Cleaning staff at an Ibis hotel in Paris hailed a historic victory on Tuesday after an almost two-year long battle to improve working conditions and pay.
“Slavery is over, mistreatment is over,” chanted the Ibis Batignolles workers as they celebrated the signature of a comprehensive agreement granting them better wages and regular working hours.
The 19 women and one male colleague had gone on strike for 8 months in July 2019, before they were placed on state benefits along with other hotel workers at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
As their 22-month tussle dragged on, their frequent protests attracted a growing number of supporters, including union leaders, politicians and ordinary citizens.
“We have secured a beautiful victory,” said a jubilant Rachel Keke, a prominent striker, brandishing the document signed by her employer, a subcontractor of the Accor group that owns the Ibis chain.
“Now we can do our work at ease,” added her colleague Deneba Diallo. “Before, the work was too tough, with no breaks and not even the right to drink a little water. There was no mercy for us.”
Union representatives said the deal signed on Tuesday would ensure monthly pay rises of between 250 and 500 euros, with some staff moving to full-time work.
The cleaners obtained the right to work longer hours at a slower pace, to take 30-minute breaks, and to use a punch clock to ensure they receive overtime pay.
“We’re in a world where workers actually call for punch clocks, which they hated back in the 1960s and 70s,” noted economist François-Xavier Devetter in an interview with AFP. “Punch clocks have become a tool to ensure labour laws are respected.”
Devetter, who has authored a book on low-paid jobs in France, said the Ibis case signalled a symbolic victory in a longstanding and unequal tussle pitting “a particularly vulnerable and largely female labour force against employers who are almost untouchable.”
He added: “It is also symbolic because what the workers obtained was simply to have the law enforced.”
Hotel cleaners have staged strikes and protests over pay and working conditions at numerous French establishments in recent years, though the Covid-19 pandemic has stalled their momentum by leaving the industry in crisis.
