Labour Inspection finds serious breaches at Helados Casty in Talavera
CCOO reports failures in workplace safety, illegal contracts and an ammonia leak that left one worker hospitalised at the ice cream factory in Talavera de la Reina.
CCOO denounces a "battery of fraud" at Helados Casty following labour inspection
The Labour and Social Security Inspection has found "serious breaches" in workplace health and safety matters at Helados Casty, a company in Talavera de la Reina managed by the Fernández Castillejo family, according to information provided by the union Comisiones Obreras on Thursday at a press conference. ABC reports that the inspection has also required the company to recognise the length of service of over thirty workers who were hired irregularly.
Javier García, secretary for Union Action and Collective Bargaining at CCOO Toledo, and Alejandra Rodríguez, CCOO delegate at Casty-Talavera, presented the results in Talavera de la Reina. García described the situation as a "battery of breaches and frauds in labour matters" accumulated over decades.
Rest periods in cold chambers not complied with
One of the main focuses of the complaint is non-compliance with mandatory rest periods for work in cold chambers at temperatures below -18 degrees. Current regulations establish 15-minute breaks—non-recoverable—for every 45 minutes of work, with a maximum of six hours' exposure.
According to CCOO, the company instead allows 40 minutes of rest for every eight hours, in two 20-minute breaks, and forces workers to make up that time at weekends. "This is despicable and heartless; it is an outrage that workers have been suffering for decades, whom the Fernández Castillejo family humiliates," García said.
The Inspection also detected the absence of an adequate system for recording actual working time and time spent in the cold zones, and has therefore required Helados Casty to implement such a system and to comply with the rest periods established by regulations.
Illegal contracts and debts to Social Security
With regard to length of service, the Inspection found that over thirty workers were linked to the company through temporary contracts, via temporary work agencies or in fraudulent contracting arrangements distributed between different group companies, without their accumulated length of service being recognised.
As a result, the company must pay these individuals 10,519 euros in back pay and a further 9,964 euros for under-reporting to Social Security. "It is inadmissible that a company like Helados Casty, with profits of over 30 million a year, pays its workers less and breaches labour regulations," García said, adding that he had not found "companies like this" elsewhere in the country.
García also denounced that the Fernández Castillejo family "does not want to fix absolutely anything" and criticised the fact that both the municipal council and the regional government know about the situation and "instead of putting a stop to it, they are giving them awards and subsidies".
Ammonia leak leaves worker hospitalised
Rodríguez raised at the press conference "the workforce's concern for their safety and physical integrity". Last Friday there was an ammonia leak at the factory that left one worker unconscious, who was taken to hospital in a mobile intensive care unit and was still on sick leave at the time of the press conference. According to Rodríguez, medical staff warned the affected worker that "she could have died if she had ingested water, suffering burns to her stomach and dying from vomiting". The worker suffered severe burns to her trachea.
CCOO pointed out that this is not the first time an employee has lost consciousness from an ammonia leak and required hospitalisation. Despite this, the company lacks an action protocol for this type of emergency and adequate personal protective equipment. According to the union, following the leak the entire workforce was not evacuated: "They were forced to remain locked in the warehouse exposed to toxic gas and only workers strictly positioned above the leak were allowed to evacuate". "The premise was to continue producing more and more without care for putting the workforce's health at serious risk," they criticised.
This same week a complaint has been filed for serious and imminent risk related to the use of caustic soda in cleaning tasks. The workers who handle this chemical agent do so, according to Rodríguez, "without specific training, thanks to veteran colleagues who tell us to exercise extreme caution".
Union repression
Rodríguez also denounced what she described as "serious union repression", attributed mainly to Pablo Fernández Castillejo. According to her account, he has cut the power to the union office—located in an area where fats and chemical products are disposed of—and prevents her from staying more than five minutes in the area where the workforce gathers during breaks, thus hindering her information and representation work.
Helados Casty employs over 500 workers in Talavera de la Reina. The union has not reported any response from the company to the complaints made.
Source: ABC