Best Sourcing Delivers Results for Cleaning Contracts on Conservancy and Hawker Centre Cleaning
17 July 2009
Joint Media Release
1 The National Trades Union Congress’s Unit for Contract and Casual Workers (UCCW) and e2i (Employment and Employability Institute), together with the National Environment Agency (NEA) and Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council (HBPTC), achieved initial success in promoting ‘best sourcing’ for cleaning contracts. The partners will continue to work together to implement Best Sourcing Initiatives (BSI) on all future cleaning contracts by 2010 so as to transform and uplift the cleaning industry
2 The partners recognised that the cleaning industry used to be trapped in a vicious cycle of ‘cheap sourcing’ where buyers award contracts to the cheapest bidder. Therefore, in order to undercut one another’s prices to secure contracts, service providers compromised on service quality, and workers’ training and welfare. As a result, residents, workers, buyers and service providers suffer
3 To break out of this vicious cycle, UCCW and e2i worked closely with NEA and HBPTC to implement BSI so that contracts are awarded based on best value for money that takes into account quality and performance standards instead of solely prices.
4 Chairman of e2i, Ong Ye Kung, said “Buyers have a choice before them. Go for poorer quality, drive down cost, and squeeze workers. Or go for efficiency and quality, at a higher price, with better-skilled workers. The labour movement’s choice is the latter, which is better for workers. From a broader perspective, Singapore’s future lies in building capability and raising quality.”
BSI Learning Journey to Housing Estate and Hawker Centre
5 At the BSI Learning Journey for Job Re-Creation Programme (JRP) coordinators, e2i showcased two examples where the adoption of BSI and JRP led to buyers enjoying better service, service providers benefitting from higher productivity, and workers gaining from better skills and better pay
6 The service providers under BSI deliver better performance and productivity through better job designs, training of workers, and usage of better equipment. For example, Horsburgh Engineering, service provider of cleaners, now deploys a team leader to assist the cleaning supervisor and perform customer-related functions. This has contributed to smoother operations especially during peak period, resulting in faster response time to customers’ requests at the Holland Village Market and Food Centre. Clean Solutions, another cleaning company, sends its workers for National Skills Recognition System (NSRS) training and the cleaners use equipment such as “Ride-on Sweeper” vehicles to improve efficiency by four times. Previously, two workers had to use four hours to clean a car park. Today, it takes only one worker to clean the car park in two hours.
7 Buyers adopting BSI enjoy better service and higher value-for-money by awarding contracts to service providers based on performance rather than price. “Through BSI, we are able to raise the cleanliness standards in the estates with high performance standards and trained conservancy workers. We could also assure and encourage the conservancy companies to invest in good HR practices such as providing training, fair pay and written employment contracts for their workers. This would in turn help the companies retain and attract better-skilled conservancy workers to serve our residents,” said Dr Teo Ho Pin, Chairman of Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council.
8 To date, 705 conservancy workers have undergone NSRS training, and more will follow. These higher skilled and better equipped workers are more productive, and hence able to enjoy better employment benefits and salary packages. Previously, conservancy cleaners typically earn $750 and do not receive Central Provident Fund (CPF) contributions. Today, not only do they receive CPF contributions, those who have completed their training can earn up to $1,000 a month.
9 Director of NTUC’s UCCW, Zainudin Nordin, said, "NEA and Town Council’s good efforts can be replicated in other cleaning sectors. With BSI, the focus is not placed on the contract price but value, performance and productivity. Workers under BSI do not face downward pressure on wages as service providers do not depress prices. Instead, workers are valued for their services and performance. This motivates workers to go for training and when their productivity increases, they may command better pay."
