“I can get very angry about this. This is just slavery. If you fly people in and have them work for you, there is a huge dependency relationship. If you then use these people six days a week, you are using people as modern day slaves.” That says Simon Zandvliet, party chairman of the SP Drenthe.
He responds to the complaints of Indonesian students who are in a work-study program at Zorggroep Drenthe. They have to deal with broken shifts, unpaid travel time between clients, working every weekend, disappearing overtime and almost no internship supervision. Their trajectory ends with two unsatisfactory marks.
The trajectory has already been completed for seven of the forty students who work for Zorggroep Drenthe. There is unrest among those who stay, because some of them already have a fail and a second fail hangs over their heads like a sword of Damocles.
“When I read this, there was amazement about the fact that such a construction of dependence exists. That has turned into anger. We must ban it immediately,” said Zandvliet.
He prefers to come into direct contact with the students in order to improve their situation together. “There is also a role for FNV Zorg en Welzijn. We would like to join that.”
Questions for the Provincial Executive are on their way. Member of Parliament Jimmy Dijk will also raise the issue today. Zandvliet says that he is also considering further action together with Dijk.