The hotel employers’ association and the majority union in the hospitality industry agree on the need to find “urgent solutions” to the “serious” problem of lack of housing for workers in the tourism sector.
Ashotel and Grassroots Unionists Yesterday they conveyed to the Canarian Federation of Municipalities (Fecam) the “pressing concern” of businessmen and employees because the real estate market does not offer rentals at reasonable prices in tourist areas, especially in the south of Tenerife, which forces workers to reside in areas increasingly distant from hotels, apartments and restaurants. A situation that also implies suffering – and aggravating – traffic jams in the region.
Jorge Marichal, president of Ashotel, urged us to look for “faster and more feasible solutions” in the face of the “bureaucratic slowness” that comes with the transfer of land from the town councils to the Government of the Canary Islands to build public housing. Among them, he pointed out that councils with residential land already consolidated and coming from 10% of the use of partial plans facilitate the construction of housing projects by businessmen willing to rent those houses or apartments to workers at reasonable prices. Furthermore, he indicated that the use of the Canary Islands Investment Reserve for this purpose is one of the feasible mechanisms.
Hotel entrepreneurs warned that the current situation results “on many occasions” in the lack of personnel to fill the positions in demand and even the closure of some units or floors in accommodation establishments “due to the impossibility of having personnel to offer a service.” of excellence.” For his part, Manuel Fitas, general secretary of the Grassroots Unions, warned about the “collapse” that threatens the tourism sector due to the lack of housing and mobility problems, which are causing a “physical and mental overload” to the personnel of the companies. The union leader stressed that cases of absenteeism from work in companies in the sector have increased between 15 and 25%, and up to 30% in the group of housekeepers.
Grassroots Unionists insist that, if there is urban land available, businessmen willing to build homes, and workers with stable employment and salaries that allow them to pay “priced and affordable” rent, “the will of the administrations” is required.
In recent years, Manuel Fitas himself has warned in this newspaper about the “eviction” of workers from tourist areas and the increase in rent prices not only in the main centers, “also above the South Highway and in “mediocre neighborhoods.” A factor that, he explained, further complicates split shifts in the sector: “How are they going to come to work at a hotel restaurant, with a breakfast shift (from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.) and dinner shift (from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. ), at such a distance from your residence and with the traffic collapse that there is?
Ashotel also highlights that the Canary Islands is the autonomous community with the highest demand for social housing and, at the same time, the one with the highest volume of empty houses. Likewise, he points out, among the causes that have caused this situation, the boom in vacation housing, which has put pressure on the long-term rental market and prices. The hotel employers insist that the lack of urban planning regulations that currently determine in the Archipelago “where and where not” tourist housing can be exploited has caused an “exponential increase” in tourist rental places in recent years. There are currently 195,000 registered in the Islands, according to data from the Government of the Canary Islands, 60% more than six years ago, compared to the 325,000 regulated tourist places in the hotels and apartments of the Archipelago.
From the Canarian Federation of Municipalities, its representatives, led by its president María Concepción Brito, offered to advise the town councils on this matter and proposed creating a working group with Ashotel and Grassroots Unionists. The next meeting between the three parties will be held in the second half of January.
