The Trade Union Section of the General Union of Workers (UGT) in the Arrecife City Council has officially communicated the "total rupture of social peace and the immediate cessation of any avenue of dialogue" with the current municipal administration. At the same time, it has denounced "exploitation", "extreme opacity" and conciliation problems among the city council staff.
In a press release, the union has denounced that the Human Resources Department of the council has become "a dead end and an absolute administrative chaos". At the time in which it has exposed that "the rights and well-being of the workers are sacrificed on the altar of photos, promotional trips and tourist propaganda".
UGT has exposed "the lack of negotiation capacity, the continuous regulatory breaches and a Human Resources management that has turned the institution into an odyssey of arbitrariness and contempt towards the worker".
The union has assured that the response from the Department will be, "with total certainty", that the management "has all the legal blessings, that the fault for any matter is, of course, with the representatives of the workers who refuse everything and will finish with its already worn-out soundtrack: We are working on it".
In this regard, the union has reported that it has cut ties with the Human Resources management, which it accuses of having "abandoned consensus in favor of systematic confrontation". Likewise, it has denounced that the exercise of command has transformed into "a tool of coercion and reprisal, dynamiting any possibility of justice in the work environment".
They denounce delays in salary increases and in teleworking
"The straw that broke the camel's back is the lack of payment for the delays in salary increases for 2025, approved in the municipal Plenary and the absolute lack of will to regulate teleworking", UGT has warned.
The union representation has warned that neighboring municipalities such as Teguise, Haría, San Bartolomé or Tías, as well as the Lanzarote Cabildo itself, have specific regulations for months or years. Meanwhile, it has stated that in Arrecife they have been since the year 2020 "immersed in a deliberate paralysis".
"What should be a serious negotiation has become, table after table, a real joke and a succession of excuses that prevent an agreement that is already a reality in the rest of the island," he added.
Main claims
The union section of the Arrecife City Council has exposed "the collapse" of the City Council's Human Resources management. Among them, it has exposed the blocking of public employment, denouncing "the lack of real and effective calls for applications", limiting itself to "announcements of old positions rescued from the past".
In this regard, it has denounced the "non-payment of legal increases": "The delay in the payment of salary increases established by law is inadmissible, despite having been approved by the municipal Plenary".
In third place, it has assured that there are "irregularities in the Headquarters". The union has criticized the appointment of an interim official as head of Human Resources, granting her "command over career officials, a decision that clashes head-on with the hierarchy and regulations of public service".
In fourth place, he/she has denounced the "extreme opacity" in the institution, where he/she has assured that he/she has had to resort to the Commissioner for Transparency of the Government of the Canary Islands to be able to know the status of the job banks, given the refusal and obscurantism of the City Council.
After that, he/she has exposed "the exploitation and the lack of staff". "A "3x1" model is imposed, where a single worker must cover up to three job positions, generating levels of stress that result in sick leave", he/she has added.
UGT has exposed the "arbitrariness in conciliation" and has indicated that "teleworking is denied to some workers while it is granted to others without objective criteria, based on whim and preferential treatment". At the same time, it has indicated the "impacts and precariousness", with "overtime, whose rates have been frozen since 2021, suffer delays of up to six months in being paid, being treated as a "credit without an expiration date".
Finally they have rejected "a regulation based on the mayor's whim", which has assured "violates collective bargaining" and Organic Law 3/2007. Thus, it has assured that "public funds are distributed without valuation, with economic opacity and null objective criteria", creating a situation of "total defenselessness". "We do not accept good intentions, if there are no verifiable and measurable indicators, there is no fair remuneration. What is not measured, is stolen from the equity of the staff", it has exposed.
The union has warned that it will no longer tolerate "the preferential treatment of a few versus the contempt for the majority". To which it added that they have ended "any scenario of understanding with the current Human Resources management due to its manifest incapacity for the negotiation and management of Human Resources".
To which he/she/it added that they do not rule out taking some pressure measure, including "mobilizations or the start of an offensive at all possible levels to force the administration to comply with legality and to defend the dignity of those who make Arrecife work".
Likewise, the union has denounced that "today's arrogance cannot continue being the bargaining chip in an administration that systematically despises its own workers and their representatives".