Tourists who book a hotel Spain Soon you will be able to choose not only the places with the best views or the largest pools, but also places where employees enjoy decent working conditions.
Tried to persuade but failed platform For example, Booking.com and TripAdvisor use working conditions as part of their rating of hotels, and Spain’s tireless organization of waitresses, Las Kellys, is building its own booking platform.
Last week, its crowdfunding campaign exceeded the minimum 60,000 euros required to build a website and mobile application, and is expected to reach the highest target of 90,000 euros.
Laskelis spokesperson Vania Arana said: “We hope to create a new era of tourism where people’s working conditions and humanity are higher than economic interests.”
In order to meet Las Kellys’ standards, hotels must respect national agreements on remuneration and conditions, comply with health and safety regulations, develop equal pay policies for equal work, employ disadvantaged groups and hire female waiters internally.
Raskelis-the name is a drama Cleaner (Clean Women)-Started as a WhatsApp group in 2014. The members formed an association in 2016, and then became frustrated by the indifference of the union that should represent their interests. Barcelona The group established a union, Sindicato Las Kellys Cataluña.
In major cities in Spain and in Balearic Islands and Canary Islands And resorts such as Benidorm.
The rise of this movement is in response to the growing trend of hotels (especially large chains) outsourcing employees to agencies. One of Raskelis’ complaints is that these agencies hire them as cleaners, and according to the state pay agreement, their wages are lower than that of waitresses.
Until recently, the hotel had hired their waitresses as employees, so they were protected by an agreement that guaranteed them a monthly salary of 1,200 Euros (£1,025) for a 40-hour work week, as well as sickness and maternity leave benefits.
Although some outsourcing contracts seem to provide the same salary and conditions, there is a problem: they also specify the number of rooms that must be completed during a 6-hour shift, which is between 25 and 30 on average, which is impossible in terms of human resources.
As a result, workers worked unpaid overtime in order to meet their quota, reducing their hourly wages to 3 or 4 Euros, which is less than the minimum wage. If they do not meet their quota, they will be fired.
The pandemic has forced the closure of hotels, greatly alleviating the unstable working conditions of these women. Arana said that in many cases, organizations that handle outsourcing work are too lazy to apply for vacation plans and just shut down operations.
She said: “About 16,000 colleagues who have signed summer work contracts are in a climax and dry state, unable to claim compensation.”
These women are forced to survive on the food banks and charities of community groups and churches. The government only provides a one-time payment of 1,000 Euros, and only if their monthly income is less than 400 Euros.
“I can’t apply for leave because my husband receives 900 euros a month. I say this because I am one of the lucky ones,” Arana said.
She said that now that the hotel has reopened, the situation is even worse.
“A lady came to us because an agency paid her 39 euros for more than 8 hours a day. She told them:’I want to report you to the Kelly family,’ they fired her as soon as we wrote to them.”
She said another trick is to hire employees during a two-week probation period and then fire them at the end of the probation period.
Arana pointed out that although they have Spanish members, most of them are immigrants from Latin America and the east. Europe And Africa.
“There are a lot of African women,” she said. “The hotel likes them because they often speak English. They prefer single mothers because they are more vulnerable to exploitation.”
While the technicians are up and running the app and website for the new year, Las Kellys will approach the hotel to see if they meet the standards in order to provide reservations through the app.
“I want to tell people that if you are looking for a hotel, find a hotel with humane working conditions and consider exploitation,” Arana said. “The only thing that outsourcing brings us is disease, huge workload and ultimately social and economic poverty.”
