Cleaners’ campaign stirs debate in financial district

Since recently, the lawyers and bankers who work in the Zuidas financial district greet the cleaner with a friendly ‘good morning’. Some even know his name and that he is from Ghana. This can be read at the Zo Zuidas blog, where three young women anonymously describe ‘what goes on at the square kilometre of office playground near the WTC’.

Thanks to the Schoongenoeg campaign, the financial district has become aware of the work done by the cleaners. “Hence the ‘good morning’ and the pat on the shoulder.” That the cleaners also want higher wages and travel expenses, is slightly more controversial. “Yes. I mean. There’s a crisis, right!” a colleague of the anonymous blogger said.

She points out that the cleaners do important work for a fraction of what the lawyers and bankers earn. “I don’t think a ‘good morning’ suffices to show respect; they should also be paid a decent wage.”