Primark employees at C.C. Meridiano in Santa Cruz are opposed to the expansion of the High Tourist Influx Zone (ZGAT), which would allow shops to open freely on Sundays and public holidays, as is already the case in the centre of the city.
"Primark's position is very clear: no to the expansion of the zone," says María Elena Soria Pedrós, head of the Commerce sector of CCOO union in Tenerife, and an employee at Primark.
The shopping centre is located in the area of Cabo Llanos, which could be part of the new ZGAT layout, something opposed by small businesses in the city centre, as well as some small business owners and workers at businesses located within the Meridiano centre itself. Primark workers, she asserts, are opposed by the majority: "They don't want to work on Sundays or Bank Holidays because it's not worth it."
Soria warns that the expansion would only worsen working conditions: "The only thing they're going to do by expanding the ZGAT is harm workers, because obviously conditions and salaries won't improve, but instead it totally makes people's jobs and lives more precarious."
She says that having Sundays off is the way they balance work and family life, "because Saturdays are the busiest day of the week."
No real benefits for staff
The staff criticizes the fact that the expansion of the ZGAT is not based on the real profitability of these hours. "Sunday sales aren't going to be as profitable, and in the long run, there might not even be any profit due to the extra costs."
In their opinion, experience in areas already classified as tourist attractions demonstrates this: "In the Calle Castillo, which is already a high-tourism area, many shops and commercial centres aren't opening because there are no sales, as there are no people there. The High Tourist Zone isn't working."
Faced with this possible extension of hours, the employees' proposal is clear, to put efforts into "revitalising" the downtown area. "I think it would be better if the City Council, instead of focusing on continuing to expand the area, focused on making the existing one work. If it doesn't work there, what we can't understand is why they want to extend it here, when this isn't a passing trade of tourists.”
