The Government begins the process to recognize the professional origin of the 'kellys' diseases

The Government announced this Monday that it has begun the process to recognize the professional origin of the most common diseases of housekeepers, a historic demand of this highly feminized group that employs around 175,000 people throughout Spain. The Minister of Social Security, Elma Saiz, explained during a sector assembly in Palma that last Tuesday the Council of Ministers approved the urgent processing of the necessary modification to incorporate into the list of occupational diseases an explicit reference to housekeepers and the most common ailments derived from their profession.

The text is published this Tuesday in a public hearing and will have to be approved by the Council of Ministers to be effective. Due to processing deadlines, for it to come to fruition before the elections it would have to be approved, at the latest, in the last ordinary meeting of the Cabinet, on November 24. Social Security does not clarify whether the change will be approved by then, so it could be dependent on the outcome of the elections. The measure does not need parliamentary support, as it does not have the status of law.

The change in the catalog contemplates the inclusion of pathologies that affect the shoulder, elbow, forearm and wrists, including carpal tunnel syndrome, and that are directly related to repetitive movements, sustained efforts and the manipulation of loads typical of the activity. “There are ailments that do not appear overnight, but come after years of effort, repetitive movements and sustained physical demands,” said the minister, who has met with union members from both CC OO and UGT in Palma.

The recognition of all these disorders as occupational diseases will allow the affected workers to have the specific protection offered by a professional contingency, better than that of common contingencies. “It will allow us to better understand the real dimension of these pathologies, have more precise information and stop treating as isolated situations what responds to a work reality shared by many workers,” said Saiz.

During her speech, the minister also referred to another of the great demands of these hotel workers, which is the advancement of the retirement age without penalty. The physical consequences of the work they do mean that many of these women are forced to retire early, with the financial loss that this entails in collecting their pension, or to apply for disability. Saiz has not committed to allowing the group to benefit from this advance in the retirement age, but he has stated that he has asked the working group that was established in September and that studies the coefficients reducing the retirement age to explore the working conditions of these workers to analyze whether they can benefit from the measure.

Last July, UGT already registered the request for coefficients for this labor group on its own, taking advantage of the mechanism launched by the Government that allows social agents to request an analysis of these variables and, depending on the result, grant or not the advance payment of retirement in that activity. CC OO criticizes that the Ugetistas took this step without the union coordination that has prevailed in many other requests, such as those for home help, construction, airport handling or road transport.

This last sector is the one that is closest to achieving this right, although the Executive accumulates a great delay in the deadlines established by the procedure. Hence, the unions have warned of mobilizations due to this non-compliance in the transport of goods.

The Balearic Islands are one of the communities that has made the most progress in improving the conditions of housekeepers in recent years, a profession that employs around 20,000 people annually, 95% women, in the archipelago. Law 3/2022 on Circularity promoted by the executive of Francina Armengol forced hotel establishments in the archipelago to change traditional beds for elevating beds to facilitate the work of these workers, implementing them progressively until completing the reconversion of the entire hotel plant in 2028.

A measure that was branded by the current president of the Government of the Balearic Islands, Marga Prohens, as “the biggest nonsense in tourism policy in recent times”, despite the fact that the initiative was supported by the hotel employers of the islands. A year later, the regional agreement for the sector introduced, with the agreement of the employers' association, the obligation for hotel companies to include an analysis of the times and work methods of these cleaners, which will allow them to establish the maximum number of rooms they can clean in a day according to the specific characteristics of their workplace. Entrepreneurs have until 2028 to complete the map with the analysis of the loads in the hotels of the archipelago.