The union for building cleaners has called for a nationwide warning strike. It demands a collectively agreed Christmas bonus for the approximately 600,000 employees.
In the building cleaning industry, nationwide warning strikes started on Monday night. The union Bauen-Agrar-Umwelt wants to exert pressure on the employers to enforce a collectively agreed Christmas bonus for the approximately 600,000 employees in the industry. Cleaners such as airports, hospitals, administrations, industrial sites and schools are on strike.
The Bundesinnungsverband of the building cleaning trade had rejected the request of the IG BAU after a tariff Christmas money last. Here, the employers referred to already agreed wage increases, which led in the course of the year 2020 to equal pay in the tariff zones West and East. In addition, there was no economic room for a thirteenth monthly salary, it said in a statement on 9 November.
The industry is one of the few in which there is no Christmas bonus, explained IG BAU. The trade union demands an additional payment of about half of a monthly salary for the building cleaners, with longer term employment it should give up to 70 per cent. The many part-time workers should be equally involved in their actual working time.
„The workers in the cleaning of buildings are angry, they finally want the recognition that they have earned and are no longer treated as second-class workers,“ said IG-BAU negotiator Ulrike Laux. „Most of them work in the lowest wage group, they work reliably and hard, and they really do not get riches.“ Therefore, a Christmas bonus „in recognition of her performance“ is particularly important for her, said Laux. The employers accused them of „dumping methods“.
