The Works Council of the Meliá Volcán Hotel, whose majority union is Comisiones Obreras, held a rally this Monday to protest against "the anti-union policies that the company is carrying out against the delegates of CCOO", says the general secretary of Hospitality and Commerce, Rafael Díaz. According to the union representative, six months ago they fired three workers who held the position of president and secretary of the works council, as well as the secretary of the union section, alleging "that they had handled information that the company considered to be of a protected nature according to the data protection law," summarizes Díaz.
Specifically, those dismissed had sent information regarding the salaries of the workers by email, although according to the union delegate "the ID numbers were not included". From the CCOO union they consider that "this is information that the delegates must have in order to know if the workers are paid what is stipulated in the hospitality agreement", says the general secretary of the area, so they believe the dismissals are unjustified.
In addition, they also denounce breaches of the agreement since they claim that the company "does not pay the arrears of salary increases from 2008" and that there is no vacation schedule agreed in advance. "They tell them: you're going on vacation tomorrow," explained Díaz.
On the other hand, "workers have the right to rest at least 12 hours between workdays, although this is not complied with". According to him, "the waiter cannot finish at 11:00 p.m. and start at 7:00 a.m. the next day because the law prohibits it," says the union representative.
Set an example
From the union they also think that the owner of the hotel, Francisco Armas, should "set an example" since he is the president of the Lanzarote Business Association (Asolan) and "if he does not set an example in complying with the rules, the others will end up doing the same," says Díaz. "The rules are there to be followed, and we sign them between the unions and the employers, but we have to ensure that they are followed because they try to skip them whenever they can."
