Workers’ Commissions (CCOO) has asked the Labor Inspection to investigate the risk of suffering cancer among Tenerife tram workers due to exposure to silica dust, “a carcinogenic agent that has caused illnesses in some employees.”
Thus, the Federation of Citizen Services of Canarian Workers’ Commissions (FSC-CCOO) has filed a complaint with the Labor Inspection, regretting the refusal of the public company, Metropolitano de Tenerife, to evaluate the risks to which they are subjected. certain positions in the service and has demanded “to stop putting obstacles in the way of monitoring the health of the affected workers.”
The union has reported that, on June 15, Quirón Prevention “detected health conditions in two veteran workers belonging to the Mobile Material area of the Maintenance Department, apparently motivated by exposure to this agent in the form of calcifications and lung nodules. ”.
“These conditions have led to the modification of their aptitude. Despite this, the Metropolitano de Tenerife prevention service has only sent one of those affected to the Canary Islands Accident Mutual Fund to initiate the communication of suspected occupational disease,” the union continued.
In his opinion, “there are many jobs that are exposed to this carcinogenic agent,” although it is only considered in the risk assessment of one of the positions: that of Rolling Stock maintenance technician.
“In fact, two other veteran workers from the same department, belonging to the Road technical and Energy and Catenary technical positions, respectively, underwent tests through private pulmonologists and were detected with silica pneumoconiosis,” stated the labor union.
He has also criticized, always according to CCOO’s version, that the company’s prevention service has refused to send them to the mutual insurance company to begin the procedure for communicating suspicion of occupational disease and only the first one has had his exposure recognized. risk assessment “after pressure applied”.
CCOO has also requested that other jobs be included in preventive activities against silica dust, such as driver or conductor, they add.
Workers on the brink of a new strike
The secretary of the works council, Jonay Acosta, confirmed to this newspaper last week that The staff asks them to reactivate the strike, although for the moment they are opting “for the route of negotiation.” Acosta accused Metropolitano de Tenerife for not applying all the commitments acquired in the agreement to end the strike last July regarding preventive measures for health surveillance, as well as other measures included in this document.
In addition to issues related to silica dust, the workers’ representative called for negotiating a series of preventive measures to mitigate psychosocial risks, the training plan or professional categories. “To this day, all of these issues remain unresolved,” he said.
On the other hand, he accused the public company of “taking advantage of this situation” to open disciplinary proceedings against the workers who supported the strike. “It’s retaliation.”
“We have had meetings with the president of the company to indicate the seriousness of the situation, especially in terms of occupational health. We ask that you begin negotiating all the issues that are in the agreement to end the strike,” she concluded.
