The Girona Immigration Office has closed because the air conditioning does not work. The cause is a breakdown that, according to a complaint by the Central Sindical Independent i de Funcionaris (CSIF), has been dragging on for two months and “has not been repaired.”
The situation has caused that inside, always according to union sources, they have reached up to 38 degrees Celsius yesterday, in the middle of a heat wave. A fact that causes “thermal stress” among workers.
The union ensures that the exterior façade of the office is made of glass and without any type of ventilation, which multiplies the heat exponentially and “puts the health of the staff at risk.”
CSIF sent a letter to the Government sub-delegate in Girona, Albert Bramon, on Tuesday to solve the problem “immediately”. In the document, signed by the union’s provincial president, Rafael Sánchez, it was warned that they were willing to use “all legal means to defend the health of workers.”
Employee representatives consider the delay in repairing the air conditioning “incomprehensible” and consider it a “lack of respect for workers’ rights.” Sánchez regrets the “excessive bureaucracy” and “slowness” of the public administration to solve this type of problem.
Finally, the government sub-delegate would have given the order to proceed with the closure of the office, which would have been closed today according to Sánchez, until the fault is solved. Union sources point out that repairs are scheduled to begin on July 26 and the forecast is that it can reopen its doors on August 1.
Headquarters 2 of the Immigration Office occupies the space of the old Library of the Generalitat, and there work between seven and eight officials. Every day it serves dozens of people, who from now on will have to relocate their appointments.
