Six complaints for the lack of protection of Barcelona's cleaning workers against the heat

BarcelonaThe CGT has reported this Thursday that the Barcelona City Council continues to fail to adequately protect municipal workers and concessionary company employees from extreme heat episodes, more than a year after the death of the cleaning worker Montse Aguilar. The union has announced that it has filed six complaints this year with the Labor Inspectorate linked to the Joan Miró Cleaning Center, near Plaça Espanya, for what it considers deficient management of anti-heatstroke wristbands, lack of air conditioning in vehicles, occupational risk training and worker information, as well as for the management of some superiors. The CGT maintains that the protocols approved by the council are insufficient or are being applied "late and halfway," in a summer marked by three heatwaves.

"We are late in managing workers' heat exposure," denounced the CGT's occupational risk prevention delegate at the City Council, Ramon San Blas. After Montse Aguilar's death, the municipal government announced a specific instruction and a registry of workers particularly sensitive to heat, but San Blas believes the measures continue to be insufficient.

According to him, a Labor inspector already warned that the thermal risk assessments were deficient and has criticized that the current model, based on risk levels by colors, "does not have a solid scientific basis". In this regard, he has defended an assessment of thermal stress that takes into account the temperature, the worker's characteristics and the conditions of the workplace. "Without a thermal stress assessment, we will hardly be able to do anything. We are in the third heatwave and we are late", he stated.

Without records of heatstrokes

One of the union's main criticisms is the lack of an official record of health problems caused by heat. Pau Garcia, union delegate for the CGT at FCC's public cleaning service, a company subcontracted by the council, has stated that, despite protocols having "improved some things", heatstrokes are not documented. "When a worker has a heatstroke, they are taken to a car with air conditioning, but there is no official record," he denounced.

The situation, according to the union, is also worrying in Parks and Gardens. Union delegate Aleix Lacruz explained that this summer they became aware of two heatstrokes in Ciutadella Park, one of which required an ambulance. He also denounced that one of those affected was a trainee worker who did not have a heatstroke prevention bracelet. While considering them "a good tool," he warned that "they do not replace a good protocol." Furthermore, he alerted that vehicles can reach 40 degrees internally and that technical t-shirts "do not breathe enough."

For his part, union delegate Iván Prieto has denounced that 127 out of 199 vehicles in Parks and Gardens still do not have air conditioning. 37 are currently being fitted, but will not be ready until autumn, while about ninety will not have any. According to him, they have registered "up to 42 degrees" inside some vehicles, a situation he considers "very high risk." He also denounced that the Joan Miró and Casanovas centers continue to be without air conditioning, that there are workers without specific training or information on climate shelters, and that the bracelets are being distributed by age or even shared among workers. Prieto also reproached the council for having allocated "300,000 euros to geolocate vehicles before improving workers' conditions."

"I want to know what my sister died of"

The hearing concluded with the intervention of Clara Aguilar, sister of the cleaning worker who died last summer. She reported that, thirteen months later, the family still does not have the autopsy results. "I just want to know what my sister died of," she lamented. Aguilar explained that the conciliation meeting with FCC ended without an agreement because the company "did not want to negotiate" and that the investigation is "half-archived." She also assured that her sister had suffered several episodes compatible with heatstroke before dying and that "no protocol was applied." "For thirteen months we have been fighting for something they do not want to give us," she concluded.