The absorption of La Rioja Film Commission by La Rioja 360 announced a month ago by Diario LA RIOJA was only the tip of the iceberg of a larger problem. As this newspaper has been able to confirm, up to five workers on the staff … They have taken sick leave in the last seven months “due to anxiety and depression” caused by a work environment that they define as “horrible.”
Months ago, the regional government itself announced that La Rioja 360 Degrees Avanza, a public company dependent on the Ministry of Culture, Tourism, Sports and Youth, was being restructured “to promote the tourism strategy” but not only has this not resolved an existing problem with the personal but seems to have aggravated it. Since November 2023, there have been casualties that are not covered, one of them leading to the voluntary departure of the person who was coordinator of the La Rioja Film Commission, who was offered a new position that she refused to occupy. Therefore, out of fifteen workers on the staff there are now only ten active, leaving the Promotion department with no one. This has caused the inaction of the General Directorate of Tourism headed by Virginia Borges and there have already been protests by tourism professionals in La Rioja.
“We receive complaints from the sector”
“We receive complaints from the sector because the work is not being organized, but how are we going to function if we lack people,” explains a person from the La Rioja 360 staff who wishes to remain anonymous. From one part of the tourism sector it is reported that in one year they have held more meetings than in the entire previous legislature and that they have collaborated in everything that has been asked of them, providing information for an analysis that Tourism wants to do, but the result is ” paralysis”. From the sports and adventure tourism sector they feel “abandoned.” «This is not new, but now it has increased. They do not take into account the great value that both nature and sport have today in attracting tourism,” declares a professional.
The general director of Tourism, Virginia Borges.
SONIA THIRD
However, the vision is different for Demetrio Domínguez, president of the Tourism Council of the FER and the La Rioja Hotel Association, who maintains his confidence in the General Directorate of Tourism and “the management of human and economic resources.” to achieve “the economic and social profitability that tourism and Riojan society need.”
Virginia Borges has promoted a substantial modification of contracts, extinguishing some positions and granting new functions to employees in such a way that whoever held a management position and served as area head “has been relegated to the work of documentary filmmaker,” La Rioja 360 indicates. «We are having a very bad time and the unions have not helped much. They are taking us to the limit due to disorganization,” they warn. So much so that of the almost 13 million budget that the public company has for this year 2024, they calculate that November may arrive without having executed 50%. “Nothing has been done from July until today, we have been living off the income,” says another person who describes the employment situation in La Rioja 360 as “unsustainable.”
Professional protests
“We receive complaints from the sector because the work is not being organized, but how are we going to function if we lack people?”
Adventure trip
“They do not take into account the great value that both nature and sport have today in attracting tourism”
On the other hand, and as recorded in the Transparency Portal of the Government of La Rioja, the expenditure of almost 25,000 euros in one year on external services of “project management”, “implementation of work methodologies” and support in Fitur stands out. from the same supplier, distributed in invoices of identical amounts (seven of 3,055.25 and one of 3,587.65 euros), without evidence of a public tender. On the other hand, there is a tender for the supply of printing paper for one thousand euros.
«Modification of functions»
Diario LA RIOJA has twice requested to speak with Virginia Borges to find out her version, but the only response has been a letter from the Ministry’s press office in which it is justified that “La Rioja 360 is in a period of restructuring to achieve to be a leading company in promotion and to be prepared for the changes that the tourism sector must face.
“Within this process, a modification of the functions of the jobs that have been accepted in an agreement has been carried out, together with the unions,” adds the note, and announces the plan to expand the workforce in the coming months. On the other hand, the staff of the public company assures that “the new positions were imposed and, in an internal meeting with the unions, although we wanted to vote against, we did not do so to avoid layoffs.”
