Lorena Luque is the only woman who works in frontline services for the Emser municipal agency in Pollensa. She is a truck driver. Last December, she was dismissed. A case for sex discrimination was brought. She has been reinstated.
According to the mayor, Tomeu Cifre, Lorena’s contract was terminated because of unfavourable reports from superiors and complaints from colleagues. It had nothing to do with the fact that she was a woman. She filed the case and “we decided to give her a chance and reinstated her”. “We would have acted the same with a man.”
The CCOO union has pointed out that Lorena suffered “discriminatory and humiliating” conditions because a shower for her was inside the men’s changing room. The union claims that the stress caused by this led it to refer the matter to the agency’s management.
It alleges that the response was to terminate the contract “in an improper manner”.
The mayor wasn’t the only party to the decision to terminate the contract.
So was the councillor with responsibility for Emser. And this councillor is? The very same councillor who on Monday survived an opposition motion of “reprobation” because of the vaccination affair - Francisca Cerdà.
It hasn’t gone unnoticed that a couple of days after the mayor had explained the circumstances of the dismissal, he then said that he didn’t know about “the details” of the case and learned of them once the case for wrongful dismissal was brought.
He had previously said: “Councillor Francisca Cerdà and I decided to terminate the contract.”
Meanwhile, the union notes that Emser facilities have yet to be adapted for female employees.