On Thursday, the Balearic minister for the economic model, tourism and employment, Iago Negueruela, announced that labour inspections in July and August resulted in 234 disciplinary proceedings, an increase of 45% compared with 2019.
The plan to combat labour precariousness, allied to labour reform at a national level, meant that 4,803 people saw their working conditions improved this year.
A key aspect of the reform concerned irregular temporary contracts. Xisca Garí of the UGT union said on Thursday that fraudulent temporary contracts, which were "widespread practice", have decreased. Even so, the Balearic government's sanctions point to ongoing abuse of "overtime and extensions to hours". The sanctions also included obstructing the work of inspectors and failure to register with social security.
Garí highlighted the importance of inspections "They have a deterrent effect against businesses' negligence. The Balearics need to increase the inspection body permanently."
For the two months of the high season there were thirty additional inspectors. They had been drafted in from the mainland to make a total of 93. Negueruela pointed to the difficulty of keeping this extra personnel in the Balearics beyond the stipulated months. They are inspectors from other regions that have their own needs for the rest of the year.