Source: CLEANTOTAL
Last week, FNV organised a protest for hotel cleaners. They were on the barricade to draw attention to the right to weekend allowance. Hotel cleaning is the only sub-sector of the industry for which there is no weekend allowance.
In photo: Archive photo action FNV Schoonmaak
NH News reported on the strike that took place in front of the Ibis hotel. Speaking to the regional broadcaster, FNV frontwoman Khadija Hyati said, “We are here because we already earn very little in cleaning, but our colleagues in the hotels earn even less because they do not get allowances on weekends.”
“It's being made difficult for hotel cleaners”
According to Silvana Feller, a cleaner who is/was working in hotels for no less than 15 years, states that hotel cleaners are being made to work hard. “You have to make the beds, scrub the baths, take away linen, vacuum and all sorts of things. And that in 18 minutes, because that is the time one of the cleaners we speak to gets per room.”
Striking action
The action by FNV Schoonmaak is notable because a new collective agreement on cleaning was concluded by the unions and Schoonmakend Nederland. The parties involved then discussed a possible return of the weekend bonus. In the end, it did not materialise. The unions and the employers' organisation did agree on a higher public holiday allowance for hotel cleaners from 1 January 2023. Wages across the sector will also continue to rise to at least 14 euros an hour.
English (UK)