority to use the Tías facilities with personnel from here to repair external fleets. If not, it would be an improper use of municipal resources,” warns the municipal spokesperson for the Canarian nationalist formation.
Harassment and reprisals
Another critical point is the lack of institutional response to possible cases of workplace harassment within FCC. “We have received testimonies from workers who claim to have suffered bad manners and even reprisals for reporting what is happening in the company. But the mayor has reacted evasively when we raised this issue in plenary,” laments Vizcaíno.
The PSOE councilor for the area, Carmen Gloria Rodríguez, recently stated that the company is not aware of these complaints. However, CC Tías insists that there are internal claims in progress and demands that the government group not limit itself to asking the company, but listen to the workers.
CC Tías also denounces the lack of cleaning and disinfection of containers. “The container washing truck has been broken for years and has never been replaced. This generates bad odors and pests such as flies, rats and cockroaches, especially in summer. Some areas of the municipality, especially outside of Puerto del Carmen, claim not to have seen this service since before the pandemic,” says Vizcaíno.
Unsustainable situation
In short, CC Tías “demands that the mayor and the parent company of the concessionaire care about the workers and solve the serious deficiencies that have been detected for years in the management of the cleaning and garden service, with workers subjected to a serious overload of work, materials in poor condition and possible cases of labor abuse by FCC,” says Amado Vizcaíno.
The nationalist formation also warns about the use of the municipal workshop to repair vehicles from other municipalities, the lack of transparency of the government group in denying access to key information and an evident negligence in the control of the contract.
The consequences are visible: an increasingly dirty municipality, deteriorated and undisinfected containers, and a growing feeling of abandonment among residents. CC demands an urgent audit of the contract with FCC and an immediate response from the Tías City Council to the breaches and the widespread discomfort of the staff.