Move set to benefit 40,000 workers across 1,500 cleaning businesses in Singapore
By Jolene Ang, The Straits Times, 8 Jun 2021
Cleaners will see their wages continue to go up each year from 2023, over six years, after proposals by a tripartite committee on the cleaning wage ladder were accepted by the Government yesterday.
From 2023 to 2028, the base wages of Singaporean and permanent resident cleaners across all job levels will increase each year. This will benefit about 40,000 cleaners across about 1,500 cleaning businesses in Singapore.
The first adjustment in 2023 will see base wages of general and indoor cleaners increase by, for example, almost 20 per cent from $1,312 next year to $1,570.
The move is meant to narrow the income disparity between cleaners and other workers. Under previous updates to the Progressive Wage Model (PWM) in 2016 and 2018, cleaners were slated to get 3 per cent annual wage increases from last year to next year.
The latest wage increases were among new recommendations made by the Tripartite Cluster for Cleaners (TCC), after it conducted another round of reviews of the model.
The PWM, a ladder that sets out minimum pay and training requirements for workers at different skill levels, was launched in the cleaning sector by the TCC in 2012. It has been a compulsory condition since 2014 for the licensing of cleaning companies.
The TCC - which comprises representatives from the labour movement, industry, service buyers and the Government - also recommended having cleaners trained in workplace safety and health protocols by the end of next year.
This is to ensure their personal safety when carrying out cleaning tasks, especially in the light of increased cleaning demands due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Employers should also send cleaners for one of the core Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) modules identified by the TCC for their relevant job levels.
The PWM training guidelines had earlier required that all resident cleaners attain the minimum two WSQ certificates next year.
With the latest recommendations, cleaners will have until December next year to complete the two modules.
Ms Phyllis Lim, deputy director of the National Trades Union Congress' (NTUC) U Care Centre, which supports low-wage workers, said in a press statement yesterday that training class sizes have been reduced to adhere to Covid-19 safe management measures.
"The new timeline is to allow sufficient time for cleaning businesses to comply with the training requirements... By the end of 2022, they should be able to send their cleaners (for the modules)."
Another recommendation was that beyond 2025, cleaners in lower job rungs must complete one additional module, while those in higher job rungs must complete two extra modules.
The list of WSQ training modules has been updated, and will periodically be updated to ensure its relevance, the TCC said.
The Ministry of Manpower, National Environment Agency, SkillsFuture Singapore and Workforce Singapore said in a joint statement yesterday that the recommendations will "ensure significant wage growth and skills upgrading for cleaners, and develop a more competent and productive cleaning workforce".
They said: "Together, our collective whole-of-society efforts will uplift our lower-wage workers."
NTUC secretary-general Ng Chee Meng said in a Facebook post: "I am glad that many of us are more aware of the value of work our cleaners do... Pandemic or not, uplifting the lives of our lower-wage workers matters to us."
Singapore's cleaning industry lauds increase in wages as recognition of workers' efforts, risks
By Jolene Ang, The Straits Times, 8 Jun 2021
The cleaning industry welcomed the updates to the sector's Progressive Wage Model (PWM) announced yesterday, saying the move to increase wages is also an affirmation of workers' efforts and risks undertaken.
This is especially so in the light of increased cleaning demands due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The proposal for a six-year schedule for wage increases put forth by a tripartite committee on the cleaning wage ladder was accepted by the Government yesterday. It is meant to narrow the income disparity between cleaners and other workers.
This will allow about 40,000 cleaners across some 1,500 cleaning businesses in Singapore to see their wages go up each year over six years, from 2023.
Mr Tony Chooi, a member of the Tripartite Cluster for Cleaners (TCC) and director of cleaning and environmental services provider BNL Services, said he is glad that recognition is being given to front-line workers such as cleaners.
"They have been taking more risks than many of us have, in cleaning up and ensuring that the environment is safe for everybody," he said at a press briefing yesterday.
Ms Tan Wei Ying, corporate service director at cleaning and conservancy company LS 2 Services, told The Straits Times her company is "aligned with the goal of providing more for our cleaners".
"They are valuable resources contributing to Singapore's clean and green city," she said.
She noted that the company's clients have thus far recognised the efforts and risks that cleaners have been taking amid the pandemic. Both parties will work together to discuss their budgets and figure out the best way to handle the increased costs from the wage increase, she added.
Mr Chooi also acknowledged the increased cost burden for cleaning companies. "That is why we are asking for a two-year runway to 2023, before these salaries kick in, so we have time to price our future tenders correctly," he said.
"If the contracts are long-term, stretching beyond 2023, we will have time to negotiate with our service buyers to see how we can reach a mutually agreeable solution to fund the increase in salaries," said Mr Chooi, who is also president of the Environmental Management Association of Singapore.
Ms Chia Mui Noi, a general cleaner who joined LS 2 Services last year, leads the cleaning team at a junior college.
General cleaners are on the lowest rung of the wage ladder, although team leaders like Ms Chia at every wage level get an additional $100 a month.
Her main role is to supervise and inspect cleaning tasks such as classroom and canteen cleaning, and the sanitising of high-touch areas.
The 61-year-old said she was very happy to hear about the wage increments, especially since she had taken a pay cut when she joined the company. She was previously a healthcare cleaner - which is on a higher rung of the ladder - at a hospital for about 10 years before assuming her new role.
"It is lower pay but I wanted a change of industry and direction. There is more work-life balance (in her new job)," she said, noting that the health risk is higher in a hospital job, while working hours are also longer.
NTUC assistant director-general Zainal Sapari, who chairs the TCC, said the six-year schedule for wage increases aims to provide transparency for cleaning companies and service buyers to apprise tender contracts objectively.
The schedule "provides greater certainty to service providers and service buyers to price and award the cleaning contracts that would be fair to all stakeholders, including our cleaners", he noted.
Mr Zainal added that there was "no particular formula" as to how the wage increases were derived.
"It's really based on a wage negotiation where we also made a relative comparison to what the workers could get in competing industries."
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