The Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations, Elma Saiz, has advanced this Monday that the Government will evaluate the physical wear experienced by housekeeping room attendants (floormaids) with the aim of enabling them to access early retirement, as well as the incorporation of the ailments associated with this group into the official chart of occupational diseases.
The announcement was made in Palma, during an assembly of housekeeping room attendants (floormaids) organized by the UGT trade union, an event that had to be postponed earlier due to the train accident in Urda.
Saiz detailed that this will be the first task of the newly constituted Interministerial working group for the study of the gender dimension and the arduousness in early retirement, a body that incorporates a gender perspective in order to review those particularly arduous tasks that fall on sectors that are highly feminized, such as that of the 'kellys'.
"The first assignment that that working group will have is directly to analyze the gender impact and the ailments with a view to those reducing coefficients in case they are applicable to housekeeping room attendants (floormaids)", the minister said.
Likewise, Saiz has announced that this Tuesday the urgent processing, approved last week by the Council of Ministers, will be submitted for public exposure in order to include in the list of occupational diseases the pathologies suffered by housekeeping room attendants (floormaids).
Once the process is concluded, she specified, ailments that affect the wrist, elbow or forearm, directly linked to their work routine, will become part of the catalog of occupational diseases.
The head of Inclusion has defined housekeeping room attendants (floormaids) as a group without which "one of the most important economic activities in the country and in the Balearic Islands could not move forward."
She also highlighted the contradiction that "one of the activities that contributes the most to the quality of the tourist experience is one of the ones that has the least visibility."
On the other hand, the President of the Congress and leader of the PSOE in the Balearic Islands, Francina Armengol, has defended that the early retirement of housekeeping room attendants (floormaids) is an issue of dignity and rights. "There is no right to have to work intensely your entire life and that when you retire you are so physically wrecked that you cannot enjoy retirement," she said.
Armengol has highlighted measures promoted by the Pact, such as the installation of lift beds in hotels, which help prevent injuries. "If it is possible, you have to opt for prevention," she stressed.
The PSOE's 'number one' on the list for Congress for Baleares has also pointed to gender bias and criticized that, historically, the impact of work on the mental health of housekeeping chambermaids, mostly women, has not been investigated. At the end of the working day, they must also take on domestic tasks and family responsibilities.
Armengol has demanded strict compliance with collective agreements and has called for the measurement of work burdens to be carried out in the middle of the peak season. The Socialist leader in Baleares has defended the "justice" of allowing this group to retire early.
The state secretary for Hospitality at UGT, Omar Rodríguez, has expressed his desire that the general elections of November 29 ensure the continuity of a progressive government. "If on November 29 what comes out is what nobody wants, get ready, because they are not going to leave the minimum wage frozen. They are going for each and every one of the rights," he warned.
The general secretary of the UGT Federation of Services, José García, has considered it of "social justice" that chambermaids can retire before the ordinary age without reducing "not one euro" from their already precarious and scarce retirement pension. He recalled that in Baleares the situation is made worse by seasonality and high job temporariness.
García has announced that they will denounce hotel establishments that in 2028 are not measuring work burdens. "When an agreement is signed, it is to be complied with; if not, UGT will be in front," he warned. He also called on the minister to recognize as occupational diseases the ailments of handling workers in airports and of transport workers.
"The ones coming, unfortunately, are going to intern us to sweep and eliminate. All the rights achieved are going to disappear in less time than it takes a rooster to crow," he added, referring to the elections of next November 29.
In the same line, the State Secretary for Tourism and PSIB candidate for president of the Govern, Rosario Sánchez, has assured that "the right and the far right are not coming; they want to come, but they will not be allowed to."
Sánchez has explained that, after maintaining constant contact with the sector, "he has learned to understand what it means to work with pain and to end the working life with a worn-out body".
The State Secretary for Tourism has stressed that the chambermaids "silently uphold the first industry of the Balearic Islands and many have paid for it with their health". In her view, this work must be recognized with a decent wage, health protection, and adequate retirement.
The Socialist candidate for the Govern has criticized the "lack of political will" of the current regional Executive. "The Balearic Islands were at the forefront; we cannot fall behind. You cannot talk about quality tourism without pursuing precariousness, without monitoring working conditions and without penalizing breaches," she has warned.
Rosario Sánchez has also called for applying the state housing law to limit rental prices and to declare the archipelago a stressed area. "There is no quality employment if there is no access to housing," she concluded.
Francina Armengol has also commented on this matter, accusing Marga Prohens' Govern of not sufficiently promoting public housing.