Lukić: Maids with fibromyalgia come to us, they are all outsourced

The four-hour warning strike, announced by the Sava Turizma Workers’ Union, began at 10 a.m. at the employer’s premises, and the workers then went to the promenade under the Hotel Histrion in Bernardin. With the strike, they expressed demands for the elimination of wage disparities, the immediate adjustment of basic wages to last year’s inflation (10.3 percent), the conclusion of an annex to the corporate collective agreement, an increase in reimbursement of transportation costs to work to 21 cents per kilometer, and full wage compensation for the duration of the strike . However, the most vehemently in the trade union is against the planned transfer of the jobs of maids to the external contractor Aktiva cleaning, as, according to them, this would represent a harmful practice that affects the social and material situation of the workers.

“We are only maids for the administration, but we will not allow ourselves to be taken away from our dignity. We have given many years of our lives to this company, we have been loyal to the company that now wants to get rid of us like garbage,” the president of the trade union Save Turizem, also a maid, said at the rally, which was attended by about 100 people, Jelica Pintarič. She added that the company’s management boasts that they will have higher salaries at Aktiva, “but our basic wages will still be 200 euros below the minimum wage, and the working conditions will be increasingly difficult”. “The government has let us down, and the ministers are shifting responsibility to each other,” she warned.

According to the union representative, the maids were silent for many years because they believed in a better future, but now the employer is sending them to an uncertain future, “to a company that is being investigated by the labor inspectorate for violations committed by workers”. In a joint statement that she read, the maids wrote that they feel “betrayed, humiliated and worthless”. Pintarič said that these are the last maids employed by Sava Turizem, and that the number of maids is decreasing. The plan is also to intensify the strike, when and in what way, but it is not yet clear at the moment.

The redeployment will happen regardless of the strike and protest

As journalist Elen Batista Štader reported for Television Slovenia, there will be redundancies on Wednesday in any case, regardless of the strike and protest. “Regarding outsourcing, I want to emphasize that the contract with the contractor has already been signed, that the safety of all employees is taken care of, that all employees will continue to have concluded contracts for an indefinite period,” said the head of the negotiating group Save Turizem Igor Skrinjar.

The president of the trade union Save Turizem said in a statement to the media that they met with company representatives half an hour before the rally. Since they were not ready to talk about canceling the transfer of employment relationships, they ended the conversation quickly, according to her. On Wednesday, they will be transferred to a new employer, even though they have not signed a contract with him, as this is not a condition for transferring the employment relationship, she explained.

Meanwhile, Škrinjar asserted in a statement that the union and the workers had come to an agreement in negotiations, but without success, as the union’s main demand was the cancellation of the redeployment of workers to an external contractor. At the same time, Sava Turizem emphasized that the striking workers will in any case stay and continue to work in this hotel, only under a different employer. The management of Sava Turizem also insists that they strictly comply with the law, and they attribute the transfer of employees to the seasonality of the company, among other things.

According to the STA, today’s strike was monitored by competent inspectors. The Labor Inspectorate of the Republic of Slovenia wants to change the previous practice of dealing with strikes on the basis of applications, when everything is over, and their presence at the event could prevent possible pressure on the strikers, preventing or limiting the strike, replacing striking workers with others and similarly.

Sava Turizem: The main concern is to ensure the uninterrupted operation of hotels

Sava Turizem’s main concern during the strike is to ensure the smooth operation of the hotels on the Coast and to curb the negative consequences for guests and business as much as possible, their owners responded to the strike of maids and other employees at Bernardin Hotels.

In relation to the expectations of the Sava Turizma workers’ union for the elimination of wage disparities, the harmonization of basic wages with the inflation of 2022 and the reimbursement of transportation costs to and from work, Škrinjar explained that their fulfillment would plunge the company into negative numbers, “which would threaten the stability of society in the long term“.

Last year, the company allocated an additional 3.4 million euros to improve the position of employees, he recalled, highlighting promotions for 729 employees, monthly incentives for 366 to 600 people, holiday pay in the amount of 1,650 euros and a Christmas bonus in the amount of 1,000 euros per employee . Sava Turizm therefore proposed to the union an increase in the basic salary by more than 10 percent, and higher basic salaries by less than 10 percent.

In fact, in December, the administration planned to increase the salaries of all employees for March, and for this purpose, this year, it reserved an additional 2.1 million euros. “As a result, the salaries of more than 50 percent of the employees are increased by more than 10.3 percent, as was the proposal of the union, while the increase is lower for employees in higher salary classes, as the company cannot agree to the salary disparity between lower and higher wages increase,” explained Škrinjar.

