Sólveig Anna Jónsdóttir, Chairman of Efling Union, writes.
In recent days, we have seen news about the abuse and mistreatment of workers who work in cleaning jobs, a group of people who immigrant women largely make up. It has been reported how people who work for example at the company Dagar are deceived into signing changes to their employment contracts, changes that lead to people’s salaries being reduced by 20%, a reduction that leaves people with lower salaries than they had before the collective wage increases of the last agreements came into effect.
We have also heard the story of a young woman, Andreina Edwards, who was elected as a union representative for Efling at the company Ræstitækni. She carried out her role with enthusiasm and dedication, which led to the management of Ræstitækni starting what can be called persecution against her. The persecution included her being banned from discussing wage issues with her colleagues. It culminated when she was prevented from attending a union representatives course at Efling because she does not speak Icelandic, which is not only a violation of her collective bargaining rights but also a violation of Act No. 86 of 2018 on Equal Treatment in the Labour Market, which prohibits discrimination and harassment based on ethnic origin.
Conduct that violates fundamental values
The stories that we in the labour movement have heard, for example, stories of the shock that people experience when they receive a payment and see that their salary has decreased by 100,000 krónur, although the workload and tasks have not changed, are such that we simply must share them with the Icelandic public. The stories are not only stories of serious moral failure and profiteering by the managers of the companies in question. They are stories of a huge problem facing our society, a problem that poisons society and undermines all the traditions and values that we want to uphold.
The way immigrant workers are treated in this country violates the fundamental human rights of our society. Every person has the right to have their legal rights respected and to receive fair wages for their work. Every person has the right not to be subjected to financial fraud. Every person has full freedom of speech. Every person can offer themselves for confidential work and perform it according to law and regulations. These are the basic values of democratic societies. The behavior of business owners in the cleaning industry is a violation of these values. If they get away with disrespecting these values, it will set a very dangerous precedent that will reduce the quality of life for all of us and make our society worse.
Undermining health and well-being
The abuse of the people who keep our society clean, indispensable people in all economic value creation, not only perpetuates serious economic inequality. It also undermines the physical and mental health of those who are exposed to it, but the terrible effects can be read about in the report by Varða, the labor market research institute, entitled “The Status and Living Conditions of People Working in Cleaning” which was published in 2023. It shows in black and white how the hyper-exploitation of the most marginalized people in the Icelandic labor market is manifested – their conditions and living conditions are simply worse in every aspect than everyone else in the labor market.
This report was among the data that we at Eflinga and SGS relied on in collective agreement negotiations last winter, where special emphasis was placed on correcting and improving the conditions of cleaning workers. At no time in the negotiations did representatives of SA or the cleaning companies claim that the results of the survey discussed in the report were wrong. Our experience was that the employer representatives simply realized that they had to face the extensive social problem that their operating practices had created. Therefore, without Efling going on strike, a special increase for cleaning workers was agreed upon. This increase could have been called a correction of historically undervalued women’s roles, as the special increase that Efling negotiated with the City of Reykjavík in 2020 was called.
The empty rhetoric of The Confederation of Icelandic Enterprize
The Confederation of Icelandic Enterprize wanted to call the agreements signed almost a year ago, on March 7, 2024, Stability Agreements. We in the Broad Coalition agreed to that. Sigríður Margrét Oddsdóttir, SA’s CEO, said these words on the occasion of the signing of the agreement: “There has been a consensus between the contracting parties on the fundamentals of improved living standards, one of the main goals of the agreements is to build economic stability so that both people and companies can make plans that last. This collective agreement marks a turning point and will be strategic for the future. New working methods, good communication, and ambition for common goals have resulted in us agreeing on the scope for wage increases and which wage changes are consistent with price stability. The wage policy of the agreement and the preconditions bear a clear sign of this.”
SA’s CEO also said the following: “This collective agreement paves the way, but to achieve the goals, all parties in the labor market, the country’s companies, the state, and municipalities must work together and no one can evade responsibility.”
The labor movement stands by agreements, SA evades them
It is now clear that instead of doing its part to maintain stability and peace in the labor market, the leadership of SA has sided with cleaning companies and supported them in an unprecedented pursuit of the rights of low-paid women in the Icelandic labor market. Deplorable working conditions and relations have led to women coming to union offices crying because their monthly wages have been reduced by 20%.
Is anyone going to argue that this is the basis for economic stability for the people who are subjected to such a thing? No, no one can. It is also clear that while Efling and SGS have followed the collective agreement in every way and have never shied away from responsibility, SA has participated in the cleaning companies’ betrayal of an agreement – and Efling and SGS used part of the so-called “room for maneuver” to increase the wages of cleaning workers in particular. The cleaning companies have, by deceiving their employees, avoided paying the agreed increases – a fact that must be clear to most people at this point.
The problem is everyone’s responsibility
The abuse that cleaning workers suffer does not only affect the people who suffer it – it affects all of us and our society. We should stand together and demand that collective agreements be respected. And we should demand that the government show and prove that it listens to the voices of low-paid women and their representatives – and more than that, stand with us in the fight for the respect of the fundamental rights of all working people. It is simply their political and moral duty.
In a democratic society, the rights of the workforce are the most important thing we have to ensure social stability and economic justice. The fierce and purposeful struggle of workers, women and men, built the welfare states of the Nordic countries – the kind of society we want to live in and are proud of. The class division that has been allowed to grow in our country undermines the possibility of what we as a society consider most important: prosperity for all, based on work and the value creation of working people.
When the fire alarm sounds
The accounts of people working in cleaning, accounts of wage theft, deception, and oppression are like fire alarms: None of us can pretend not to hear and not see what is happening – if we can, we are simply failing in our duties as free people in a democratic society.
We at Efling demand that the rights of cleaners be respected in every way. We will not stop fighting until real reforms are made. We will not allow unbridled profiteering to poison our society at the expense of working people. We trust that you will all stand with us.
The article was first published in Visir.is on February 21st, 2025.