“The locker rooms and bathrooms are always full of shit, in disgusting conditions. They fill with water and sand and, instead of hiring a team, they make us do cleaning shifts within the planning”. This is how an actor from Puy du Fou (who prefers to remain anonymous) describes to elDiario.es the state of the rooms where they change clothes, shower and leave their belongings every day. Reason why the union Comisiones Obreras has denounced the theme park located in Toledo, dedicated to the history of Spain, to the Labor Inspection.
As the union explains in a statement, the company “has not resolved” this labor breach that affects “about 600 people”, since they define it as “more than evident” that their “responsibilities do not include having to clean common areas.” The organization details that this is a situation that had been brought to the attention of the company and that, having not provided a solution, the Federation of Citizen Services (FSC) of CCOO Toledo has decided to report it.
This newspaper has contacted several of the artists who star in the shows that make up the Puy du Fou agenda, and they confirm that, although “there is cleaning for what can be visited and what is visible to the public,” “ no one” is in charge of the facilities they use. elDiario.es has also contacted the park, from which it has not yet received any response.
“One of the doors of the boys’ urinal had been broken for two years,” acknowledges another interpreter, who also prefers not to reveal his identity, “there are cobwebs in the corners, getting bigger and bigger.”
The ‘talents’, as they acknowledge that they are called by the park management, criticize that this cleaning is a “work” that they “find out about” once they have already started working in the park. “Suddenly they tell you that that shift is added to you,” another actor details to this newspaper. For example, for those who embody the different characters of The dream of Toledothe star show, which is performed at night (at 10 or 10:30 p.m., depending on the time of season) before the park closes, beyond having to change costumes, its days are extended by another 45 minutes further.
“In the end, with a mop the only thing we do is move the mud. Lack of disinfection. We move shit around, but we’re not really cleaning,” an actor from the show nocturnal – who also prefers not to make his name public –, which indicates that “the worst thing” that has been found is “vomiting in the stands.” Regarding his own personal hygiene, he reveals that he prefers to wait until he gets home to shower, although he declares that there are colleagues, “brave” as he describes them, who do do it there.
“I have always refused because I am not up to that. We have to clean once a week. That is, you finish your pass, you collect all your things and you have to start cleaning bathrooms, hallways, putting away the clothes, washing up. I have had problems for saying no,” another performer and acrobat criticizes this newspaper. “Why are they making me clean up common shit? Why wouldn’t you want to hire someone to do it? It is not paid. “You pass three towns,” he insists.
One more work in the quadrants
Cleaning is stipulated in the daily quadrants in which the schedule of each “espuyfolai” is specified, which is the way the company names the Puy du Fou workers. In one of these documents (dated October 31), corresponding to the team of The dream of Toledo, You see the part of the staff that will have to be in charge of this function once the performance is concluded. And, in the legend, how this color is used to notify it.
In addition to the planning sheets, actors and dancers have to fill out a template in which they have to record the tasks they have carried out during the cleaning shift and the materials they have for it.
Tasks include “sweeping locker room and hallway,” “cleaning toilet and urinals”, “clean sinks and mirrors”, “rinse mops and throw water”. In addition to “littering”. “The garbage is thrown into the bins that are distributed throughout the park and the people in charge of cleaning empty them into compactors, also located within the enclosure, and which are the same ones used by restoration,” details another of the actors.
Puy du Fou opens its doors at 11 in the morning and the shows start between 30 and 45 minutes later. In total there are eleven that are represented throughout the day (including passages and those that incorporate lunch or dinner in their restaurants), and they range from The last songwhich covers the legend of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, the Cid Campeador; to With pen and swordwhich travels to the Spanish Golden Age, with special prominence for Lope de Vega. Most of them are carried out outdoors – regardless of the inclement weather –, on terrain that includes water and land, with the presence of animals such as horses and birds.
From CCOO they clarify that since these are tasks that are not carried out by “the permanent structure personnel (maintenance, administrative, sales, technicians…) these areas, after so long without correct cleaning by qualified cleaning personnel, lack health. and they are in a sorry state.” “It is clear that among the responsibilities of the actors, actresses, dancers, and other staff of the park, are not the functions of cleaning the bathrooms or mopping the floors of the changing rooms, so their risk assessment does not contemplate this type of jobs,” concludes the union statement. The company’s proposal, as they share, is “that once a month an external company does a thorough cleaning, but that the rest of the days it continues to be done by the entertainment staff.”
The complications of rain
Depending on the weather conditions is one of the handicaps that Puy du Fou has. At the end of 2023, the OCU asked to investigate the park for not canceling the show The dream of Toledo despite the heavy rain. “There was a river of water and mud,” were some of the complaints that were issued and then collected by this newspaper.
“We were waiting for it to be canceled because it was not normal to act like this nor to see it like this as an audience,” lamented a member of the artistic team, who was as affected by the storm as the attendees. The rains have persisted since that performance and, as several actors revealed to this medium, on October 12, in which the rainfall forced the cancelation of the show night, The dream of Toledothis did not translate into a day off for the interpreters.
“We had to be prepared in case it was necessary to help with the arrangement to be able to work normally the next day,” as long as the weather improved. In fact, as they commented with elDiario.es, the cast – and ushers – ended up being divided into groups to scrub the venue, and even “clean and insulate technical panels.” Something for which: “We are obviously not qualified.”
One of the park’s ushers, who provides her testimony anonymously, explains that her colleagues are not having to clean changing rooms and bathrooms as part of their duties, but they are having to clean the stands of the shows that are assigned to them. “We have to walk through them for more or less fifteen minutes, removing all the shit they have put in. Tissues, diapers, poop, underwear, condoms and even a syringe. And without gloves or anything, we put it on our arm, close to our body, and we throw it into the trash cans in the park itself.”
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