Oh please, seriously?? How far can they go? 12.50 is already more than i make in the office, with my double university degree...

reading this really disturbs me. these people are the lowest paid and often the least educated so they are often not capable of standing up for their normal workers rights and benefits. shall we exploit their vulnerablity so we can buy another IPad, a third one for the extra guest room? truly pathetic and sickening.

Years ago we paid someone to clean our house. We started at €15/hr, and increased it a little after the first year. Always a nice bonus at Christmas. We gave her a nice severance payment. We might have paid some sick pay.

She was only working a few hours a month, hours of her own choosing, and our view was she was self employed. She did a great job cleaning, but only showed up about half the time without giving a reason, which is why we fired her.

I would have paid holiday pay instead of Christmas bonus, if she asked.

If she got snotty about other rights, I would have fired her a lot earlier!

I would appreciate if the article clarified if this is for all type of cleaners ( ie, ones that show up for a few hours a couple of times a month or for cleaners that are employed by one person full time and show up 4+ days a week or both )

"Snotty" about "rights"? What, if she insisted upon something that she was legally entitled to?

Lots of these domestic cleaners are illegal immigrants. They also make around 12 an hour with no extra benefits. But they also dont pay any taxes at all!

I'm sorry I do not feel any simpaty for this cause. These people make 12.5 hour black (!) which total to 2000 EUR month netto if they work (like the rest of us) 40 hours week. Do not pay taxes and get same salary as somebody who as sacrificed good part of his/her youth studying.

Most of them (3 out of 4 until now in my experience) cannot do properly even the most basic cleaning in an accurate way (I had to physically clean the toilet in front of them explaining soap has to be rinsed) so for the sloppy work they do they are paid already too much.

@B, These people are the lowest paid??
I did four years at college to get my carpentry papers & I don't get 12.50 per hour!

Are they registered with the Kvk and paying tax on their 12,50Euro/hr? If so, then they should get holiday and sick pay. I happily pay a christmas and easter bonus, and also when I am on vacation.

that means 155 times unionduesthey know what they're doing i'm sure domestic workers f0r the most part make private arrangements with their bosses, the union wants money in their coffers and get as powerful and dangerous as they have gotten in the U.S.

Are we to understand that these hourly rates are after tax? €12,50ph for a cleaner? A house painter is very lucky to get that!! The cleaners that work at my apartment bock pick up about €9,20ph.

Cleaners are almost on a par with supermarket employees, I worked as a cleaner at Schiphol airport because I needed the shift allowance for working unsociable hours: that was then the only way to make ends meet!

Cleaners do not earn €12,50ph unless it's off the record (Private), get your facts straight please! :P

Great B, this exactly the kind of mentality that is destroying us. People are responsible for their own life, they are the lowest paid because they are the least educated and this was and is their own choice. I work for my money and I spend them as I want, to buy iPad or get wasted. Good and bad are personal concepts. Truly pathetic is that I pay 52% taxes so I work more for other than for myself and others use the system to stay home, crying and playing the victims.

Sounds like a great Dutch idea to start taxing economic activity + families will start to file wage tax and social security returns and the housekeeper will file personal income tax returns.

My guess is that the activity will stop. Then we will have unemployed housekeeprs to which then the government (i.e. all NL taxpayers) will have to pay an unemployment allowance.

Great idea ... minor detail FNV is run by PvdA members and loyalists ... Surprised ?

Sounds like a great Dutch idea to start taxing economic activity + families will start to file wage tax and social security returns and the housekeeper will file personal income tax returns.

My guess is that the activity will stop. Then we will have unemployed housekeeprs to which then the government (i.e. all NL taxpayers) will have to pay an unemployment allowance.

Great idea ... minor detail FNV is run by PvdA members and loyalists ... Surprised ?

CW: My point exactly, what other rights are they entitled to?

You can work through an agency, hire them directly, hire them as self-employed or make an illegal arrangement.

An illegal arrangement is pretty common. In this case however no one has any real rights, it's only what you negotiate or what's implicit in the law.

In an illegal arrangement the worker often gets other benefits, usually getting a job they wouldn't otherwise have without paying taxes. Often it's a sort of training position. They aren't in a position to demand a lot of rights.

This is just the way it is.

N, what planet do you live on? Choice? You're obviously a privileged expat who can't comprehend anyone who doesn't have the same choices as you.

And THAT is what is destroying us: ignorance and bigotry.

For the rest of you, I would like stats and sources cited to back up your assertions that all cleaners are illegal aliens working in the black, or undeserving of rights despite the fact they do a job you've wouldn't do in a million years.

Unless you've walked in their shoes, you know nothing.

N: we vote governments into power that make sure snotty rich kids - born with a silver spoon in their mouth since birth many of them with their educations paid for by mommy and daddy along with everything else like flying lessons - will absolutely pay 52% and even more in taxes so that at least some under privileged people can be assisted. Good and bad are concepts governed by our laws and enforced by our police depts, in case you do not understand that. From your rant is sounds a bit like you have claimed the victim role for yourself, poor rich kid victim!

when people can honestly say, I paid for my own education THEN they can talk to me about 'People are responsible for their own life' until then mommy and daddy put you where you are today. most people in the world are not born into this privileged situation of course.

To set up a collective bargaining system for domestic workers is not a logically convincing argument. First it assumes that employers who hire domestic cleaners have the knowhow and the will to calculate the correct sick pay, leave allowance , bonuses for the cleaner.
Secondly, has the FNV carried out an in-depth research on how many people hired as domestic cleaners pay taxes for their work. Another way of looking at it might be that the primary reason to hire cleaners is to reduce the burden of work. How many people will want to hire cleaners and increase their administration work in order to check the cleaner's holiday pay etc?

Thirdly, cleaners are being paid lower than minimum wages by some is only because they have chosen to accept it. Of course, I do believe that cleaners should not accept a wage that is lower than the minimum wage because this way they are solely responsible for undercutting the market rate.

some people have never REALLY worked a hard day in their whole life. I have worked until my hands bleed and I passed out from heat exhaustion because I HAD to in order to survive; so I understand the cleaners situation pretty well. I hope people will honor both their human and workers rights.