The Social Court No. 14 of Barcelona has ruled in favor of the CGT union in a lawsuit concerning the rest periods of TMB (Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona) workers. The union filed a complaint almost two years ago challenging the shift system of the Catalan capital's public transport company, deeming it "illegal, inhumane, and dangerous for occupational health." The court has now ruled that all workers in the seven groups affected by the case (drivers, information agents, workshop and warehouse staff, among others) are entitled to a minimum weekly rest period of 48 uninterrupted hours. According to the ruling, which ARA has obtained, this amount is calculated as either 36 hours of weekly rest and 12 hours of non-overlapping daily rest; or 84 hours of rest over 14 days. The ruling—dated June 2024 but only recently made public—also emphasizes the requirement of a 12-hour daily rest period between work shifts.

On Friday, April 30, 2021, Chiqui had prepared a ColaCao and a cortado for her nephew Xavi and her son Carlos. At six in the morning, they were already leaving home for the factory, and, as always, she said goodbye to them from the doorway. A little later, she also headed to work. Around ten thirty, she received an unexpected visitor: it was Carlos, his face pale and sunken. "I stared at him and thought something had happened," Chiqui remembers. He took her hands and said, "Mom, Xavi had an accident at work and died."

Inflation in recent years has acted as an indirect wage adjustment: while companies have increased profit margins, staff salaries have not grown nearly as fast as prices. This is the CGT of Catalonia's diagnosis of the macroeconomic context that has led to a loss of purchasing power for Catalan workers, which the union estimates at 4.1% between 2021 and 2024.

After ten years of using false self-employment, this is the first summer in which Glovo's delivery drivers are already hired as employees, a decisive transformation of the model that is taking time to implement. The new operation, which came into effect at the beginning of July, has started at forced marches and several sources from the workers explain to ARA that, so far, this first month has been marked by uncertainty and internal chaos, which have ignited discontent among the workers. riders"There's disorganization, but above all there's uncertainty. The migration from the self-employed to the salaried model has brought many technical problems," notes Franz Morales, a former delivery driver and head of the new work realities team at CCOO Catalunya. The company, for its part, notes that the change has been very rapid and has been implemented in more than 900 cities.

The CGT union has filed three lawsuits against the Cartographic and Geological Institute of Catalonia for alleged salary increases—in the form of professional category changes—made by hand and without following an internal promotion system agreed upon with the works council. According to ARA, two of these complaints have already been admitted for processing and are pending resolution by the contentious-administrative division of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC). "Salary categories are recognized by hand without following public criteria. Management decides this for whatever reasons, and we understand that this often corresponds to favoritism within the company," the CGT alleges.