The President of the Government of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, pledged this Monday to continue working to improve the working conditions of the cleaning ladies and pointed to prevention and labor inspections to guarantee the work they perform. This was clarified at the meeting held with a representation of the Kellys of the Canary Islands, which was attended by the Minister of Employment, Social Policies and Housing, Cristina Valido, the Deputy Minister of Employment and Entrepreneurship, Emilio Atiénzar, and the Director of Labor, José Miguel González, as well as a representation of trade union organizations.
Fernando Clavijo explained that "the Government is putting in place the appropriate mechanisms to establish correct compliance with legislation on occupational safety and contracting to ensure that their work is carried out with all guarantees," he said.
Similarly, the Canarian president pointed out that, following the meeting held with the unions last December, the Canarian Institute for Occupational Safety is working on a Guide to Good Practices for Ergonomic and Psychosocial Risks in the Hospitality sector "in which all economic agents are collaborating." Clavijo also explained that "in 2018 there will be a high-intensity labor inspection campaign, in order to monitor compliance with labor regulations, and the Labor Directorate of the Government of the Canary Islands participates in the Hospitality Working Group of the Ministry of Employment, with the aim of addressing aspects such as occupational diseases affecting cleaning ladies or the prevention of occupational risks in the hospitality sector".
In this sense, the Minister of Employment, Social Policies and Housing, Cristina Valido, stressed that the Ministry "is strongly committed to the quality of employment in the hotel sector, but this quality is not only achieved with a decent salary, which, without a doubt, is very important, but also with good conditions of safety, health and well-being at work".
Inspections
Last year, a total of 20,178 actions were carried out by the Labor Inspectorate in Tourism, which implies that 34.75% of the total of 58,060 inspection actions carried out in 2017. As for the sectors, 3,761 actions were carried out in the area of Safety and Health, 3,826 in Labor Relations, 536 in Employment and Foreigners, 11,501 in Social Security and 554 in other actions.
Thanks to the Inspection, 2,372 jobs surfaced last year, which means that 50.19% of the total employment surfaced in the Canary Islands is from the tourism sector, out of a total of 4,726. The Deputy Minister of Employment and Entrepreneurship, Emilio Atiénzar, indicated that "these data represent the Government's commitment to improving the quality of work in the tourism sector".
The Ministry of Employment, Social Policies and Housing stresses that "it is important to take into account other initiatives such as training and technical tables for hospitality and tourism that are carried out with unions and employers, through which we continue working, through dialogue, to further influence the work of cleaning ladies to comply with all guarantees". During the meeting, they agreed on a new meeting in two months between the Government, the group and the unions.
