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Date Published: 28/09/2023

Alicante ITV centres push ahead with indefinite strike

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ITV workers throughout the Valencian Community will down tools from October 2

Alicante ITV centres push ahead with indefinite strike

Staff at ITV stations across the Valencian Community will push ahead with their plans to go on strike indefinitely from Monday October 2 after salary negotiations earlier this week ended in a deadlock.

As the union representatives explain, the problem arose when the public company Sitval took over all of the ITV concessionaires earlier this year, each of which determined its own pay and working conditions up until that point. A salary equalisation pact was then signed under the previous government which meant that all 1,500 workers at the different centres would be paid the same.

Now that they are under the same umbrella, the unions allege that some staff will end up earning between 30% and 40% less than their colleagues who are doing the exact same work.

The change-over was to happen progressively, beginning with the 300 or so lowest paid staff, the vast majority of whom work in the Orihuela ITV stations of Torrevieja, Pilar de la Horadada, Benidorm and Orihuela city itself.

The agreement should have been implemented in June, but the elections delayed the process.

Following the last meeting between unions and Sitval on Wednesday September 27, Pepe Cloquell from CCOO said the company asked for another month to look for a solution. This was roundly rejected by the workers, who believe there has already been plenty of time to come up with alternative pay structures.

On the other hand, the Minister of Innovation, Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Nuria Montes, who is also president of Sitval, claims to be surprised by the industrial action.

"The unions present on the board of directors voted in favour of giving us a month's time to catch up, and the next day they ratified the strike," she said.

Furthermore, there are rumblings that the salary pact isn’t actually legal at all.

"What we are asking for," Sitval added, "is responsibility, because legally they could put us all in a very complicated situation. What we want is to do things right from the beginning."

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