The general secretary of PSIB-PSOE and head of the list to the Congress for the Balearic Islands, Francina Armengol, has called in Ibiza for professional illnesses affecting chambermaids to be recognized by law and for there to be progress toward their early retirement.
Speaking to the media, she said, "A person shouldn’t have to retire with a broken body; this is the reality for countless chambermaids, and it isn’t fair".
After holding a meeting with a group of women workers in the sector in Ibiza, Francina Armengol stressed the "essential" role of these professionals in order for the hotel business to function, emphasizing that, without their work, hotel business owners would not reach the same levels of productivity.
Along these lines, she recalled the initiatives put in place during her term at the head of the Govern, with special mention of the Tourism Law, the first regulation in Spain that required hotels to replace traditional beds with adjustable beds in order to prevent professional illnesses.
Armengol criticized that this legal obligation is not currently being complied with in the Balearic Islands and denounced that the work-load limits necessary to ensure decent working conditions are also not being applied.
At the same time, she reiterated that official recognition of these conditions and the possibility of accessing early retirement are two essential demands of chambermaids.
In this context, she defended that workers should be able to retire without having to drag along the physical aftereffects derived from an entire professional career.
The PSIB-PSOE candidate for the Congress has taken advantage of her visit to Eivissa to call on the island’s citizens to support the general strike on November 11, stating that "it is necessary for the outcry over housing policies to be heard, which are the responsibility of the Govern and the town councils and which here on the island of Ibiza are absolutely abandoned".
"The PP and Vox threaten a privatization of the pension system in a brazen and clear way", she warned.
For her part, the PSOE candidate from Ibiza for the Congress, Milena Herrera, emphasized that the labor market and the dignity of working people are central issues for the socialists in this election campaign. "Behind every figure there is a person," she said.