They also agreed to change the calculation of travel expenses, with the precondition of setting up a formula that will be linked to the change in the price of fuel. “Considering all the requirements, we proposed to open negotiations for the entire enterprise collective agreement,” underlined Škrinjar. But the trade union, according to him, rejected the proposal in its entirety, while “confirmed that there would be a strike even if all his demands except outsourcing were confirmed“.

Regarding the transfer of the maids in the Bernardin Hotels to the external contractor Aktiva črušenje scheduled for March, he said that external rental on the Coast is not something new and that Sava Turizem has already used it in several of its hotels in recent years, where it works well.

The fight against overemployment also during coalition commitments

The Sava Turizem trade union also expects action from the government, as Sava Turizem, under whose auspices the Bernardin Hotels fall, is owned by the Sava company, 90% of which is owned by the state through the Slovenian State Holding and Kapitalska družba. “The state stated in the coalition agreement that it will fight against outsourcing in the public sector. I would expect it to have the same standards and criteria for companies where it has a majority stake,” he said for Televizija Slovenija Andrej Zorko from the Association of Free Trade Unions of Slovenia.

The efforts of the Trade Union of Hospitality and Tourism Workers of Slovenia were also supported by the Ministry of Labour, the minister Port Moon at the same time, he also announced the possibility of legislative changes that would make it more difficult to outsource services. “On the one hand, we have bad experiences with companies that provide these services, and on the other hand, it is also difficult to organize workers in these companies. With the coalition agreement, we committed ourselves that the state will be the example that will prevent precariousness or forms of externalization of the employment relationship ,” explained the secretary at the ministry Dan Juvan.

The economy minister also responded on Tuesday Matjaž Hanwho in a public report emphasized the importance of good working conditions for employees in tourism, which represent the foundation of the future development of Slovenian tourism. “As the Minister of the Economy, Tourism and Sport, I believe that the decision of the company Sava Turizem to transfer the maids to an external contractor has the wrong message. It is vital for Slovenian tourism that we have successful tourism companies with good working conditions for employees who will therefore perform their work more diligently and with high quality.” he emphasized.

Maids’ efforts were supported in many other unions

The efforts of the Bernardin Hotel employees were supported by representatives of many other trade unions and also part of the civil society. The participants of the rally were also addressed by representatives of the Workers’ Advisory Council, the March 8 Institute, the Professional Firefighters’ Union of Slovenia, the Mladi plus union and the Metal and Electrical Industry Union of Slovenia.

Some trade unions from other companies also expressed their support for the strikers on the Coast. activities. “Sindicat Tuš joins the common fight of organized labor against the outsourcing and precarization of the workforce, which capital imposes for the sake of reducing labor costs and in the pursuit of profit,” they wrote in the trade union of Slovenia. According to them, the outsourcing of workers is becoming an entrenched service industry practice in both the private and public sectors, “capitalists” use it “not only to worsen the position of workers, but also to weaken the organizational and political power of the workforce”.

“We firmly support the workers at Sava Turizem in enforcing the constitutional right to strike and the right to dignity, safe and decent working conditions and decent pay,” they also wrote in the Journalists’ Union of Slovenia and the Coordination of Journalists’ Unions of RTV Slovenia. They themselves are against transferring workers to external contractors, as the media have already experienced how to outsource workers “pushes into precariousness, precarious working conditions with lower wages, without rights, with long and exploitative working hours”.

Lukić: Maids with fibromyalgia come to us, they are all outsourced

Goran Lukić, a trade unionist and representative of the Workers’ Consultancy, commented on the problem in Odmevi. He pointed out that this outsourcing is spreading everywhere, including the public sector and public administration. External contractors also clean at RTV, he asserted. And what is wrong with that according to him? Outsourcing means that the company tells the workers that they are no longer with them, even though they are. It also means that “current matters” such as health problems “leave” the company: suddenly there are no more diagnoses, chronic diseases, long-term sick leave… Lukić asserted that maids with fibromyalgia have been coming to the Worker’s Counseling Center for several years , i.e. chronic pain syndrome. All of these maids are outsourced, he emphasized. He highlighted two other examples. The first: the payroll of an external contractor cleaner who receives a gross salary of 373 euros for 166 hours of work (with an additional payment up to the minimum). According to him, in Luka Koper, they outsourced the most difficult jobs and thus produced disabled people, and when these workers came back to be employed, they encountered closed doors due to health problems. Lukić recalled the recent Supreme Court ruling that Luka Koper’s “outsourcing” model was illegal. The Workers’ Advisory Council wrote to the Prime Minister about this, but he “outsourced” the matter to the Ministry of Finance, and since then there has been nothing but silence. Even the ministers, one after the other, point out that they can’t do anything because it’s corporate governance. If nobody can do anything, then the question is what are all these functions for – maybe we should outsource them too, concluded the trade unionist.