Under Ecuador’s labor legislation, companies are required to have health and safety committees, and while the Nestlé plant in Guayaquil has such a committee, which is supposedly operational, in actual fact it rarely meets.

Company representatives always have an excuse not to attend, or else they leave before the meeting ends, or they simply suggest that the meeting be scheduled for a later date, thus evidencing that the workers’ safety is a secondary concern for them.

An electrician who has been with Nestlé for over nine years, Pablo Santana suffered two accidents in the workplace.

Because of the severity of the last accident, the state body that deals with occupational risks intervened and ruled that it was a work-related accident, attributing the responsibility to the company due to its failure to apply safety measures.

The company challenged the four resolutions of the report issued by the body, alleging that it is not responsible, despite the fact that at every instance of the process the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute (IESS) found that it is responsible.

Incapacitated in 51 percent of his body

As the final outcome of the case, the IESS proceeded to grant Santana a compensation for as long as he is unable to function normally, noting also that he is unable to stand or remain in a seating position for long, or climb up and down stairs.

He must also keep out of areas that are too cold or too hot, due to the prosthesis in his right knee.

The worker has had to undergo three surgeries thus far.

The first accident he suffered, which involved a fall, was in February 2018, and it left him with an injury in his left thigh and an adductor longus tear. It also caused disk hernias.

As a result of the accidents, Pablo Santana now has a physical disability that affects 51 percent of his body, requiring medical treatment and therapy on a permanent basis.

While the company covers these treatments, the worker has to submit invoices for the expenses incurred, in order for him to be reimbursed. This is often a problem because he does not have ready cash to pay for the treatments.

Upside down world

Adding insult to injury, the worker is now being sued for “negligence” by Nestlé, as the company alleges that he failed to move through the areas indicated by the company, although there are videos proving that that is not true.

The company has also filed a claim against the government body that ruled against it.

The multinational corporation rejects all of the decisions issued by the IESS, with the aim of “defending itself” in the face of the obvious precarities of its safety equipment, which go against its own guidelines adopted by Nestlé’s head office in Switzerland.

It also rejects them so that it will not be required to compensate Pablo and pay him a lifelong pension.

It is also confident that through its political influence over the Daniel Noboa government and its pressuring of the justice system it will eventually achieve its objective.

Pablo Santana lacks the resources and, of course, the capacity to fight such an absurd legal action.

What he does have, however, is the unwavering support of the Latin American Federation of Nestlé Workers (FELATRAN) and Rel UITA and their efforts to raise international public awareness and turn this situation around, a situation in which a victim is revictimized due to Nestlé’s indolence and callousness.