It is the first time that three of the main parties involved in the operation of the Hogar Santa Rita, in Puerto de la Cruzcome together to denounce the current mismanagement and make a joint statement to ask the responsible administrations, the Government of the Canary Islands and the Council of Tenerifethat they take action on the matter and act to facilitate a change in management that guarantees the proper functioning of the institution.
This is what the workers, family members and founding partners did yesterday, who asked that once and for all they “force” the manager, Tomás Villar, “to justify why no bank is capable of guaranteeing his payroll with the Foundation’s assets and with the concert that he has with the Cabildo, which amounts to almost six million euros a year” to end the delay in the payment of payrolls.
The event, held at the headquarters of the Santa Cruz Trade Union House, was attended by trade union representatives on the company committee, Alexis Rodríguez (Workers Commissions), Fran Baute (Intersindical Canaria) and Juan Carlos Viñas (UGT); its president, José Enrique Trujillo, and, on behalf of the relatives, Olga Rocío.
In particular, the presence of Rigoberto González Yumar drew attention, who is not only one of the founding partners, but was always considered the right hand of Father Antonio, creator of the nursing home. His testimony endorsed that of the rest of the parties by confirming that irregularities also occur in the assemblies of the founding members with the representativeness of the votes, in which Tomás Villar “also holds power,” Rodríguez stressed.
The families affected
Especially hard was the presentation of Olga Rocío, who read a statement on behalf of the families in which she criticized “the scant information and transparency” on the part of the management, which has turned the home “into its private fiefdom.”
Also when he proposes meetings to “resolve doubts” of the relatives “his attitude is to position himself in his truth and on the defensive, cruelly and sometimes sarcastically using the phrase ‘if you do not agree with how we do things, you can take your relative’, giving a disastrous image and leaving families in some cases defenseless in the face of the scarcity of nursing homes in the Canary Islands and as if they were mere objects that can be moved without any consequences for them”, he declared.
All of this, added Rocío, despite the fact that residents pay “promptly” the fees for a place that range between 1,300 and 1,500 euros per month, depending on the degree of dependency. However, Fran Baute read a statement from the Dignified Residences for the Elderly and Dependents platform, in which it was stated that it is not the only socio-sanitary center in the Archipelago “in which important irregularities occur” and “where the economic result prevails over the well-being of residents and the rights of employees”.
After the complaint to the labor inspectorate and the concentrations, the next measure that the staff values is a strike, in addition to denouncing the “passivity” of the regional government and the Cabildo, and trying to have some dialogue with those responsible, “since there are 510 residential places, which cannot be dispensed with in this province, and safeguard the 410 jobs”.
The staff concentrates on Monday due to the delay in the payment of payrolls
The workers gather again this Monday, from 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., at the doors of the Hogar Santa Rita because the center’s management has informed the works council that it cannot pay the salaries for the month of February, confirming once again the ” total defenselessness” of the staff in the current situation.
According to the statement transferred to the works council, the delay is due to the fact that as of today -it was sent on March 1- “the Institute of Social and Socio-Health Care (IASS) has not paid the invoice for December 2022 and those of January and February 2023, an accumulation of debts that prevents the proper development of the payment of payrolls, suppliers and various creditors”.
The management hopes that “these rights not received to date from the Cabildo and its lack of sensitivity to existing inflation and the maintenance of prices since 2020 without a rise to date will be promptly corrected.”
