“I’m sick and tired of this situation,” says a tearful Françoise. I won’t have a wage at the end of the month, how am I going to pay my rent and feed my kids?”
Forty-five year old Françoise is one of the 11 employees who used to work in the public toilets situated in Paris’s tourist hotspots.
These toilet attendants, popularly known as “dames pipi”, are aged between 45 and 70. They have been demonstrating every day for a month and a half in front of the public toilets at the foot of Montmartre in protest at being “thrown away like old rags”.
Françoise, Angèle and Gabrielle have been doing this job for between 12 and 32 years. They were employed by Stem Propreté until 30 June, the date on which the contract for the management of five public toilets was awarded to the Dutch firm 2theloo.
This company, which already manages over 150 toilets in 13 countries specialises in offering designer restrooms with a shop, room fragrance and futuristic toilets.
After winning the contract, however, 2theloo refused to keep on the former service provider’s employees. Françoise is still in shock: “One morning I received a call from 2theloo telling me not to go to work because they were refurbishing the toilets. A few days later, a colleague saw that we had been replaced by two men.”
These women, paid a net wage of around €1300 a month (US$1460) are in a legal limbo: they have no job, no further income, no employer, but they have not been fired. “2theloo does not respect French labour legislation nor the collective agreement applicable to cleaning firms,” explains Jean Hedou, general secretary of FEETS-FO, the equipment, environment, transport and services federation affiliated to Force Ouvrière.
When there is a change of employer, there is a legal obligation to transfer the employees’ contracts to the new service provider. Moreover, the requirement to keep on the eleven employees is mentioned in the bid, which the French news website Mediapart has gained access to.
2theloo is claiming, in its defence, that is has no cleaning related activities. With its “boutique restrooms” concept, the company is offering a “service inspired by luxury concierge services”, which is “totally different”, insists its lawyer, Paul Coëffard.
“2theloo does 95 per cent cleaning and five per cent product sales,” contradicts Jean Hedou.
Another argument put forward by the Dutch company: the “dames pipi” do not speak enough languages and would not fit the job profile. “We have been handling the takings and working with tourists for years,” counters Françoise.
Cleaners the world over...
After having cleared itself of any responsibility, Paris City Council is now supporting the toilet attendants. “This company is legally and morally at fault. What it is doing is totally unacceptable,” said Emmanuel Grégoire, deputy mayor of Paris, on the TV channel France 2.
The employees applied for expedited proceedings with the labour court. The hearing, scheduled for 26 August, was postponed until 8 September. “I am confident, but if we have make a trip to Rotterdam where the golden boy of public urinals and the trader of poverty is based, we will go,” warns Jean Hedou.
“The toilets used to be free,” he added. “Now, 2theloo is going to make people pay 80 cents. With a million customers a year, you can imagine how much they’re going to earn.”
This legal case raises questions about the transfer of this activity from the public to the private sector, an underlying trend in the cleaning industry worldwide. Toilet attendants working in France’s train stations, now also under the management of 2theloo, also found themselves out on the street.
After a week-long strike in January, and under pressure from the SNCF, they managed to make the Dutch firm keep the workers.
Elsewhere in the world, other cleaning workers have succeeded in defending their rights.
In the United States and Canada, Justice for Janitors, launched in 1985, now groups over 225,000 caretakers and cleaning staff. They are fighting for better pay and working conditions, and health insurance worthy of its name.
A similar movement, Justice for Cleaners, has emerged in the UK.
In Australia, it is United Voice that speaks up for these workers. Its campaign, launched in 2006, has succeeded in improving the working conditions of cleaning staff in offices and commercial centres.
In Paris, the “dames pipi” are simply asking to be able to keep their jobs.
