UGT Castilla y León has suspended its own union elections for its Palencia workers, who were scheduled to elect a staff delegate at the end of September. In this case UGT intervenes as a company and employer and at the same time as a union, since the Palencia workers are affiliated with UGT.
In a letter to which this newspaper has had access, the Secretary of Organization of the autonomous board of UGT, Óscar Lobo, informed the Territorial Labor Office (OTT) of Palencia that UGT, as a company, was giving up on holding the electoral process. , something that no company can do, since it cannot interfere in the workers’ elections. The electoral table was to be established on September 30, but this letter was sent to the OTT on Thursday the 26th at 1:51 p.m.
The workers learned of this statement through the OTT itself, which accepted the letter, but did not process this process because companies cannot intervene in a union process, according to union sources. However, the UGT workers considered this letter as a threat from the company and decided not to establish the electoral table (made up of the most senior worker and the oldest and youngest voters) as planned.
Therefore, the process was paralyzed and the electoral notice was left to ‘die’. That is, the mandate of the current personnel delegate is extended, because neither an electoral calendar was established nor any of the workers presented themselves as personnel delegate. It was not even officially known who was going to run, because normally candidates are not announced until the polling station is established. If the workers wanted to elect a new personnel representative, the process would have to start over, since the previous process fell apart.
Union sources consulted by this newspaper show their disbelief at the reaction of the UGT company, since it is not allowed for any company to ‘desist’ or intervene in any workers’ electoral process. The company, in any case, must facilitate the process by providing the census and a space for voting, for example.
The Workers’ Statute stipulates that when a company has between six and ten workers (as is the case of UGT in Palencia), they can decide if they want a personnel delegate, who will be elected through a free, personal, secret and direct vote. . This personnel representative is the legal representative of the workers before the company.
Officials from other unions consulted by this newspaper explain that an employer cannot give up. “It can’t be done,” they insist. In an ordinary process, workers notify that they want to elect the personnel delegate directly or through one of the two majority unions (UGT and CCOO). And the process could only be revoked with a writing from all the workers. The company could also allege other legal issues in the constitution of the board, but not before. And even less give up on an electoral process.
Lobo has also been the coordinator of Union Elections in the State Federation of Services, Mobility and Consumption of UGT.
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