Each operator can handle 150 to 200 calls daily, which must be answered in less than 10 seconds and must not last more than 175 seconds, that is, the operator must collect all information about the incidents in less than three minutes. And the incident can be a fire, a theft, a health emergency in a public place or a more serious accident, event or disaster.
The staff working on the 112 telephone number of the Valencian Community are assigned to the agreement of contact center (the old one telemarketing), which does not respond to the highly specialized functions that it actually performs. In addition, the staff records 20% absenteeism, due to sick leave or uncovered absences and whose function is performed by overtime. The data is collected in a report prepared by the Socialist Group of the Corts Valencianes, which indicates that the service suffers from a great saturation and denounces the working conditions of the operators.
The single emergency telephone number 112 Comunitat Valenciana (112CV) is the instrument that the Generalitat Valenciana, through the Agència Valenciana de Seguretat i Responda a les Urgences, makes available to citizens for the attention and management of emergency calls: accidents, fires, floods, health. emergencies, security or rescues. Its activity takes place at the Emergency Coordination Center of the Generalitat Valenciana, located in L’Eliana, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
112CV handles more than three million calls a year from any part of Valencia, an average of nine thousand a day, and manages between a thousand and two thousand derived incidents every day. In 2023, 3,842,420 calls were answered. However, in periods such as summer, holidays or due to particularly adverse weather phenomena, this daily average of calls increases considerably, sometimes exceeding 11,000 calls a day and managing 3,000 incidents a day, of which approximately 60% are related to health. , compared to 16% related to security.
During the first seven months of 2024, 1,925,743 calls were answered, representing a monthly average of 275,106 calls. However, during the month of July, 339,112 calls were answered, representing a daily average of 10,939 calls.
Calls to 112 are answered in Spanish and Valencian, but also in English, French and German. Since the launch of this language service, 77.40% of incidents have been handled in English, 11.79% in French and 9.26% in German.
Borderline situation
“It is the responsibility of 112CV to respond correctly to the call, extract the necessary information and transmit it to the competent operational bodies depending on the type of incident, all as soon as possible,” says the report of the PSPV-PSOE Parliament group. “Currently, the workers of 112 Comunitat Valenciana find themselves in an extreme situation.”
The management of the operational operation service of 112 has been entrusted to Ilunion Emergencies SA for a period of four years, with the contract being formalized on January 27, 2023. “The quality of the service provision is closely linked to the working conditions of the staff. who work at 112 Comunitat Valenciana. In recent years, they have assumed the management of calls produced as a result of the DANA of the Vega Baja in September 2019, the COVID pandemic or the war in Ukraine, acquiring more and more responsibilities, managing not only ordinary incidents, but also extraordinary ones,” the document states. “The working conditions of the staff do not respond to the reality of the function they perform, since the collective agreement is applied to them.” contact center (Before telemarketing), which does not assist or respond to the work carried out by the 112 operators in emergency management.
In addition to estimating staff absenteeism at 20%, due to sick leave or uncovered absences, the report states: “The psychological cost of caring for people who find themselves in dramatic situations is not taken into account, nor has it been taken into account. Has it provided psychological support to those involved in managing particularly dramatic emergencies, such as, for example, the fire in the Campanar building.
The Socialist Group therefore proposes “that the employment situation of the 112 operators be reviewed, so that they can be evaluated and integrated into the staff of the Generalitat Valenciana, as well as that they be provided with a collective agreement that really contemplates the activity and functions they perform and respond to the needs of a fundamental and fundamental task in emergency management, such as receiving the call and obtaining the necessary information to be able to activate the resources and give the appropriate response.
