UGT has warned that 77.1% of workers in Camp de Tarragona extend their working day, a figure that the union links to the increase in overtime and unrecognized working time. The organization also places at 55.7% the percentage of employees who continue working outside working hours in their free time, according to the 2024 Quality in Work Survey prepared by the Generalitat.
The complaint was made public this Friday morning in Tarragona, where the union has estimated at 22.7 million the hours given away to companies by workers from Camp de Tarragona. The organization maintains that this time is not paid and that it ends up resulting in greater business profit.
Impact on occupational health
The secretary of trade union policy of UGT of Catalonia, Óscar Riu, has warned of the consequences that this situation has on the mental health of workers. He has pointed out that it translates into stress, fatigue and work accidents, in a context that, in his opinion, worsens due to the weight of sectors with worse conditions.
"We are growing in the most precarious sectors" - Óscar Riu, secretary of trade union policy of UGT de Catalunya
The union has also focused on the mental load that work problems generate outside the workplace. In Tarragona, 72% of people go home worried about issues related to their employment.
"They take the work, but they also remain worried" - Óscar Riu, secretary of trade union policy of the UGT of Catalonia
Working sick and criticism of the employers
Another of the data that UGT considers most worrying is that 43.9% of the workers in the Tarragona regions have gone to their job while being sick. Riu has argued that, in those cases, employees should have been on sick leave.
"It is very worrying, they should have been on sick leave" - Óscar Riu, secretary of trade union policy of the UGT of Catalonia
The union representative has also lashed out against companies for their discourse on absenteeism and sick leave. UGT denounces a campaign by the employers' association against sick leave and considers that part of the problem arises from the working conditions themselves.
"The same ones who cause absenteeism, sick leaves, later complain that here people take many sick leaves" - Óscar Riu, secretary of trade union policy of UGT of Catalonia
The most affected sectors in the Camp de Tarragona
In Camp de Tarragona, the extension of the working day affects several areas of activity more intensely. The union places among the most exposed workers those in transport and storage, hospitality, commerce, the primary sector, and scientific activities.
At the gates of the start of the summer season, the organization has demanded a reinforcement of the Labor Inspectorate in the services sector of Tarragona and has insisted on the need to implement the new time registration to control the hours effectively worked.
The situation in the Terres de l'Ebre
The X-ray of the Terres de l"Ebre moves in similar parameters. There, 74.45% of workers extend the workday and 45.9% work outside of work in their free time. Another piece of data from the survey raises that phenomenon to 45.89% among those surveyed in that territory.
UGT estimates 5.2 million hours given to companies in Terres de l"Ebre. In that area, the sectors most affected by the extension of the working day are hospitality, public administration and construction, while the areas where most work is done during free time are information and finance, scientific and technical activities, and education.
With these data on the table, the union insists that the problem is not limited to a salary issue, but fully affects the health, rest, and organization of the daily lives of thousands of workers in southern Catalonia.