In 2019 noted a reporter by Quote Anyway, that the “strikingly fresh” smoke in the expensive, chic, influencers of Amsterdam -based Amsterdam gym Saints & Stars that he visited, certainly “for a loft where hundreds of people can torture themselves physically every day”. His eye noticed Clothing racks with sexy sporting out of the own brand. He quoted gym owner Tom Moos: “You hope it is one fire Is in which everyone wants to walk proudly. ”
Since Friday it is certainly not that anymore. When Unveiled reporter Tahrim Ramdjan In the Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool How at least 23 Filipino and Indonesian employees who cleaned the four branches were exploited in various ways.
The cleaners said that they had to work seven days a week, up to seventeen hours a day. That the gym had taken their passport. That they were promised a work visa, which did not happen, so that their residence permit fell and they became illegal in the European Union. That some were housed in a house of the gym owner, where with two or three other cleaners they didn’t know in one bed, or on the ground. Het Parool saw apps in which the head housekeeping Van Saints & Stars threatened to keep the wages of the cleaners if customers complained about the cleaning.
Influencers
On Wednesday evening, the Investigation Service of the Labor Inspectorate the accountant of an Amsterdam gym arrested due to forgery. The Labor Inspectorate should not say which gym is involved, but Filipino and Indonesian cleaners had reported abuses and after checks it turned out that 23 cleaners were not allowed to work in the Netherlands. The Labor Inspectorate now investigates, among other things, whether there are forged documents in the personnel administration.
Saints & Stars left Het Parool know how to cooperate and explain full cooperation: “In line with our core value, namely that people’s well -being and health is paramount, we will first await the findings of the study in the coming period and then make every effort to find a good solution for all involved.”
In the meantime, four have been worried Parool readers one Crowdfunding for the cleaners started. They did not know each other, but reported to the newspaper, which brought them together. “I read the article and became very angry,” says Rébecca Franco, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam. She also does the word on behalf of Nika Šimičić, Demi and Isabelle (who would rather not call their last name). “It is good that the gym is tackled and that the inspection is conducting research, but the cleaners need immediate help. They have no papers, no housing and no income.”
Research
The target amount is 80,000 euros. “That is one to two months of income for 23 people. It is to fill a gap without wanting to remove responsibility from Saints & Stars.” More than 22,500 euros were donated within 24 hours. “What I am very hopeful,” says Franco, “is that all the people Brand Ambassador have been for Saints & Stars the money they have earned with it. ” She has emailed different influencers through their managers, but had not heard anything from them on Saturday afternoon.
Both the crowdfunders and the labor inspection have contact with the cleaners, but do not want to say how they are doing. “I don’t want to speak for them,” says Franco. “It is confidential information,” says Daniëlle Rebel, spokesperson for the Labor Inspectorate. “I can’t say which gym is involved either.” Rebel emphasizes that the labor inspection has few powers when it comes to the victims; Organizations such as Fairwork and the Coordination Center against Human Trafficking (CoMensha) are for this. The Labor Inspectorate focuses on violations of labor laws.
“It’s great that there is so much attention for these 23 people,” says Rebel. “But this situation is unfortunately not unique. It is very much to say, but we come across situations every day in which people, for example, are fired underpaid or with immediate effects or not even know who their employer is.” In which branches does that mainly play? “The cleaning industry, the distribution, the meat sector, industry, construction. Sectors where a lot of work that could be stuck by flex workers is done. Often it is about labor migrants who do non-specialist work at a low wage.”
City for the rich
It is no coincidence that this is now happening with cleaners, says Franco, who is researching people who do domestic work and sex work through online platforms. “That group is marginalized and we all participate. Take such a chic luxury gym where people only pay attention and not see that others are exploited. We are all making a city for the rich from Amsterdam. Everything must be smoothed and what cannot be smoothed is made invisible.”
That plays broader than Amsterdam. “The Netherlands is becoming a low -wage country,” says Rebel. “You can wonder how much distribution centers the Netherlands should actually have and whether the meat sector should be so large here as you see that more than half of that meat goes to export. The loads of all that flex work are passed on to society. The care is under pressure, there is a housing shortage, we cannot grow. For example, you have packages delivered?
But, says Rebel, in the end employers are of course responsible for the working conditions of their employees. “They must take care of being a good employer. They are responsible for healthy, safe and honest work.”