Malaga's emergency operators strike against poor wages: 'We save lives every day'

The strike of the 080 (fire department) and 092 (Local Police) emergency phone operators continues in Malaga.

On Monday, emergency manager Silvia Navarro, who has "worked for over 24 years without asking for any improvements", addressed the media in front of the city hall.

Navarro and her colleagues have been on indefinite strike since last Wednesday. "We have a precarious salary, which doesn't match the work we do. Some colleagues earn 1,000 euros and our work should earn us more than the minimum wage," she said.

"Emergency services are overwhelmed 24 hours a day and, unfortunately, many calls from this weekend have gone unanswered," Navarro said.

"We won't end the strike until we get a reclassification," she stated, highlighting one of their main demands.

Currently, minimum services are at 50 per cent, meaning that, instead of six call centre operators, three handle the calls during the first two shifts of the day. Only two work at night, although the coordinator remains on duty throughout the day.

Even so, the protesters said that they don't have enough time to answer all the calls from a city as large as Malaga. "They haven't told us how many calls have been missed, but we know it's a lot, too many."

Navarro stated that they all have emergency services accreditation, yet they are covered by the telemarketing collective agreement, even though they do not sell phone lines or other products. "We answer emergency calls, we save lives every day," she said.

The emergency operators said that if their employment agreement cannot be changed, they should be given a bonus that acknowledges their work in emergencies so that they can move from the current salary level 9 to level 5. This would mean going from 1,210 euros gross per month to about 1,700 euros gross per month.

For them, this salary level truly takes into account the essential functions they perform.