Around fifty employees at the Duty Free of Palma Airport gathered on Tuesday to denounce temperatures of up to 33 degrees, lack of fresh water, and poorly maintained furniture. They are reporting fraudulent contracts to the Labour Inspectorate.
The heat offers no respite even inside the shops. Around fifty workers from the Duty Free at Palma Airport stood outside the building on Tuesday to protest against conditions they describe as "inhumane". Chanting "We say enough, the Duty crushes us", the employees have raised a litany of complaints ranging from high temperatures to lack of basic services.
Extreme Heat and Machine Water
Margarita Quetglas, a member of UGT from the works committee, detailed that inside the shops temperatures reach 33 degrees, with barely any oxygen due to the massive influx of tourists. "There are staff suffering from heat strokes, fainting..." she reported. The last straw: the company does not provide fresh water. "We have to buy it ourselves from vending machines," Quetglas denounced.
The situation worsens for fixed-discontinuous workers, who have seen their hours reduced from 40 to 20 or 26 per week. This "precarisation", along with several contracts they consider fraudulent, has already been reported to the Labour Inspectorate.
Mouldy Refrigerators and No Showers
Gema Servera, from USO, has highlighted the facilities. With the airport's renovation, a new break room was promised, but the reality is very different. "All the furniture is old, second, third, or fourth hand. The refrigerators that were installed came with mould. We have neither changing rooms nor showers," Servera stated.
The lack of bathrooms and break rooms forces staff to eat in the hallways and share a single toilet for the fifty people on a shift. Furthermore, the company has not complied with variable compensation reports since January, according to the unions.
"We want conditions to be dignified, not these inhumane ones, which even passengers do not want to stay in the shops," Servera concluded. The workers demand an urgent meeting with management and do not rule out further protests if there are no advances.
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