Domestic workers threaten to strike: ‘We have to pay for …

We will be campaigning in Brussels on Thursday 18th November. Issam Benali, secretary of the socialist union ABVV, said domestic workers wishing to participate receive a racket allowance. “If our issues are not resolved, a broader attack may follow at a later time.”

Unions believe wages in this sector are too low. “And then the home workers also have to pay to go to work,” Benali says. “The travel allowances that home workers receive do not cover the real costs. They hardly get thirteen euro cents per kilometer.”

“The industry is underfunded”

Federgon, the union representing employers in the service voucher sector, regrets the unions’ actions. “We’ve already put the resources to provide a 0.4% surcharge for wages at the top of the index,” Federgon CEO Ann Catlin said. “But our sector is structurally underfunded.”

Flemish Economy Minister Hilda Krewitz (CD&V) said service voucher companies would receive more resources. “From now on, we will pay the full indexation of wage costs for service voucher companies. So far, we have paid only 73% of this index,” Krevits says. “With these additional resources, the working conditions of domestic helpers must also be enhanced.”

But according to Federgon, that’s not enough. “We get paid for indexing, but we don’t pay for other expenses like travel costs,” says Ann Cattelain. (feather)