SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE APR. (Press Europa) –
The hotel and non-hotel association of Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro, Ashotel, has reacted to the union’s request regarding their strike scheduled for this Thursday and Friday during Holy Week. Despite rejecting “a proposal that reinstates the purchasing power of the workforce”, the business leaders have called for accountability from those initiating the strike in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
Specifically, the entrepreneurs urge responsibility and remind that there exists a collective agreement currently in effect in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife that is set to conclude on June 30, 2026. “Thus, a strike could be considered illegal,” Ashotel indicated in a press statement.
The employers further assert that the unions have focused their demand on “the recovery of lost purchasing power” for workers in the hospitality sector, emphasising that “this can be resolved with a proposal for a 5 per cent overall wage increase” for 2025, based on technical calculations made by the University of La Laguna in 2018.
This “rejected offer,” they state, impacts just over 33,600 employees within the accommodation sector in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, clarifying that in percentage terms, it represents an extraordinary 2 per cent that would be implemented from January 1, combined with an additional 2 per cent slated to commence on July 1, 2025—previously agreed upon in the current contract—and which would be brought forward by several months, resulting in an “effective cost for companies of 5 per cent.”
In total, and in terms of financial implications, they highlight that “this initial 4 per cent would transform into an effective 5 per cent.”
This has been the latest proposal presented by Ashotel during the meeting held on Monday afternoon with the strike committee, which comprises the Hospitality Trade Union Board alongside the Canarian Union Federation-Base Syndicalists, FSOC, Use, and Canarian Intersindical, as well as UGT and CCOO. The latter two unions did not endorse the most recent collective hospitality agreement in the province.
In light of the unions’ rejection of a proposal designed to restore the purchasing power of the workforce, Ashotel, which “never declines to negotiate,” has once again proposed the revision of the collective agreement to extend until 2029, featuring an overall wage increase of 11.5 per cent (4% starting July 1), the removal of the agreement duration (art. 36), and the exclusion of the antiquity tables from the various annexes of the Agreement, along with the cessation of the IT supplement, irrespective of whether the worker is replaced.
Regarding this issue, a financial provision of 500 euros is set forth, which will be dispersed over 12 payments and integrated into the transport allowance at a rate of 41.67 euros per month.
The initiation of the negotiation process also entails the acknowledgment of the demands from the unions with the authority to negotiate.
Current Agreement and Salary Increases
Ashotel also reminds that during the “challenging years” of the pandemic, when accommodation establishments were closed, wages were increased by 4.5 per cent in total during 2020 and 2021, as stipulated in the collective agreement for the 2018-2022 period.
Finally, they emphasise that under the current circumstances, the strike is presented with an “officially signed agreement that is currently valid, and in which the unions have been particularly reluctant to request any wage increases,” which they believe is “the only matter for negotiation,” knowing perfectly well that any strike initiated against an active agreement is “illegal under 17/1977, dated March 4, on work relationships.”
They also assert that the tourism sector in the Canary Islands is “crucial” for the islands’ economy, noting that the hospitality industry employs over 76,800 individuals in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, representing a 17 per cent increase compared to 2022, with 33,600 working in the accommodation sector, according to social security affiliation statistics at the end of March.
In conclusion, Ashotel notes that salaries have risen by “21 per cent since 2018, including the previously mentioned 2020 and 2021 (totaling 4.5 per cent during the pandemic), over two years where wages were not increased as per the Las Palmas Agreement.”
The prevailing collective agreement within the province was signed by Ashotel, Aero, and Base Trade Unionists (SB) in September 2022 for a four-year temporary period. This agreement, currently in effect, “entails a 10.25 per cent overall salary increase.”
