Spanish chambermaids look to clean up hotels’ ethical act

SICK of being overworked for what they call “slave” wages, a Spanish association of chambermaids is set to launch its own online booking portal exclusively for hotels that provide dignified employment to cleaning staff.

Las Kellys, who have become a household name in Spain by using publicity stunts to draw attention to the low wages, toil and precarious conditions chambermaids endure, have raised more than €82,000 (£70,350) in crowdfunding for the initiative.

“Clearly, we have plenty of public sympathy,” Eulalia Corralero, leader of Las Kellys Union, told The Daily Telegraph after the crowdfunding target of €60,000 was surpassed in a month.

“That’s why Spanish politicians have used us in the many electoral campaigns ... in recent years, but despite all the promises our working conditions have not changed.”

Las Kellys – whose name is a play on the Spanish words for “the women who clean” (las que limpian) – emerged in the middle of the past decade from campaigns against increasing uncertainty in the tourism sector, with hotels using the liberalised labour laws to outsource cleaning to subcontractor companies.

“With Covid and the loss of earnings for hotels, things have only got worse.

Typical contracts now require 26 rooms to be cleaned every day for as little as €800 a month; that’s €1.50 per room,” said Ms Corralero, 58, who has been working on the Costa Brava for 35 years, earning a double spinal disc herniation and knee cartilage issues in the process.

Representatives of Las Kellys, including Ms Corralero, met Mariano Rajoy shortly before he was ousted as Spain’s prime minister in 2018. But they continue to wait for the Left-wing administration of Pedro Sánchez to pass the promised “Kellys law” after three years in power. The law would make it illegal for companies to subcontract central elements of the service they offer, such as cleaning in a hotel.

Las Kellys now want to appeal directly to consumers with the online booking portal, which they say will be operational by next year

Miriam Suárez from Las Kellys’ Catalonia branch, said: “We expect nothing from the government now, so we are going to the consumer, who is ultimately the person with power.”

‘We expect nothing from the government now, so we are going to the consumer, who ultimately has the power’