UTTU leader received by the minister, look forward, beyond the serious episode
An unwanted situation that occurred at the beginning of February caused the Uruguayan Tourist Transport Union (UTTU) to publicly demonstrate through various media.
Workers in this sector did not have the possibility of access to hygienic cabinets at the headquarters of the Ministry of Tourism with the inconveniences that this entails.
“In the last Administration we had chemical toilets out here, in the Ministry of Tourism, but when the current Administration took office that was ineffective” counted Alvaro Gugliotta to THE DIARY PROFESSIONAL.
“From there, we asked the Ministry that we needed to have a bathroom outside because the operation was long. It is something that is very necessary” said.
This issue was raised with the Director General of the Ministry of Tourism who at the time responded that workers in the sector did not have access to bathrooms, also suggesting a meeting with the Minister himself. “That was the Thursday before carnival. The next day, I don’t know if it was fate or things in life, a colleague who is going through a post-operative period after a week of having undergone prostate surgery, went on a City Tour, he was going home when the Ministry called him to inform him that the tourists had forgotten a backpack in the back of the van. The colleague confirmed that the backpack was there and returned quickly because the boat was leaving. He arrived at the Ministry where these tourists were who thanked him for the gesture. At that, “He asks to enter the Ministry of Tourism to request permission to go to the bathroom, to which the doorman tells him that by order of the Minister he could not enter the bathroom.” said the President of the Tourist Transport Union of Uruguay.
“The colleague leaves and when he is getting into his unit he urinates on himself. It was something incredible and inhumane. Later he called me, very distressed, crying. From there we took action because we felt that the worker’s rights were violated.” he stated.
“We sent a note to the Minister asking for a meeting and explanation on the issue, and in turn, we sent other notes to the Human Resources Directorate and the Ombudsman’s Office because we consider that it was something very serious, without a doubt the rights of the colleague who is in a complicated health situation were violated because apart from the surgical intervention he is suffering from another illness that required treatment based on chemotherapy.” Gugliotta commented.
“A big person having to go through this, it seems to us that none of us would like it” he stressed.
MEETING WITH THE MINISTER
The issue became public and the members of the UTTU Board were summoned to a meeting with the Minister, a meeting that finally took place on Monday of this week.
“Nobility obliges, the Minister apologized, that what happened should not have happened, that in some cases you have to have a bit of waist. He asked to see if our colleague could come to the Ministry to personally apologize to him” express.
“With all this event, ANP placed two exclusive bathrooms for us outside the Ministry. The Ministry will be in charge of cleaning them” he explained.
“The Minister said that he wants to look forward, beyond admitting that this episode was serious. He wants to start a dialogue table. We want to work in peace and have a good dialogue with the authorities because we did not encourage or want this situation, it was something that happened. We believe that in some things you have to have a certain waist” Álvaro Gugliotta, President of the Tourist Transport Union of Uruguay (UTTU), closed.
