Covid-19: Up to healthcare institutions to reward outsourced frontline staff who didn’t get special bonus, says Koh Poh Koon

• Third-party contractors hire about 10,000 people working in public healthcare institutions, Senior Minister of State Koh Poh Koon said
• MP Tan Wu Meng said in the days before outsourcing, cleaners at these institutions would have qualified for the Covid-19 bonus
• He asked MOH to consider extending it to outsourced front-line workers 
• Dr Koh said the Govt would give healthcare institutions the latitude, time to reward them appropriately 

SINGAPORE — The Government will leave healthcare institutions to reward outsourced workers who did not benefit from a special one-month bonus for public officers on the front lines of the Covid-19 crisis. 

Dr Koh Poh Koon, Senior Minister of State for Health, said this in Parliament on Tuesday (Feb 2) in response to a question on whether the Ministry of Health (MOH) would consider extending the bonus to outsourced cleaners and rank-and-file workers in the vanguard of the pandemic response.

Dr Tan Wu Meng, the Member of Parliament who asked the question, said that cleaners who handled the rooms and toilets of Covid-19 patients would have qualified for the bonus before outsourcing became common, since they would have been direct hires.

The bonus, announced by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat in February last year, was to recognise the valour of front-line public officers who are combating the pandemic.

In his reply to Dr Tan, who is with the Jurong Group Representation Constituency, Dr Koh said: “I am sure that healthcare institutions will look at ways to honour their hard work and sacrifices, and the risk that they take as well. 

“So we will give the healthcare institutions the latitude and the time to plan for appreciation in various ways that we can, to show solidarity with these workers who have also taken risks, just like any of our other healthcare workers.”

He agreed with Dr Tan that outsourced workers who face the same risks as the other front-line workers should be appropriately recognised.

Many public healthcare institutions have extended goodwill donations and care packs to them, Dr Koh said. 

Dr Tan also asked for the proportion of front-line workers at public healthcare institutions who are outsourced or not direct hires, and the extent to which human resource practices for the outsourced workers are harmonised with those of direct hires.

To this, Dr Koh replied that third-party contractors hire about 10,000 people, or about 13 per cent of those working at public healthcare institutions. They work in housekeeping, security, landscaping, pest control, and kitchen or food services.

Almost 70 per cent of them are in roles that require them to be in patient care or front-line areas, but less than 5 per cent are involved in handling patient samples, he said. 

He said that the third-party contractors determine and pay the compensation and benefits of these workers. The contractors are, in turn, engaged for a fee under a contract for a service arrangement for specific projects or services.

The public healthcare institutions train outsourced staff members who work in high-risk areas in infection control and provide them with full personal protective equipment that they may use when carrying out their duties.

These workers are also included in the Covid-19 vaccination exercise for healthcare workers.

Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh of the Workers’ Party asked if MOH would make it a requirement for contractors of public healthcare institutions to extend work injury compensation to the outsourced workers.

Dr Koh said that he does not have information that pertains to specific institutions. He believed, though, that generic provisions for workplace injuries and compensation would apply.