The future of more than 100 staff that manage the Orihuela sports centres hangs in the balance as the management company, Clequali, according to the workers, is experiencing serious financial difficulties.
Some contracts have already been ended with employees stating that it was last week when they were told of the critical situation of their company, and they demand that the Orihuela Council steps in to save their jobs.
The situation could not have arrived at a worse time, just at the start of the summer when the municipal facilities, especially public pools, are filled with bathers both in town and in the districts.
The added problem for Clequali is that the company is providing the service despite being without a contract since March of last year during the days of the previous PSOE-Cs municipal government team. At that time, the PP, who were in opposition, warned of the danger that the nearly 150 workers could be dismissed and the municipal sports facilities closed.
However the then councillor of Sports, Luis Quesada (now a member of the opposition) reached an agreement with the company for it to continue providing the service as long as the contract did not go out to tender again. This initially saw a rise in personnel costs of nearly 20% more.
On assuming leadership of the council by the current PP-Vox executive, Clequali has continued to issue its invoices monthly with the payments approved by the Governing Board.
However, in February, the PSOE revealed that Clequali was asking for an upward review of the price for its services. Until last year, the payment amounted to 264,905.29 euros per month, but the latest updates of the minimum wage and the review of the sports agreement raised the figure to 267,912.18 euros per month, a figure that, they warned even then, could increase further if the agreement with the unions was reviewed.
Orihuela has a number of sports facilities spread throughout the municipality. Aside from the districts, in the town centre, the main ones are housed in the Palmeral and Las Espeñetas sports centers, as well as around the Palacio del Agua, next to the Ociopía shopping centre. On the coast they have the Playa Flamenca Municipal Sports Centre, as well as some sports courts spread throughout urbanisations.
With the sports centre on the coast, the government of Emilio Bascuñana, prior to the motion of censure by PSOE and Cs, had problems with its management. In 2019, the UTE that managed the facility closed the doors and presented an ERE on its workers. The City Council then decided to terminate the contract due to non-compliance with it, and later awarded it to Vectoris.
Given the commotion generated by the workers’ cry for help, the Council says that it is holding many meetings with the company to try to find a solution. They are studying possible solutions so that workers’ salaries can be maintained and the service do not have to stop.
They added that the contract for service and maintenance of sports facilities is already in Contract and that it will go out to tender “in the coming weeks, as there is sufficient credit once the budgets have been approved.”
