The sweepers will not work this afternoon in Madrid before the arrival of the
third heat wave of this summer
, which will last until Wednesday or Thursday.
After
the death of an employee
on July 16, who suffered heat stroke while cleaning in Puente de Vallecas, the unions and companies in the sector signed a protocol of action.
The agreement includes eliminating the afternoon shift in manual sweeping services when high temperatures occur.
In this way, the evening workers go to the morning shift every time
the Spanish Meteorology Agency (Aemet) activates the orange alert
, as is the case today in the Community of Madrid, where temperatures of between 38 and 40 degrees are expected in the center and south of the region.
Since the protocol began on July 19, four orange alerts have already been activated in the region, which also means that they do not go out to clean vehicles without air conditioning and that
clearing work is suppressed
.
The unions are satisfied with the functioning of the agreement, which is being fulfilled to the letter, although the shift changes are causing
some inconvenience to the employees
.
The protocol establishes three scenarios -green, yellow and orange- based on the warnings sent by Aemet.
The yellow alert means that the afternoon shift does work, but it moves from 2:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
to 5:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m.
“People have their routine.
Employees have their life organized to work in the afternoon and now they must go in the morning.
Some workers who leave at 12:00 a.m. also
encounter problems with transportation
to return home.
We are making adjustments, but the initiative is positive”, values Sherezade Talavera, head of street cleaning at UGT Madrid.
Talavera believes that starting work at 2:00 p.m. is not the same as starting work at 5:00 p.m., since “there
are three hours less heat
and less time in the sun.”
“Of course, we are all pending the application of the Aemet and
the more than 6,000 street sweepers
have already downloaded it to know the alerts of each day,” adds the UGT leader.
From the Environment and Mobility Area of Borja Carabante they maintain that it is a necessary and appropriate measure for the circumstances, although it
makes the management of the service difficult
.
They also argue that an attempt is made to maintain a balance between the health of workers and the quality of work.
The protocol, signed by the Aselip business association and the UGT, CCOO and CGT unions,
will apply until September 15
to mitigate the effects of heat on cleaning employees.
The high temperatures continue to claim fatalities, which the Carlos III Health Institute, dependent on the Ministry of Health,
has estimated at 155 deaths during the last week
, between July 23 and 30.
However, the number of deaths in Madrid has been declining from
the 23 deaths recorded on Saturday
, July 23, to the 17 recorded last Sunday.
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