For the counselor of the Tourist Centers, in the complaints made public last Monday by the Works Council, two issues have come together: "one is the legitimate concern that anyone may have about the economic situation we are experiencing, and on the other hand an overreaction by the workers that is due to the fact that the works council has been heavily criticized in the last year and a half. They have received many accusations of complicity with what could happen in the centers, they have been accused of being bought or that the counselor was greasing their palms with perks, which has led them to overreact when explaining their concern."
Espino understands that the examples of mismanagement raised by the workers are not in any case the causes of the company's economic situation, which is due to the fact that "the centers have collected two and a half million euros less than budgeted." According to the counselor, considering the different aspects that the workers denounced, "the sum of those decisions does not reach even 100 thousand euros and certainly represents a much smaller amount than what could have been spent in previous legislatures."
While Espino understands that the workers' concern "has a certain degree of justification, because the situation is not buoyant", he adds that "that does not mean that this situation puts the centers or the exploitation model of the same at risk at this time."
Los Aljibes
Espino acknowledges that there are things that could have been done better and cites the case of Los Aljibes as an example. In this regard, the counselor argues that "the story is told as if it had occurred to me to rent Los Aljibes to keep it closed and on top of that throw stones at the windows." As he explains, "some facilities are leased that from an architectural and visual point of view we believe can contribute something to the centers, because they are suitable facilities to develop a work for the network, and that takes time to put it into operation and it has coincided with an event that has been held recently in the centers that has mobilized a huge part of our resources since October."
Regarding the rent that has been paid for that place and that has been questioned by the workers, Espino points out that "30,000 euros does not put jobs at risk and does not represent much compared to what the centers have saved with other measures."
Accounts and balances
The counselor of the Tourist Centers insists that the accounts have been made public and have been provided to the workers and the members of the works council"I have not seen more public hijacked data", he states. "The lists of the accounting, the balances of the accounts are known by everyone because we have given them to them. Nobody has taken them from a security camera where I have them guarded."
In this sense, he assures that the accounts were presented to the Board of Directors. "They play with the intentional confusion that the balance sheet presented in the Commercial Registry is presented ordered in another way, which is what we call official accounts. They play with the name of a document that I have recognized that is not there, but it is true that they are prepared with accounting information that is what is worked on every day and what has been taken to the council."
In any case, the counselor acknowledges that the criticisms of the Works Council, together with those that have been made by the opposition, "is what will force us in the coming weeks to try to clarify this situation. Everything will be verified over time."
Likewise, the Counselor assures that the request to create a crisis cabinet does not make sense at this point, given that "since the month of September, work began on a system of control of hospitality, inventories, control of the cost of prices and study of the cost of other services. And now is when they talk about a crisis cabinet? Well, we have been doing that for some time now," he points out.
Regarding the hiring of a new manager, Espino understands that it is not the best time, although it is a measure that will be undertaken in the future. "Now we are trying to take work away from the current acting manager. That position will be filled, but it is a very difficult time to incorporate a new person into the organizational chart. In this situation, I have more confidence in the staff that is currently there than trying to incorporate someone new at this time." On the other hand, he assures that "the current economic and financial director is doing an exceptional job."
