A campaign to prevent occupational risks has caused a schism between social agents and the Government of the Canary Islands. The Executive proposed, through the Canarian Institute of Occupational Safety (ICASEL), an announcement focused on preventing harassment and work stress at the height of mental health awareness in work environments. The majority unions, CCOO and UGT, saw it favorably. But the employers consider that the spot “offends and demonizes” the business class.
The Ministry of Tourism and Employment has guaranteed that the awareness campaign, the most important and largest of the year, “will address psychosocial risks.” However, sources familiar with the negotiation regret that the regional government has frozen momentarily the first announcement presented after the reluctance shown by the business confederations of Las Palmas and Tenerife.
The president of the CEOE-Tenerife, Pedro Alfonso, has requested a spot “pedagogical and not offensive.” He says that “no one denies that the problem [la necesidad de abordar la salud mental de los trabajadores] exists”, but considers that the proposed campaign “offends and demonizes” one of the parties, the business.
The advertisement in question, to which you have had access Canary Islands Nowshows a man at his workplace with a worried and anxious face. As the seconds pass, the protagonist begins to have thoughts about the difficulty of completing his work tasks within the deadlines, that no one values him in the company he is in and that he will have to work overtime.
Those comments begin to scar her face with words like “anxiety,” “stress,” and “bullying.” A colleague approaches to talk to him and the marks disappear. But when he is alone again, they emerge again, emphasizing that in many cases people’s suffering comes from within. The objective of the creators of the campaign is to “break the possible barrier of ignorance and indifference” in the face of psychosocial risks, since these “affect” the health of the worker who suffers from them and “are not always easy to detect or share.”
Sources consulted recall that prevention campaigns in the Archipelago are developed based on a series of indicators. This year, INCASEL had proposed for the first time a spot thought about the psychosocial risks in the face of the unstoppable increase in sick leave due to mental health in the Islands.
The data from the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, released a few weeks ago by Canary Islands 7, show that the Canary Islands is the second community with the highest ratio of sick leave due to mental health with respect to the total number of employed people. In the first six months of the year, there were 23,949 dismissals for this reason, which means a rate of 23.82 dismissals per 1,000 workers. Only in Catalonia (27 per 1,000) is the figure higher.
Earlier this week, socialist deputy Gustavo Santana accused the Minister of Tourism and Employment, Jessica de León (Popular Party), of “throwing down the drain” occupational health policies in the Autonomous Community. He also recalled that the commission of experts on the impact of job insecurity on mental health in Spain has concluded that one in four workers suffers from excessive work stress and that half of the workforce affirms that stress is common in their workplace. job.
The sources consulted also maintain that occupational risk prevention campaigns do not always obtain the approval of unions and employers, but even so, the “technical criteria” of INCASEL usually prevail. The Ministry assures that psychosocial risks will focus the announcement and that its media plan is already out for tender. The CEOE-Tenerife says it has created a working group to address this issue “seriously.”
This is the second major awareness campaign on occupational risk prevention that the Canary Islands Executive, made up of the Canarian Coalition (CC) and the Popular Party (PP), has developed. The first, made public at the end of 2023, focused on the hospitality industry and contained the following message: “By all collaborating to improve health and safety conditions at work, we will be improving jobs and tourism in our Islands.” Deputy Santana believes that the spot mixes prevention with tourism. The public company Promotur received a monetary contribution of 212,000 euros for its dissemination.