Santa Cruz Home Help Service Faces Crisis Amid Staff Protests Over Working Conditions
Home Help Service workers in Santa Cruz de Tenerife are protesting against poor working conditions and the misuse of their professional qualifications, as the service struggles to balance care duties with domestic tasks for 1,400 residents.
The Home Help Service (SAD) in Santa Cruz de Tenerife is facing a crisis that threatens the future of local dependency care. According to the newspaper El Día, the service currently supports 1,400 people, with another 50 on a waiting list. However, its 300 employees—mostly women—are increasingly frustrated, claiming their professional roles are being misused.
The main issue is the gap between the workers' qualifications as nursing assistants and their daily reality. Staff members report that their work has shifted from providing essential care—such as personal hygiene, medication management, and companionship—to performing basic domestic cleaning. This change has led to significant physical and mental exhaustion for a veteran workforce, some of whom have served for up to 36 years.
Low pay adds to the strain; many workers earn little more than 1,000 euros a month while managing three to four home visits daily, often struggling with travel time between appointments. Furthermore, a lack of proper equipment, such as hoists, has resulted in high rates of workplace injuries. Employees blame both the local government and the service provider, Atende, for failing to stop the demand for tasks outside their professional scope, such as deep cleaning or caring for other family members in the home.
This situation echoes past instability in the city, specifically the bankruptcy of the previous provider, Mararía, which left workers unpaid and deeply distrustful of local authorities. With the possibility of new operators taking over, staff fear another period of uncertainty.
Sociologically, the situation in Santa Cruz highlights a common flaw in Spain’s Dependency Law: the difficulty municipalities face in maintaining quality when they prioritize outsourcing over direct oversight. Workers, who have reported unsafe and sometimes violent conditions, are now calling for change. They are urging the city to either take direct control of the service or significantly improve supervision to ensure the program remains a tool for social protection rather than a simple cleaning service.