More than 16,000 regularized workers in the Balearic Islands are already contributing to Social Security

PalmaMore than 16,000 people affiliated with Social Security in the Balearic Islands come from the extraordinary regularization process promoted by the Spanish government. The Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, released this data during a conference on the working conditions of chambermaids, in which she highlighted that nearly 150,000 workers in the Islands are linked to tourism activities. The archipelago exceeds 650,000 people affiliated with Social Security, with a growth of 4.9% during the last year, while the employed foreign population exceeds 184,000 people.

The meeting, titled Early retirement now and recognition of occupational diseases, has served to focus on the physical and psychological wear and tear of a mostly female group that demands the ability to retire earlier without pension penalties. Saiz has announced that the Council of Ministers has approved processing the incorporation of pathologies specific to room attendants into the table of occupational diseases as a matter of urgency, especially those affecting the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. "There are ailments that are the result of years of effort, repetitive movements, and sustained physical demands. We cannot allow them to be diluted under the idea of common illness," she warned. The minister argued that the recognition of illnesses cannot replace prevention: "The primary obligation is to prevent workers from falling ill. It is necessary to reduce workloads, improve resources, and guarantee healthy working conditions.

Socialist demand

The President of the Congress of Deputies and PSIB candidate for the general elections, Francina Armengol, has voiced the consequences that these conditions have on the health of workers based on her professional experience in a pharmacy. "Many chambermaids would come in and, apart from painkillers, many would take away anxiolytics, because their bodies were shattered," she explained. Armengol also recalled the pressure they suffer during their workday and the difficulty of balancing it with family responsibilities: "Many of you don't go down for lunch because you have to keep working, and then you arrive home and have the children or an elderly person. And that drains you mentally." Armengol has called for more hiring to reduce workloads that she considers abusive. "What must be done is to hire more people," she stated. She also requested that studies on workload be carried out during the high season and not when hotels have less occupancy: "Because that is cheating."

The Secretary of State for Tourism, Rosario Sánchez, has denounced that chambermaids support a large part of the tourism activity without receiving the recognition they deserve. "Without you, no hotel would open. You are the ones who silently support the main industry of our islands and many of you have paid for it with your health," she said. Sánchez has demanded motorized carts, lighter utensils, and measures to reduce heat exposure, in addition to recognition of injuries derived from repetitive movements. "One cannot demand the same effort throughout one's entire working life as if the body did not change," she warned.

Sánchez has also revived the controversy over the height-adjustable beds that the Armengol Government promoted and the statements of the current President of the Government, Marga Prohens, who had described them as "the greatest piece of nonsense we have heard in tourism policy in recent times." The Secretary of State defended the importance of this type of measure to protect the health of workers and recalled that the Balearic Islands were pioneers in their implementation. Along the same lines, Armengol recalled that when a room maid has to make hundreds of beds and lift mattresses, "it is no nonsense: it is their back, their health, and their dignity." Prohens, for her part, had argued that height-adjustable beds were not the main demand of the workers and did not solve their problems on their own, and had called for prioritizing the reduction of workloads and the recognition of occupational diseases.

The federal sectoral secretary of Hospitality and Tourism of UGT, Omar Rodríguez, recalled that 96% of room maids are women and demanded recognition of the gender bias of a historically invisible profession. "A 55-year-old room maid has a biological age of 70," he asserted. Rodríguez argued that companies must return to the workers part of the profits generated by tourism and called for serious studies on workloads.

For his part, UGT representative José García has denounced the difficulties in having labor inspections verify the real conditions of the establishments. "Getting a labor inspector to visit is a lottery," he stated. García has insisted that measuring workloads must serve to reduce the number of rooms assigned to each worker, not to accumulate administrative documentation. He also warned that many room attendants do not reach the standard retirement age in a condition to continue working and that, when they can, they opt for early retirement because they have no other alternative.

Elevatable beds, pending

The president of Kellys Unión Balears, Sara del Mar, has reported that many workers chain together medical leaves and that their illnesses are not always recognized as occupational. "We are asking for early retirement because the majority do not make it there and keep chaining one leave after another," she stated. She also explained the case of colleagues with incapacitating pathologies and cited as an example a worker who was discharged by the medical tribunal despite needing a fentanyl patch. Regarding the fear of reprisals, she was firm: "I understand the fear, but they should not have it. There is harassment, but it can be fought."

The workers' representative also questioned whether all the height-adjustable beds installed in hotels solve the group's physical problems: some are too heavy or have mechanisms and cables that make the tasks difficult. Proof, she argued, that it is not enough to introduce measures on paper if they do not adapt to the real needs of the chambermaids.