Public outrage and lifeguard despair over 6 months of unpaid wages in Arona

[Janet]

And now the FO advice has been picked up by the Canarian Press. Diario de Avisos HERE has given a half page today to report on it. On the paper version (you can't see in the online version), there's also a big red "down" arrow to a photo of Mayor Niño for his failure to resolve the matter. He had his knuckles rapped yesterday by the Cabildo for the bad publicity he is creating. They are said to be "very annoyed at the coverage". In Arona's case, I can think of several adjectives, but "annoyed" isn't top of the list. "Ashamed" might be, or "humiliated", or "disgraced" ...

JA

[Janet]

It's a year now. A year without wages, and a year in which Arona has lost whatever shred of reputation it might still have had for good governance – and for decency, for that matter. And a year in which, now, Britain's own Foreign Office is advising people that Arona is a dangerous location because of the state of its beaches.

In honour of the anniversary, the lifeguards have posted a call on their Facebook page HERE for support for a protest march to mark the event on 25 August. They say they would very much appreciate a physical show of support in terms of numbers on the march to match the support they have clearly had from the public over the last year.  If the turnout is anything like that suggested by the response on Facebook, it will be another day of shame for the Ayuntamiento.

The march will depart from Playa de los Cristianos a week on Sunday at 5pm, go via Playa de Las Vistas and end in Playa del Camisón. Meanwhile, Arona Ayuntamiento asks "for time" to sort the problem out, and says "it's working" on it ... and waiting for a "confirmed verdict" from the Courts. JA

[Janet]

The lifeguards are reporting that they have been informed by text message to their phones that their social security contributions have been deregistered. To add insult to injury, the text message was sent from the Social Security department without any prior warning to the lifeguards from Arona Ayuntamiento. Even worse, to rub salt into the wound, the message advises them that the "baja" (deregistration) dates from 14 June. The message ends by advising them to make an appointment if they want an explanation.

It was a while ago now that I called this post "the shaming of an entire municipality". Even calling it that I did not anticipate this level of cowardice, of shamelessness, or of brutality. Arona now officially has no Surveillance and Rescue Service on any beach. Where the lifeguards go from here I don't know, but whether they can contemplate continuing to work in the hope of back wages when they have essentially been "disemployed", is anyone's guess. JA

[Janet]

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The lifeguards have issued the following press release – click on the thumbnail above to see it in full size in the original Spanish. Point number 5 is the new, and to my mind, most stunning, information:

1. The squad of Arona lifeguards has received, as of 24 October, confirmation of their social security deregistration by the social security authorities (TGSS), as a result of reports by the TGSS itself that Sport&Salvament S.L.U. has not traded since 14 June 2013. Accordingly, the TGSS has acted on its own account so that the business' social security debt should not increase.

2. We have been on indefinite strike since 9 November due to our salaries remaining unpaid by the business and/or the Ayuntamiento of Arona,  complying with the legal requirement to provide 50% minimum services in Playa de las Vistas, Los Cristianos and El Camisón.

3.  The social security deregistration violates a constitutional right, the right to strike, given that it offers protection in  a case of unconstitutional dismissal. We will therefore be taking it up with the Government's mediation and arbitration service (SEMAC) as well as initiating legal proceedings in the Courts.

4. This situation has caused great uncertainty among the lifeguards. So many of our rights have been violated that what has  happened on these beaches is unprecedented. We remain unpaid, have not been laid off, have been disrespected, but still required to provide lifeguard services.

5. The local police, who have been confirming since 1 August that we are indeed providing the required minimal services, have told us this weekend that we are to be dismissed by municipal order which they will probably deliver some time this week.

6. We have insisted, fruitlessly, to the environment councillor, Antonio Sosa, on the need to resolve this confict for the security of Arona's coastline, to which end we have submitted to required arbitration, but it  has been deemed "anti-regulation" to arbitrate a conflict once legal action has already been undertaken. We have replied that 2013's outstanding wages are not the subject of such action, and that they could be ring-fenced if the council agreed to arbitration.

7. Meanwhile, we continue providing lifeguard services to the Arona coastline. We consider that the administrations' failures in their own respects  do not give us the right to fail in our own duty, with enough reputations already in the gutter.

JA

[Janet]

Arona has locked the lifeguards out of their base station and changed the locks so that they cannot get access to what minimal vital equipment and supplies they have been utilising whilst providing minimum services. They are now no longer able even to comply with the legal requirement to provide those services, which means that Arona has made it impossible for them to maintain their right to outstanding wages.

Above are a couple of photos: the first is of the locks being changed, and the second is of the policía local accompanying the locksmisths, which confirms the lifeguards' assertion that this was a council operation. I do not wish misfortune on anyone but I hope that if anyone drowns in Arona they will take the strongest legal action against the council. Criminal neglicence might do it ... JA

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

It beggars belief.

[Delderek]

Disgusting!

[Guanche]

I don't even begin to understand the vagaries of Spanish employment law................. or Spanish law full stop.
Sadly it has to be said that even with the courts behind them, the government behind them and the people behind them they still don't seem to be any futher forward than they were on day one. There must come a time when one has to say this battle is lost. I am all for a fight, but there comes a point when one has to face the facts and move on. They are now unemployed they are owed wages but it Spain that's nothing new, there are tens of thousands in the same boat. Employed by bastards and denied by bastards. I pains me and I know I won't be popular but its time to move on with their lives. Life is not fair.

[Janet]

The story is today in Diario de Avisos, with the paper reporting the council trying to employ "emergency lifeguards" while the process to award the contract for the service is still undergoing. As the paper says, Arona's environment councillor, Antonio Sosa, has announced that the council is looking to contract two or three lifeguards for a few months. Let's just repeat that. The council is looking to contract two or three lifeguards ...
This is the council that said it had nothing to do with contracting lifeguards or beach services, that it was completely illegal to pay the existing lifeguards their back pay because the council never employed lifeguards, and that a new contractor had to be in place before the council could employ lifeguards ...

So there you have it. There's a job going working for Arona Ayuntamiento as a lifeguard. Any takers? This is farce. Except no-one's laughing. JA

[Guanche]

The Ayuntamiento seems to be laughing!!!! Its time like this it wish I was spritual so I would believe in Karma. But unfortunatly I'm not and bastards rarely get their just desserts and crime does pay.