While the process to privatize the management of the public water company is underway, the bankruptcy administrators have proposed a new "substantial modification" in the working conditions of the employees of the public water company. The proposal, rejected by the workers, comes a few months after the last change in those conditions came into effect, after a negotiation between the Works Council and the administrators.
Now, faced with this new request, the judge of the Mercantile Court Number 1 of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria sent a notification to the president of the Works Council, Aquilino Méndez, informing him of the opening of a consultation period.
The judicial order, dated November 7, has already been answered by the Works Council, which has filed an appeal for reconsideration. This has been confirmed to La Voz by the general secretary of UGT in Lanzarote, César Reyes. Now, they are waiting for it to be resolved and, if they fail to stop it, they will have to sit down to negotiate again.
"Untimely" modifications
Apparently, the changes would focus on schedules and shifts, which were already modified a few months ago. Now, from UGT they consider that these new modifications that are being proposed are "untimely", especially because the creditors' meeting that will define the future of the public water company is about to be held, once the bankruptcy phase is over.
Regarding the process initiated to privatize the management of the service, with the call for a tender that is already underway, César Reyes maintains that this issue is still "open" and may not materialize. "It is subject to the judge's approval," he said, adding that the creditors must still say whether they "accept the amounts" offered to settle the debt.
"They want to reorganize Inalsa for the private company"
Meanwhile, some Inalsa workers fear that this new proposal to modify their working conditions is linked to the privatization process. "The president of the Cabildo said that the workers would move to the new company with all their rights, but just before, the bankruptcy administrators intend to make a new modification. And that after the ERE, they promised that there would be no more movements," questions an employee of the company. "People suspect that this is agreed with the interested companies. They want to reorganize Inalsa for the private company. They want to make it attractive, and they are doing it at the expense of the staff," he says.
However, César Reyes believes that the new modifications proposed by the bankruptcy administrators "could be applied within the public sector, but would not make sense in the private sector", since they are linked to the state decree that affects civil servants and administration workers.
"We are not in favor of the privatization of the service"
"We believe that they are untimely. If the Concursal had proposed them in March, when we sat down to negotiate, they would make sense, but now we have asked that they be suspended until the creditors' meeting is resolved," adds César Reyes, who insists that the possible privatization of the management has not yet been given the green light by the judge of the Mercantile Court.
In addition, Reyes wanted to "clarify" the position of the Works Council on this issue, denying that they are in favor of privatization. "What the General Assembly of workers, the Works Council and the unions approved is the conditions that are reflected in personnel matters in that tender," he pointed out, adding that "that does not mean that neither unions nor workers are in favor of the privatization of the service".
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