The document, signed by Ashotel, AERO and Sindicalistas de Base, promotes the early retirement of housekeepers at the age of 58
SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 16 Sep. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Hotel and Non-Hotel Association of Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro, Ashotel, the Association of Restoration and Leisure Entrepreneurs (AERO) and Grassroots Unionists (SB) have signed this Friday the new collective agreement applicable to the sector of the hospitality industry –accommodation services and food and beverage services– in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife for the four-year period 2022-2026 with a total wage increase of 10.25% in the four years.
The economic aspects of this new agreement come into force retroactively to July 1, 2022.
Employers and unions had reached a pre-agreement at the end of July, which closes this Friday with the final signing of the document that will govern the labor framework for the next four years.
In general terms, this agreement maintains the bulk of the previous one, with some novelties.
Thus, the annual increases for the four-year period 2022-2026 will be 3%, 2.75%, 2.5% and 2%, respectively, so that, despite the situation of uncertainty in the face of a scenario with difficult forecasts, due to Due to the crisis situation throughout Europe, the annual increases of the previous regulatory framework are maintained, collects a note from Ashotel.
The negotiating table was set up at the beginning of June with the usual scheme of 15 members from the employer side (11 Ashotel and 4 AERO) and 15 from the union side (10 delegates from the SB, 3 from the CCOO and 2 from the UGT) although Commissions Obreras and UGT decided not to sign the agreement.
Among the main novelties of this new regulatory framework, also within the economic section, an additional linear increase of 15 euros in the base salary for all members of the workforce is approved the first year.
In addition, taking into account the experience of the years of the health pandemic, circumstances of force majeure that may occur during the validity of this collective agreement may determine the suspension of the annual salary review obligation.
MORE THAN 65,000 WORKERS
This collective agreement will benefit a total of 65,281 professionals from the two hospitality subsectors: accommodation services (hotels) and food and beverage services (bars and restaurants), according to the latest available data on registered employment from the Canary Institute of Statistics, relative to the second quarter of the year.
Of this total, 28,175 provide their services in hotel and non-hotel establishments (26,462 on the island of Tenerife).
These registered employment data represent, despite the two harsh years of the pandemic, an increase of some 2,000 people compared to the second quarter of 2018, reference data when the previous collective agreement was signed, highlights Ashotel.
Likewise, it is agreed that the temporary contracting in the company may not exceed 10% in relation to the discontinuous and indefinite permanent contracts, excluding from this percentage the substitution of vacations, the substitution of workers with the right to reserve the job and the Temporary contracting to attend to occasional, foreseeable circumstances that have a reduced duration and are limited in time, not exceeding 90 days in the calendar year.
After the approval of the labor reform, the contract par excellence in hospitality companies is the indefinite contract (fixed or fixed discontinuous) and eventual contracts are subject to highly valued and demonstrable assumptions.
The agreement also includes a specific article referring to the functional mobility of the apartment department staff, in which the function of restocking the minibars, the withdrawal of the ‘room service’ and the cleaning of the common areas is eliminated.
On this last point, functional versatility within the area of floors and cleaning may be agreed between the maid and the cleaning assistant, which will be agreed between the worker and the company.
In addition, among the novelties of this agreement is the early retirement initiative for chambermaids at the age of 58, a proposal whose legal mechanisms are included in the Workers’ Statute and in the General Social Security Law and which Ashotel is already studying for years.
Specifically, it is an approach that must be analyzed and developed now in companies and that arises based on the high cases of temporary disabilities of this group, eminently female.
PERMANENT COMMISSION
As a novelty for this agreement, apart from the Joint Commission, which interprets the agreement during its validity, a Permanent Commission has been created whose purpose will be to analyze the feasibility of moving from the current salary model constituted by the salary tables plus the substitute salary agreements in the scope of the company, included in article 32 of the current agreement, to a model of single agreement tables for all companies.
Salary agreements are intra-company agreements, of a salary nature, that increase what has been agreed in tables by a percentage that ranges from 10 to 40% of salaries, according to categories and salary groups, through the establishment of certain bonuses, among them, that of productivity.
Thus, all companies affected by the agreement must have a signed salary agreement to replace the distribution of the percentage of services determined by the extinct hotel labor ordinance.
In addition, the companies included in this agreement will not contract or subcontract with other companies personnel for the services of restaurants, bars, kitchens, reception and floors.
On the contrary, professional activities of an accessory nature in the sector may be contracted or subcontracted, such as security, gardening, animation, specific technical maintenance tasks, lifeguard services and specialized cleaning.
Likewise, those special services such as weddings, commemorations, banquets or attention to congresses and meetings may be.
The president of Ashotel, Jorge Marichal, highlighted the importance of a regulatory framework such as this, after the previous agreement has expired, which provides labor peace and which comes precisely at a time of economic uncertainty, due to the energy crisis in Europe due to the war in Ukraine .
“By signing this agreement, all parties have been responsible, in addition, it is also important to highlight that the total wage increase is the same as in the previous agreement, when then we did not have this runaway inflation, but we have understood that for an economic recovery, the best thing is to have job stability and an outstanding component of conciliation”, he indicated.
He also recalled that this new regulatory labor framework adapts the types of contract to the latest labor reform.
For his part, Ramón Fariña (AERO) expressed his satisfaction with an agreement that he considers positive for all parties.
“It was a big responsibility after a difficult time, after the pandemic and the current generalized crisis scenario, but despite the increases in operating costs, this agreement gives us the stability we need,” he said.
Manuel Fitas (Base Unionists) emphasized the two fundamental commitments that, from his point of view, are achieved for working people: the first, the agreement of the parties “to promote the early retirement of housekeepers at 58 years” and the second, another great agreement, to continue working these four years towards a system of single salary tables instead of salary agreements.
