Cleaners to get bonus on top of wage increases from 2020

SINGAPORE — Cleaners who are Singapore citizens or permanent residents and have worked in the same company for at least a year will get a yearly bonus, on top of a three per cent annual wage increase.

Details of the compulsory wage hike and bonus to be paid to all resident cleaners from 2020 were released by the Tripartite Cluster for Cleaners (TCC) on Thursday (Nov 15), listing the exact quantum, timeline and scenarios under which these workers must be paid the bonuses. These were laid out by the TCC in an addendum to its Progressive Wage Model (PWM) first unveiled in 2016.

Part-time and relief cleaning workers, who are employed on an ad hoc basis, must be paid a bonus that is pro-rated to the contractual hours they worked that year, as long as they worked in the same company for at least 12 months.

However, the TCC noted that some workers may not be able to meet the minimum service length in their company due to the clients changing service providers.

To address this concern, employers must still pay the bonuses to their workers on a pro-rated basis in such scenarios, said the tripartite cluster.

PWM models will not only motivate cleaners to stay with the same employer, but “encourage cleaning businesses to invest in workers’ training and in turn raise productivity”, said the TCC.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said on Thursday that the Government has accepted the recommendations in the addendum to the TCC report. It added that the TCC’s proposal to implement both the annual bonuses and wage increases will be made mandatory for all licensed cleaning businesses via an order by the Commissioner for Labour.

In December 2016, the tripartite cluster proposed enhancements to the Progressive Wage Model (PWM) for the cleaning sector, including a mandatory annual bonus to be paid to eligible resident cleaners with effect from 2020.

These recommendations were passed in Parliament in October this year under the Environmental Public Health (Amendment) Bill.

According to the 2016 recommendations, over 40,000 cleaners from more than 1,300 cleaning businesses will see an annual wage increase of three per cent from July 1, 2020, to 2022. These workers can also expect to receive annual bonuses of at least two weeks of their basic monthly salary.

The TCC said that the bonus is not tied to a cleaner’s performance.

At present, general cleaners in offices and commercial buildings, food and beverage outlets, and conservancy are paid between S$1,120 and S$1,320 a month, with the quantum to rise to between S$1,312 and S$1,530 by 2022 with the scheduled wage increases.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) Assistant Secretary-General Zainal Sapari hailed the mandatory payment of PWM Bonus as a “landmark improvement” to the welfare of Singapore’s cleaners.

He added that the PWM model is different from a minimum wage on several fronts, comparing it to a ladder rather than a floor as it allows every worker a chance to progress.

“It takes into account sectoral differences, looking beyond a one-size-fits-all approach; it raises wages in a sustainable way, because it is matched with the necessary productivity growth,” he said.

Over 70,000 workers have since benefitted from mandatory implementation of PWM in the security, cleaning and landscaping sectors, with these workers “enjoying higher-than-median real wage growth”, added Mr Zainal.