The Puy du Fou theme park has reached an agreement with the unions UGT-Castilla La Mancha and Comisiones Obreras, after the complaints they filed due to the lack of cleaning in bathrooms and changing rooms; and for failure to comply with time control. The Labor Inspection decided to open an investigation last November, and in both cases they have reached an agreement. All of this before the Toledo City Council presents the City Medal to the venue this Thursday, in an institutional act from which IU had distanced itself by considering, as explained his councilor Txema Fernández, that “they are treating the park workers badly.”
“They have solved it because they have no choice,” Carmen Trujillo tells this newspaper from Comisiones Obreras. In its complaint regarding hygiene, the union alleged that, although the company forced the actors to be the ones in charge of cleaning their toilets, the artists’ responsibilities “do not include having to clean common areas.” “They are full of shit. There are cobwebs in the corners,” one of the interpreters described to elDiario.es about the conditions in which they found themselves. This non-compliance affected “about 600 people,” who found out that cleaning was a “job” once inside the park, because “suddenly” it was added as part of their shifts.
CCOO indicates that the agreement reached is that “there will be external personnel who will be in charge of cleaning three times a week.” Some conditions established “for now”, and that “will be reviewed” once activity is restarted in this theme park dedicated to the history of Spain, located in Toledo. Workers will return to begin rehearsals starting next February 3, before the park reopens scheduled for March.
In the statement with which the interpreters were informed about this – to which this media has had access – they indicated: “We have decided to respond positively to the committee’s proposal in relation to the issue of cleaning the bathrooms: from February”. “Let’s see if they comply. I have a theory that we are going to have to end up at the Labor Inspection again,” Ana González, from UGT, told elDiario.es.
Regarding the schedules, UGT denounced Puy du Fou for “not having a record” and “breaching the Workers’ Statute.” The union alleged that the company “does not guarantee” daily control of the working day, since the “document where the people worked are told to write down the hours is a sheet of paper that does not guarantee the reliability and invariability of the data.” . Carmen Trujillo confirms that they also reached an agreement on this point, “on how it is going to be done, but the system that is going to be used for it is pending”: “The fringes remain.”
Ana González explains that what they have agreed is that the record “is real, cannot be touched in the workplace and is not a written sheet, that all the hours they are working are recorded and not what they company wants.” As indicated, the company announced that it would take “a while” because they will have to install the mechanism that they finally adopt “throughout the report.” Within this negotiation, he expresses that it remains to agree on “the payment and the quote for the hours they did extra.”
The “pending issues”
The CCOO spokesperson indicates that, beyond these two issues, there are “many pending issues” to negotiate with the company regarding the working conditions of its workers. “I don’t know if they are going to end in a complaint, we are trying to negotiate,” he comments. Since the park is still closed, which stopped its activity after the Christmas season, “there is no one working and you cannot see what problems could be generated.” “Every year things come up, the issues we had are resolved little by little,” he comments.
Among the complaints from the park workers that elDiario.es has contacted, which are still pending improvement, include the irregularities of the terrain, the darkness at the shows, the lack of security and the absence of a doctor and ambulance.
“We are improving year by year”
This newspaper has contacted Puy du Fou, from where they wanted to “highlight the work of the committee members, with their constructive proposals.” According to them, “the good” of their “talents” is a “priority.” “We are going to continue improving year after year the conditions of the 1,100 people who work here,” they conclude without specifying in which aspects they plan to make new changes. When asked which ones, they simply respond that “right now” they cannot give “advances” about them.
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