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Cleaners to get higher basic pay, annual bonus

SINGAPORE — Just over a year after it was fully implemented, a wage structure aimed at raising cleaners’ salaries through skills upgrading and productivity improvements will be enhanced. The changes seek to address high attrition in the industry and plug a loophole that could see these workers’ wages being reset to the baseline whenever service providers are changed.

Resident cleaners will be paid more from 2017 and will also receive an annual bonus from 2020, under a new set of recommendations accepted by the Government on Dec 12, 2016. TODAY file photo

Resident cleaners will be paid more from 2017 and will also receive an annual bonus from 2020, under a new set of recommendations accepted by the Government on Dec 12, 2016. TODAY file photo

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SINGAPORE — Just over a year after it was fully implemented, a wage structure aimed at raising cleaners’ salaries through skills upgrading and productivity improvements will be enhanced. The changes seek to address high attrition in the industry and plug a loophole that could see these workers’ wages being reset to the baseline whenever service providers are changed. 

Following a review of the Progressive Wage Model (PWM) for the cleaning sector, more than 40,000 cleaners will receive annual adjustments to their basic salary from next year to 2019, for a total increase of S$200. Between 2020 and 2022, these workers will also see their salaries increase by 3 per cent each year, on top of an annual bonus equivalent to two weeks of their basic monthly wages.

The recommendations, which were put up by a tripartite cluster, were accepted by the Government on Monday (Dec 12). Cleaning businesses with new service contracts from July 1 next year will adopt the new wage levels, while those with existing service contracts will have to do so by July 1, 2018.

In September last year, a new mandatory licensing regime for all cleaning firms was implemented. Under the regime, cleaners have to be paid according to the PWM advocated by the labour movement. 

First introduced in 2012, the PWM requires cleaning companies to pay an entry-level salary of S$1,000 each month and subsequently give increments in tandem with skills upgrading. Those who are trained to handle cleaning machines would earn at least S$1,400 and a supervisor would get S$1,600.

The tripartite cluster noted that from 2012 to last year, median basic and gross wages of full-time resident cleaners grew by 9 per cent and 12 per cent per annum respectively. In June last year, the median basic and gross wages for this group were S$1,100 and S$1,200 respectively. 

However, “the industry continues to face manpower challenges such as high turnover rates”, said the cluster, which comprised representatives from the labour movement, cleaning companies, service buyers and the government. It added that cleaners “may also experience a reset of their wages” to the starting salaries stipulated by the PWM when service providers are changed. “More needs to be done to ensure that cleaners achieve sustainable real wage increases,” the cluster stressed. 

Speaking to TODAY, National Trades Union Congress assistant secretary-general Zainal Sapari, who chairs the cluster, pointed out that not all cleaners are able to enjoy annual wage increments, and the enhanced PWM was a “significant” measure to address this. “The practice for (cleaning firms) is to only give (the increments) to the workers that they want to retain,” said Mr Zainal, who added that it was also not common for cleaners to receive an annual bonus. 

Still, he said the enhanced PWM is “not a magic wand, but a first step”. But while it does not address all the problems, “it sets a certain safety net”, he said.

The S$200 total increment will be spread over three years — starting with a S$60 raise next year and an identical increase in 2018, and another S$80 increment in 2019.

To address the issue of cleaners’ wages being reset following a change in service providers, Mr Zainal had previously suggested adopting the approach used by the Government’s bus contracting model, where among other things affected, workers must be offered employment terms that are not worse off, and they can choose to join a new operator or be redeployed by their current employer where feasible. He acknowledged that such an approach may be hard to replicate in the cleaning industry that has several service buyers, apart from the Government itself. 

“But if the Government (as one of the service buyers) can take the lead for the cleaning industry, there would be some headway,” he said.

Cleaners TODAY spoke to welcomed the enhanced PWM. General cleaner Magaswari, 52, said her current salary of S$1,000 was insufficient, given that she is the sole breadwinner in a family of three. Her pay has stagnated for the past three years, she said. 

Nevertheless, her company dishes out an “attendance reward” of S$100 in February and August, on the condition that employees do not go on medical leave or take leave over a six-month period. They are also given a S$400 bonus twice a year. 

Ms Malliga Ganesan, human resources manager at Cleaning Express, said her company supports the proposed increment which is “within the acceptable range”.

“We do face difficulty in recruiting cleaners ... The pool of cleaners is shrinking and we are competing with other service sectors for workers as well. Cleaning may be the last choice for those looking for a job even though we can offer a higher salary,” she said.

Correction: An earlier version of this story said wages of full-time resident cleaners grew by 9 per cent and 12 per cent per annum respectively from 2012 to 2015. This is incorrect. Median basic and gross wages of full-time resident cleaners grew by 9 per cent and 12 per cent per annum respectively from 2012 to 2015. We are sorry for the error.

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