Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 25th April 2024 Issue no. 1111
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Racism is a thorny subject, isn’t is? I don’t know where in the world you are, but in my neck of the woods many people now shake their heads when racism is mentioned, in the same way they do when health & safety is mentioned: ‘Oh no, not that again!’ seems to be the feeling – and the consensus is that in some quarters, racism is used as an excuse for, perhaps, people not getting the promotion or pay-rise, or the best table in the restaurant, rather than because they weren’t the best person for the job, the company had budgets to consider or the table had been pre-booked by a regular. I won’t go on.
The reality is that we all have to be very careful about what we say, just in case it gets taken the wrong way.
Then on the other hand are the people who really don’t care…
Have you come across the flyer this week, advertising cleaning services in Israel?
I still can’t work out whether it’s real or if it’s been put together to elicit a reaction, but as it’s on Israeli journalist Tal Schneider’s Facebook page I suppose it must be true. I’m still struggling to understand how whoever produced it has got away with it.
The offending flyer, (pictured), advertises a menu of charges for cleaning services, based on the ethnicity of the cleaners. i.e. if you can’t afford to pay too much for your cleaning, you can choose an ethnic minority group that allegedly doesn’t produce as good a result in the time, or – if you really want to push the boat out, you can hire a harder working European cleaner for more money and a better result.
Yes – you did read that correctly!
African cleaners are charged out at 49 shekels (£8.70/hr); while Eastern European cleaners who don’t have Israeli citizenship are charged out at 52 shekels and those carrying all the necessary visas and work permits will cost 69 shekels.
The flyer also apparently refers to those that might be considered to be potential terrorists and offers ways to avoid employing them!
A company spokesperson is quoted as saying that the different rates are not illegal, and that European workers are charged out at higher rates because they’re better workers than the Africans are!
Yes I know…
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Yours,
11th February 2016