The template of Home Santa Ritathe largest residence for the elderly in Spain, gathered this Friday, September 16, 2022, at the gates of the center, located in the municipality of Cross portto show their weariness for the delay in the payment of their wages and launch a shouting warning: “If this doesn’t get fixed, strike, strike, strike!”. With the support of the UGT, Workers Commissions and Intersindical Canaria unions, some 40 representatives of a staff made up of 430 people They stood up to demand that they not be repeated the delays in the payment of salaries that they have suffered in the months of April, July and September.
The concentrates waved the flags of the three unions and made themselves known with whistles and chants such as “resign manager!”, addressed to Thomas Villar. The financial head of the foundation is in the crosshairs of the unions that already in May unsuccessfully requested his resignation, considering him “solely responsible for the problems suffered by this residence and the main obstacle to their resolution” .
The general secretary of the Federation of Public Services of the UGT in Tenerife, Juan Carlos Vinas, was present at the rally and remarked that “pressure and fear prevent even more people from gathering to protest.” In his opinion, “the current situation requires an immediate intervention by the Cabildo” and he claims it without hesitation: “Either they reach out now or this is going to hell and we return to the times of the Ere and the Erte».
The Cabildo de Tenerife denies that it is paying late for the places arranged in the Hogar Santa Rita
For Viñas, the delays in the payment of payroll are especially serious in a workforce such as the Hogar Santa Rita “in which the average salary is just 900 euros net. If they arrive. And every two months, with the same problem of delays. How is it possible for this to happen with a foundation that manages more than 6 million euros of public money each year and that has the assets that it has? Does no bank open a line of financing for workers to collect in a timely manner? It seems that the manager is forcing the situation, holding on to the chair without letting go».
«The management is disastrous and that is why the Cabildo has to enter the board of trustees to improve the situation of a residence that serves about 500 people, and that right now it would be impossible to relocate in other centers. There are no vacancies and the waiting list is overwhelming in Tenerife, so the alternative is to improve and adapt Santa Rita, which is maintained thanks to the workers,” Viñas remarked.
The person in charge of the Health Federation of the Socio-Sanitary Sector of Workers Commissions in Tenerife, alexis rodriguez, also showed his support for the staff: «Measures must be taken because, if nobody fixes it, these delays in the payment of wages will be repeated in November or December. The manager hides behind supposed non-payments of the Institute of Social and Socio-Health Care (IASS), which depends on the Cabildo, but at the same time boasts of the foundation’s solvency situation. When we ask him to access a line of credit, he says that they do not give it to him. And that’s something that doesn’t hold up.”
“This lack of sensitivity towards workers is unacceptable. There are marriages and families that depend exclusively on the Home Santa Rita. The board of trustees has to react and put an end to this situation,” he stressed. alexis rodriguez.
sources of Island Council of Tenerife They denied this Friday that there is “no delay” in the payments of the numerous places arranged with the Santa Rita Home and that, even, “they are being paid in a period shorter than that legally established.”
Support for the request of the Cabildo
The Hogar Santa Rita Company Committee, made up of representatives of the UGT, Workers’ Commissions and Intersindical Canaria, insists that the Cabildo de Tenerife must be directly involved in the management of the largest geriatric residence in the country, which houses some 500 elderly and dependents. The unions share the demand, reiterated this week by the island councilor Marián Franquet, that the island administration form part of the board of trustees that directs the Fundación Canaria Hogar Santa Rita. In addition, they do not waive the requirement that the workers’ representatives can participate “even with voice, but without vote” in this body. In addition, they remember that this foundation manages each year more than six million euros of public money for the 374 places subsidized by the Tenerife Cabildo
