Private sector cleaning companies have made a formal complaint about social affairs ministry plans to ensure government office cleaners are offered jobs as civil servants, the Financieele Dagblad reports.

The companies say the government is ‘stealing their income’ by offering to employ cleaners rather than contract out cleaning services to the private sector.

The government has pledged to employ 3,000 cleaners who are currently on flexible contracts. Social affairs minister Lodewijk Asscher hopes the decision will set a good example to companies who have been sacking staff on flexible contracts to get round new employment rules.

‘Asscher wants to show that he is good for society by treating my members badly and taking €70m from them,’ Rob Bongenaar, head of the cleaning sector umbrella organisation OSB, told the Financieele Dagblad.

Some 80% of the cleaners who work in government offices have a permanent job and earn, on average, 120% of the minimum wage, he said.

The OZB has made a formal complaint about Asscher’s action to the independent complaints commission for government tenders.