Passersby could put their signature on a big heart to express their support for the cleaners. With the slogan ‘Kiss me or miss me’, the cleaners wanted to express their concerns about announced cost-saving measures.
In a letter, Asito told the cleaners that they would lose hours on campus and that they could supplement their ‘redundant’ hours at another location. If they didn’t want that, then they could lose their redundant contract hours after all. This by means of a decision of the court, in connection with business economic reasons, the letter stated.
Two employers
Asito offers the cleaners extra hours at other locations instead. But that would mean that their day is cut in two parts, that they sometimes have to cycle to the other side of the city and that they might have to work for two different employers, depending on the results of new tenders. The workload for the remaining cleaners at EUR would also increase.
Director of the University Support Centre (USC) Kees Lansbergen received the big heart full of signatures. He could make little promises to the cleaners. “Ultimately, it is a matter between you and Asito, and we indicate which price, quality and behavior we value, but Asito itself is responsible for the business”, he said to the cleaners. However, Lansbergen said there were already talk with Asito about the quality of the cleaning. That quality would leave something to be desired.
'No new agreements'
Again, Lansbergen denied there were new agreements between Asito and the EUR that would result in less money and hours for the cleaning work. In the letter to the employees, the cleaning company wrote that ‘the redundant hours have arisen from negotiations of the contract between Asito and the Erasmus University Rotterdam. New agreements were made in this, so that there is less budget and fewer hours available.’ According to Lansbergen, that is incorrect.
A spokesman from Asito is still looking for what the company meant by ‘new agreements’.

Thank you for writing about this!
Me and my study friends had been wondering the reason why it had gotten so dirty around the uni lately. This explains a lot. I must say it is a stupid idea cutting the cleaners’ hours. Take a look into the girls toilets around the campus sometime in the evening or weekends, would rather use a Dixi in a festival than toilets at campus. And if the state of cleanliness is only going downhill from here…
Judging by the fact that Erasmus university is almost always littered with garbage regardless of what these cleaners thing, I have another idea: instead of forcing these poor people to cycle across half the city, introduce double or triple cleaning rounds per day on campus. Let them work in one place, go home and rest, and then next day – to work in another place. It will give better conditions to them since it wont inconvenience them to move, and it will possibly make the Woudestein campus less of a garbage hill.
Comments are closed.