commentary
The solution to the problems that have been festering in the service voucher sector for years is very simple. The Flemish government can increase the price of the checks, as has already happened in French-speaking Belgium.
Ruben MooijmanSenior Writer
Today at 03:00
The cleaning assistants will take action. They are absolutely right. They deserve to be listened to as much by the politicians as the farmers. They only have to occupy a highway to have a series of demands met. The contrast with the cleaning aids could hardly be greater. For years, unions and employers have been drawing attention to the problems in the service voucher sector. But politicians have been looking the other way for just as long.
The unions plan to target the shareholders of the large cleaning companies. But they would be better off going to Martelarenplein, the seat of the Flemish government. The representatives of the cleaners say they want to get the money where it belongs. But then they shouldn’t be with the companies. Their returns have been declining for years. This has forced them to charge additional fees to customers, on top of the legal price of the service vouchers.
That shows where the money really is: with the users of the checks. These are the middle class families who don’t have time to vacuum because they are too busy making money. The service voucher system is a great gift for them: two-thirds of the costs of keeping their house clean are paid by the taxpayer. And they can also partially deduct the remaining third from tax.
The solution to the industry’s festering problems for years is very simple. The Flemish government can increase the price of the checks, as has already happened in French-speaking Belgium. Rarely has the difference between left and right governments been clearer than in this case. Brussels and Wallonia side with the poorly paid cleaners and ensure the health of the system, Flanders sides with the users. A price increase was already on the table in 2021. CD&V was in favor then, and still is. But the other coalition partners, the N-VA and Open VLD, apparently weigh more heavily in the decision-making process. Minister Jo Brouns (CD&V) was forced to resort to stopgap measures to shore up the financing.
The government once devised the service voucher system to whitewash a black sector. In that sense it is a success. That is why it is all the more regrettable that the same government is now burying its head in the sand and leaving the sector to its fate.