A dozen and a half workers from 061 Salut Respon demonstrated on Wednesday in front of the 112 building in Reus to demand that the service stop being outsourced and be integrated into the SEM. The protest is part of the indefinite strike called by the 061 emergency managers in various parts of Catalonia.
The conflict revolves around a paradox that the staff has been denouncing for years. The workers claim that they handle all the operations of telephone health care, but they remain subcontracted by Serveo and under the contact center agreement, with worse conditions than SEM personnel despite a 2021 agreement that was supposed to open the door to internalization.
The staff complains that they do all the operations with 1,764 hours per year
Sergi Arbonès García, president of the 061 works council in Barcelona, maintained that the emergency managers do not perform an auxiliary task, but rather the complete circuit of the service. In his description, they receive the call, manage it, activate the resource when necessary, and follow up until the incident is closed.
"We do all the operations of the service, from receiving the call, managing that call, activating the resource if necessary, and following up on that resource until it finishes" - Sergi Arbonès García, president of the 061 works council in Barcelona
Nevertheless, the staff continues to be regulated by the contact center agreement. This difference implies an annual workday of 1,764 hours compared to the 1,500 of the SEM, in addition to changes in salary, vacations, personal days, and training.
Arbonès recalled that in 2021 the workers' representation reached an agreement with the Generalitat de Catalunya to begin internalization. Three years later, he stated, the staff still has no news about that process.
The contract ends in January 2027 and the previous step remains blocked
The demonstration in Reus also occurs as a new tender for the service approaches. The current contract ends in January 2027 and, according to union representation, was supposed to function as a bridge contract to organize the transition to the internal model.
Anna Jordà, president of the 061 works council in Reus, assured that this transition has not progressed. She explained that the project has been put aside and that the reactivation of the strike has now forced the resumption of a debate that, in her opinion, had been frozen for three years.
In the last mediation meeting with the Departament de Treball, Arbonès criticized that the worker side only received a proposal that he considered insufficient and that included setting aside internalization. He also recalled that the original agreement was signed when Esquerra Republicana was in government and demanded that the current Government fulfill it.
The mobilizations will continue in different parts of Catalonia until a political response arrives regarding the integration of 061 Salut Respon into the SEM. Jordà summarized the point of blockage with a specific phrase: "we are exactly the same as three years ago".