Luis Enrique Soriano was 17 when he came from the Dominican Republic to Azpeitia in search of a better future. Three years later, a young man who had no previous psychological problems committed suicide. He decided to do so at his own workplace: In the small company Manuel Aizpuru S.M. Azpeitia. It was the night of July 30, 2021. Soriano himself insisted that he "could no more" his relatives, referring to the bad situation he suffered in his work.

In the following days the details of his death remained silent. Another case left in oblivion, if not because his mother, Silvia Castillo, contacted the Elkar group of Azpeitia and explained the experiences of his son. Since then, various mobilizations, complaints and initiatives have been organized to publicize the exploitation of Soriano.

In the last two years, family members and social movements in Soriano have broadened the relationship between poor working conditions and suicide. They denounce that when he worked twelve hours, he also worked on Saturdays, he was forced to do so. Just knowing that Soriano died, then Soriano's girlfriend went to work with his owners "the exploiters," to say "you have killed Luis Enrique."

Based on information provided by relatives and relatives, Elkar has repeatedly denounced what he lived in the workshop: "Every time he makes a mistake, the boss yelled at him, humiliated him. I had a lot of work. Soriano told his boss that he had to take another worker, but he ignored him. Again, because of the poor execution of one piece, he was taken EUR 300 from the salary. I didn't have as many vacation days as I did. Although COVID-19 was affected, he was forced to go to work. He had to work at night and alone..."

On the day of Soriano's death, he had a confrontation with his boss. According to Osalan's report, due to the poor extraction of a piece, the head stated that he had agreed with Soriano to attend the day after Soriano's work. The next day was July 31, San Ignacio Day, great party in Azpeitia. He indicated that he had to work the holiday at 22:00 p.m., although according to the contract the end of the day will be at 17:00 p.m. That same night he committed suicide.

Company behaviour in evidence

Osalan and the Labour Inspectorate published two reports on the case in June and July 2022. They include, inter alia, three serious infringements committed by Manuel Aizpuru, S.L. The members of Elkar emphasize that the Osalan report thus states in the two paragraphs:

- "The usual activity was for the worker (Soriano) to perform overtime, but they were not recorded or quantified through the working document and were paid on payroll as a fixed premium".

- "(Soriano) They quantified and otherwise paid overtime to their colleagues, so there was unequal treatment among workers."

The reports, however, do not demonstrate the relationship between working conditions and suicide, leaving it to the courts to prove it.

Publication of the Soriano payrolls

From the beginning Soriano had at his disposal the payrolls he received every month, but as they decided to bring the case to court – the complaint was put by the ESK union – they did not want to make them public so as not to hinder the way. Now, with the judgment to the door, which began on 26 June in San Sebastian, they wanted to demonstrate the enormous number of overtime hours that Soriano had spent every month.

These payrolls published by ARGIA show how the company paid overtime under the name "Production premium". In the payroll they did not collect these overtime and Soriano, by pen, pointed out the overtime spent in the month: 90 hours in April 2019, 92 hours in February 2019... She received more money than her base salary for overtime.

Soriano exceeded in a single month the number of overtime (80) for the whole year recognized by state legislation.

Those responsible for the company have not spoken publicly about the case.

Not an isolated account

Elkar-ekin has denounced that "situations of precariousness and harassment are common in many local businesses, and at the same time it is common for them to get worse when workers are migrants". In this respect, the case of a neighbour of Azpeitia has just been reported, with a work schedule of 30 days a month, a 24-hour day and a salary of EUR 1.39 per hour.