The works council and the municipal company Sóller 2010 have reached a preliminary agreement at the Arbitration and Mediation Tribunal of the Balearic Islands that allows the indefinite strike scheduled for this Friday to be called off.
The threat of an indefinite strike in rubbish collection and street cleaning in Sóller has dissipated, at least for now. A preliminary agreement reached this Monday at the Arbitration and Mediation Tribunal of the Balearic Islands (TAMIB) has allowed the UGT union to call off the strike that was set to begin on Friday at 10 PM.
The key to the agreement: holidays as extraordinary days
The conflict centred on the remuneration for worked holiday days. The workforce complained about a cut in the payment for these days, which had been paid extraordinarily for over a decade. Now, the agreement establishes that holidays will be considered extraordinary days, with the corresponding pay modification.
This solution, according to sources from the negotiations, had not been proposed before by either the unions or the company. The change will entail an increase in personnel costs of about 40,000 euros annually, according to calculations from the municipal company Sóller 2010 itself.
Workers will be able to work on holidays on a voluntary basis, although if there are not enough staff, the company may designate the necessary personnel to cover the service. This point was one of the most contentious during the negotiations.
80 workers affected and a prior demonstration
The strike would have affected around 80 people working in the nursery, waste collection, street cleaning, the ORA service, the works brigade, and the Son Angelats sports centre. Last Saturday, about twenty employees gathered in the Constitution Square to demand that the Town Hall unblock the negotiations.
For the residents of Sóller, the cancellation of the strike is a relief, as a rubbish strike would have caused health issues and bad odours in the streets, especially in the height of summer. The waste collection service is essential in a tourist municipality like this.
Both parties have scheduled another meeting at TAMIB this Friday, where the final agreement could be ratified. If all goes well, the strike will be definitively cancelled and the workers will return to normalcy.
The Town Hall of Sóller, which had been criticised by employees for its lack of involvement, has breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing that dialogue at TAMIB has borne fruit. The municipal company, for its part, hopes that the agreement will be ratified and that new mobilisations will be avoided.
This preliminary agreement demonstrates that mediation can be an effective way to resolve labour conflicts. In Sóller, at least, rubbish will not pile up on the sidewalks this summer.
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