template and ownership five-star hotel Don Carlos in Marbella are negotiating the opening of the tourist establishment throughout the year, with the possibility of closing during the low season and concentrating holidays in periods of low occupancy with a maximum of 60 days, according to what José Ramón López, member of the company committee, highlighted this Monday by CCOO.
The negotiation began last February, which is in a final phase, and its purpose is “replace” the agreement reached between the parties in July 2020 after the company presented an Employment Regulation File (ERE), which had a periodicity of 3 years and was never applied, the unionist pointed out.
The document sealed in the summer of 2020 contemplated aspects such as the novation of the 94 permanent workers of the workforce, which translates into moving their contracts to permanent-discontinuous; an opening of at least 9 months a year or submit to a suspension file for objective reasons until 2023.
López has detailed that the new pact that is being negotiated “is a replacement of that agreement, that it should have entered into force once the ERTE due to majeure” ended as a result of Covid-19 last year and the one executed during this winter for “productive causes” until February.
Thus, he explained that “once the ERTE had ended, that novation of the contracts, that 2020 agreement, had to come into force, but it has not been like that” and prior to the novation of the permanent personnel contracts, he has assured that the company proposed “study the possibility of replacing that agreementwhich would be rendered null and void, for another along the lines that we proposed in the negotiation” of 3 years ago, regarding “the concentration of staff vacations to avoid contract novations and extinctions”.
The alternative of concentrating vacations in the low season
The trade unionist has shown the surprise of the workers’ representatives when the company met the “requirement” of the workforce in 2020 alternative to the novation of contracts, which “was the holiday concentration in the low season of all the staff and that is where we are now, finalizing the details”, which implies negotiating the opening of the hotel throughout the year, López pointed out.
On the other hand, he has pointed out that “the according to the company, it will be a maximum of 60 days a year, highlighting that the staff would “correspond between holidays, vacations and rest days around 50 or 51 days”. In addition, he has pointed out that for the years 2023 and 2024 the property has planted that “there will be a closure for reforms, because they plan to reform the establishment to make certain improvements, and we may have to negotiate an ERTE for reforms” under the conditions established the Málaga hospitality agreement.
In this sense, he has indicated that “the hotel is open all year” and an agreement will be reached if “in those years in which the company understands, vacations for all staff will be concentrated in the months with less occupation”. On the contrary, he has indicated that “if there are exercises that in low season anticipate that there will be sufficient occupation, most likely the enjoyment of vacations and holidays instead of concentrating, will be throughout the entire exercise, as long as when in winter there will be the whole year”.
Profitability based on the new proposal
The trade unionist stressed that the new property proposal is due to the fact that he “understands that it is profitable to keep the hotel open all year long” in Marbella, assessing that “the ERTE for productive reasons this winter has not been good for it because the market share that naturally corresponded to the Don Carlos hotel on these dates has been taken by the surrounding hotels, and that has been a loss of income ”.
In addition, it has indicated that the union representation presented its “last proposal” last week, of which he has stated that “it is not very ambitious”, although it has “substantial improvements, since the workers are not going to lose their permanent status, which was what was lost with the novation”. From there, he has He qualified that “we are improving that situation and specifying the closing period.” For this reason, he expects the company to respond shortly.