Earlier in the month the publicly owned, cleaning company in Motril, Limdeco, announced that it would go on indefinite strike from the 20th.
The reason for the strike, they say, is that there is an unacceptable delay in absorbing the 140 workers into the municipal work force.
Motril has an ongoing problem with keeping its streets clean, be it on the trading estates, or be it on the tourism-sensitive Playa Granada, and it is something that everybody recognises.
Limdeco has seen its workforce reduced by 50 employees since 2010 and not enough is being spent on maintaining or replacing equipment. It is also dragging a deficit in the 7-figure bracket.
It can’t go on, which is why it is in the process of being closed down; hence ex-workers being moved directly from the publicly owned company to the municipal workforce.
The Vice Mayor, Francisco Sánchez Cantalejo (PSOE), picked up this hot potato when the PSOE took over the Town Hall. He would be the first to admit that it is much easier to demand, from the opposition lines, a solution, than it is to provide it when you’re in the driving seat.
The solution so far? Outsource services covered by Limdeco up till now, such as the municipal tow-truck and the running of the publicly run, parking facility in the town centre.
The second part of the solution is to hire private cleaning companies to look after the areas of the town that have deficiency problems: the beach areas, for example.
As for the trading estates, although the rubbish is collected daily, the cleaning of street surfaces is intermittent, not to mention that the clearing of empty, building plots and wasteland of rubbish and vegetation only happens on alternative months.
The contract is being drawn up so that it can be put up for bidding with a budget of 400,000 euros per annum.
With private companies covering the beach areas, the port and trading estates, Limdeco can concentrate on the town centre.
The Vice Mayor insists that using private companies to cover the before-mentioned locations will not increase municipal taxes, which is what most readers have probably been asking themselves.
Finally, the Town Hall considers that the announced strike action by Limdeco for the 20th is “disproportionate” and it guarantees that all the Limdeco works will be transferred to the Town Hall work force.
(News: Motril, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)