The Social Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC) has agreed with the three unions that demanded the application for the workers of the Valoriza company, in charge of garbage collection in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, of the the previous concessionaire, Urbaser.
The agreement was valid until 2019, but the clauses reflected that it was possible to extend it in its entirety automatically, among which was the increase in salaries according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) of the Canary Islands, provided that This will be requested in the months of November of each year.
This increase in 2019 was 0.4% but after several meetings between the unions and the new company, no agreement was reached, so the company tried to promote a new agreement without success.
In the first instance, the Social Court already sided with the workers, which is now ratified by the TSJC, so that a salary increase for 2020 of 0.4% is set.
The ruling was appealed by Valoriza, who alleged that at the time it had presented a conciliation document and that the prescription of the negotiations had not been interrupted.
But the TSJC concludes that, as stated in the collective agreement, salaries will be reviewed according to the CPI of the previous twelve months, when a complaint about the agreement is presented in the month of November, as occurred in the corresponding year.
The TSJC recalls that in cases of collective conflict, in general, the prescription of the actions should not be taken into account since they remain alive as long as they derive from the collective agreement and are not replaced by a new one.
The Court indicates that the collective action does not have an initial calculation period and that the period of validity of the agreement between the company and workers must be extended in order to avoid contradictory rulings in the event that the latter go to court.
