The conditions in which the waiters work has been another year of the most talked about aspects of the April Fair in Seville. One of the most crowded events in the Andalusian capital has a hidden side behind the fun and the Sevillanas: seven days of intense work in the booths serving manzanilla and fried fish in the Real booths, not always well paid. This is reported by a worker through the ‘Soy Camarero’ account on
Beyond the remuneration, this young woman qualifies the conditions in which she has worked during the last week at the Fair. “The stall had two square meters that she shared with another colleague,” she explains in an email and adds, “They didn’t let us get water because the bottle was sold for 2 euros.” The worker also adds that the break time for “lunch” was once she had worked nine hours in a row, that is, at 10:00 p.m.
This testimony has not taken long to ignite criticism from social media users. One of them, José Ignacio (@Alan_D_Gray) laments that “The April Fair has been like this all its life, but for some reason no one is interested in getting involved. And that is if they have a contract, which most of the time there is neither nor is it expected.” Meanwhile, another user ironically says that it is “the half-day of lifelong hoteliers.”
Regarding the dubious legality of this type of contracts, there are those who protest: “I don’t understand how they allow this and how it is standardized and that in few places they allow paying by card. Thus they declare a pittance of billing and take it away warmly”, in relation to the black money that moves in the Fair. Others criticize the fact that it is the waiters themselves who choose to work under these conditions: “7 days for 13 hours at 90 euros per day, it gives the extraordinary amount of 6.91 euros per hour worked… If the problem is not that there are people who offer it , but there are people who accept it.”
Within this debate, there are some users who conclude that employers take advantage of people in need to impose these working conditions. “They accept because it’s only a week” or “If you want it well, and if not, there will be hundreds to choose from… That’s where the labor inspections should be” are some of the comments that this waitress’ story has sparked.
