The Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands has issued seven new rulings in which it agrees with the workers of the Tourist Centers against the arguments maintained by the management during the strike that took place in August 2017. These new rulings are in addition to the 17 that occurred last April and another that was issued in November of last year confirming that the CACT breached the collective agreement and a court ruling.
According to what the labor advisor of the CACT workers, Andrés Barreto, explained to La Voz, the TSJC has now ruled "in the same terms" as in the previous rulings. In them, the criterion of the Social Court is corrected, which in the first instance rejected the workers' demands and confirms their right to receive the amount corresponding to the availability, transportation and laundry bonuses that were not paid to them in the years 2015 and 2016. Thus, the TSJC condemns the Centers to pay them that sum, which is around 766 euros per worker, in addition to the interest corresponding to the type of 10% per year.
As La Voz has been reporting, the conflict originated after the entry into force of the last collective agreement of the Centers. And it is that, at that time, the management began to pay those three bonuses only in eleven payments, discounting the vacation month. However, the workers maintained that it was not what had been agreed in the agreement, where what was done was to prorate the corresponding amount in twelve payments, regardless of whether it was a vacation period or not.
The workers then went to the courts and obtained a final judgment that ruled in their favor. However, when executing the ruling, what the company did was start paying the bonuses in twelve payments, but at the same time reducing the amount of a personal supplement that the workers receive under that agreement. In addition, they were not paid the amounts owed for the 2015 and 2016 bonuses, alleging that it was already covered by what they had received from that personal supplement. For this reason, the workers filed new lawsuits, both for the reduction in the personal supplement since 2017 and for the amounts owed to them from previous years for the bonuses.
"The company has breached the ruling on this point and the personal supplement, which corresponds to another purpose, has nothing to do with it," the TSJC stated in the 18 rulings issued previously, in which it was also stated that the argument given by the management of the CACT, which alleged that what the workers were asking for meant "a pay increase greater than that allowed by the General Budget Law", was not sustainable.
"It is assumed that when negotiating the collective agreement, the parties already took into account what was established by the budget legislation, and what is being claimed now is the application of what was agreed, which logically has to comply with the legal regulations," the TSJC underlined in those rulings which, according to Barrero, are "identical" to the seven that have now been notified.
Appeals to the Supreme Court
In this way, there are already 25 judgments in which the TSJC has ruled in favor of the workers of the Centers and, although there are still dozens to be resolved, it is expected that it will rule in the same sense. However, appeals can be filed against them before the Supreme Court. In fact, according to the labor advisor of the workers, the management of the CACT has already formalized the appeal of two of them, which are pending admission according to Andrés Barreto, and announced that it will appeal the rest.
"What is still curious is that they are putting as a contradictory ruling, in the appeal on cassation, the ruling of the chamber that ruled in our favor in the collective dispute," Barreto pointed out, who explained that, in addition, for each appeal, "in addition to depositing the ruling of the judgment", the CACT have to "pay 600 euros".