SINGAPORE — More than 50 outsourced cleaners working at the NTUC Centre and Ang Mo Kio Hub, which are both owned by labour movement-related entities, will receive the National Wages Council’s (NWC) recommended S$60 built-in wage increase for low-wage workers next month.

Meanwhile, another 600 outsourced cleaners will stand to benefit from the NWC’s guidelines later this year, when the National Trades Union Congress’ (NTUC) social enterprises fully implement the same wage increase to their service providers’ outsourced contract cleaners.

The NTUC’s move to adopt the wage guidelines by the NWC, a tripartite body comprising representatives from employers, trade unions and the Government, came as the Public Service Division last week announced that the Government is going beyond the recommendations by giving lower-wage civil servants an additional pay increase of S$70 next month.

But beyond this year’s pay increases, the labour movement hopes that the NWC guidelines will be adopted as a licensing requirement for cleaning companies.

Speaking to some 100 cleaners at the launch of the “I Care for My Cleaners” campaign yesterday, NTUC Secretary-General Lim Swee Say described next year, which will see the licensing of cleaning contractors, as “a big breakthrough for all cleaners of Singapore”.

The licensing will mandate contractors to adopt a progressive wage model, an initiative by the NTUC to systematically boost the pay of low-skilled workers by training them to take up higher-paying jobs in the same sector. It will result in all cleaners earning a minimum salary of S$1,000.

Speaking to reporters later, Mr Lim said licensing would encourage pay rises for other low-wage workers as well. “Once the cleaners are put on this track, we believe that it will actually encourage other sectors to do likewise — whether it’s the security sector or landscaping and so on.”

Asked whether the licensing requirement would mandate cleaning companies to adopt the NWC guidelines, Mr Lim said: “In fact, this is indeed our intention … the well-being of the contract cleaners ought to be a shared responsibility of the service buyer as well as the contractor.”

Mr Lim noted that, while 80 per cent of unionised companies adopted the NWC’s guidelines last year, less than 30 per cent of non-unionised companies did so. “This is something the labour movement ... we’re very concerned about; and that’s why this year, we’re coming up very strongly to cover this guideline for the contract workers.”

Speaking during the event, NTUC’s Unit for Contract and Casual Workers Director Zainal Sapari expressed hope that the campaign would “encourage employers to also give recognition to other low-wage worker groups”.

“To me, how we treat our cleaners and others in the service industry is a reflection of how gracious and civic-minded we are as an individual and as a society,” he said.

Yesterday, Mr Lim, Mr Zainal, NTUC Central Committee members and staff from NTUC’s Administration and Research Unit donned aprons and served a buffet dinner to the cleaners at Ang Mo Kio Hub and handed them appreciation gifts.

The month-long campaign is held in conjunction with International Cleaners Day, which falls on Saturday.