Employment lawyer blasts precarious situation of hospitality workers in Spain as 'a disgrace'

Various tricky situations can arise at work, some of which can end up in court. Reasons can range from breaches of, or non-compliance with agreements, dismissals or errors in the different procedures to be followed or in the contracts themselves.

In this regard, Víctor Arpa, a lawyer specialising in employment matters, denounced last month on social media a case he was tasked with defending. In the online rant he argued that such a situation is quite common in the hospitality sector in Spain.

"The situation in the hospitality sector is a real disgrace," he declared. He explained that one of his most recent cases involved defending a female employee who worked as a cook, but whose contract stated that she was a kitchen assistant, a much lower-ranked position, one to which she did not actually belong "in order to save money."

"Enough is enough. It's always the same in this sector. Waiters as bussers (table clearers), cooks as kitchen assistants," he exclaimed in the video. Indeed, he mentions the case of a restaurant with nine employees where all of them had contracts as 'assistants' of some category or other.

"My client is owed 4,200 euros for the difference in salary because she wasn't a kitchen assistant, she was a cook", he said. He also said that, in setting out his case to support his client, he asked who the employee was really 'helping' if all the staff were classified as kitchen assistants.

He also had a waiter testify: "He had been working in the hospitality industry for 15 years. And do you know what category they gave him? Waiter's assistant. Who is this man with 15 years of experience in the sector meant to be helping?"

After witnessing first-hand these types of situations in court, this employment lawyer was ready to explode: "Enough is enough. Hospitality workers deserve their due salaries and, if an employee is a waiter, their wage is that of a waiter and, if a cook, it's a cook's wage." He also denounced that "enough is enough regarding overtime and marathon shifts with no breaks and a lack of respect for job categories."

In the comments section to his video, many condemned that this is a common situation in the hospitality industry. Others insisted that low wages are also related to rising product prices, while another group is concerned that the entire sector is being blamed for these frequently exposed practices.