Iberia employees are receiving a letter these days signed by Fernando Sarmentero Vidal, the company's Airport Director and one of the executives who was on the Island last week participating in the dialogues with public administrations and strikers, in which he maintains that the workers do not want to negotiate and threatens Iberia's departure as a handling operator in Lanzarote, if the promoters of the strike continue with their "intransigent" position.
The Strike Committee, through its spokesperson, León Fajardo, indicated that the intention of the letter is none other than to coerce the workers to turn them against those who actively participate in the days of stoppages.
Fajardo told this newsroom that the response to Sarmentero Vidal will not be long in coming. The Strike Committee plans to make it very clear to the Iberia leadership that it is an absolute contradiction to proclaim that it does not accept negotiating outside the first Sector Agreement for Ground Assistance Services to respect the conditions of the entire workforce, while in no way accepting that 50 temporary workers become permanent employees despite a resolution from the Labor Inspectorate that requires it.
Prediction of more arrests
The strikers believe that in the future days of stoppages they will not be allowed to go down to the aerodrome ramp, a fact that led to five arrests on August 14 when the workers did not comply with the order to withdraw from the Civil Guard, arguing that their expulsion from the workplace constituted a flagrant violation of their rights.
León Fajardo assured that information from a very good source indicates that there will be new arrests, by order of the airport director, since they try to access the ramp. Fajardo guaranteed that there will be no strike this week and that it will resume next Sunday, unless there is an agreement or the parties in conflict close a negotiation schedule.
Temporary contracts without causality
The Strike Committee reminds Iberia and the public that the Supreme Court is forceful in determining that temporary contracts must have a causality that justifies them, "and this is not the case".
The Committee cites the resolution of the Labor Inspectorate, dated May 4, 2005, which literally says that the contracts for circumstances of production part-time made from March 2004 to January 2005 of auxiliary and administrative services, presented by the company at the request of the inspector, lack clear and specific identification of the cause of hiring, since they only indicate as cause: to meet the circumstantial demands of the market, accumulation of tasks or excess of orders, "consisting of production circumstances, even if it is the normal activity of the company".
The Inspection also warns of the prohibition of carrying out overtime for temporary part-time workers. "Agreements have been made to extend the hours / working day for specific periods of one, two or three days a week for all workers, during the periods that they have been hired. This implies the performance of overtime in practice, inadequately covered by an agreement to extend the hours / working day", according to said resolution.
The company recognizes it
The strikers emphasize that the resolution of the Labor Inspectorate is so clear that it explicitly states that in an appearance by Iberia, on March 30, 2005, the company recognizes the eventuality of 50 people. Thus, the Inspection itself requires it to transform into indefinite contracts those temporary contracts that lack a cause for their hiring due to production circumstances.
Moreover, the legal foundations of the resolution show that from the visit and analysis of the Labor Inspection, as well as the facts reflected in the minutes, it is clear that the employment relationship of the workers develops in a habitual and continuous manner in the company without there being a work aimed at carrying out a specific service, since the existing activity is always the same: the provision of auxiliary services or work as administrative staff. Therefore, it is understood that in this case there is no specific circumstance, there is no work that has a planned duration and therefore it is not a temporary job.
Finally, the resolution establishes that Iberia's action constitutes a labor infraction in accordance with article 5.1 of Royal Legislative Decree 5/2000, of August 4, "which approves the Consolidated Text of the Law on Infractions and Sanctions in the Social Order".
