Efforts to improve cleaners wages

The Tripartite Cluster for Cleaners (TCC), a tripartite effort stemming from the Labour Movement’s Building and Facility Management Services (BFM) Cluster which is made up of seven unions, released its recommendations for the cleaning industry in three sub-sectors, namely the office and commercial buildings, food and beverage (F&B) establishment, and conservancy sectors. The recommendations aim to help cleaners earn progressively higher wages with, skills upgrading and structured career advancement, as well as productivity improvements in the industry through technology and process re-design.

With the common vision of building a stronger Singaporean Core through higher wages and better working conditions, the BFM Cluster joined hands with its tripartite partners to form the TCC to realise its vision of ‘Better Jobs for All’ for the cleaning industry. At the BFM Cluster Launch cum Learning Journey held at a public area at Marsiling Drive today, the TCC unveiled its Progressive Wage Model (PWM). The BFM Cluster intends to use the PWM to help an initial 10,000 cleaners in the three sub-groups of the cleaning industry.

Challenges Faced by the Cleaning Industry

The cleaning industry faces various challenges such as cheap-sourcing, manpower shortage, low wages and unattractive working conditions, as well as the general poor perception of the industry.

As the cleaning sector is predominantly outsourced and affected by buyers choosing the cheapest over the best alternative, market forces alone have not been enough to ensure that improvements in standards and productivity translate into commensurate wage increases for cleaners.

Addressing the Difficulties of the Cleaning Industry

To address these challenges, NTUC’s BFM Cluster is looking into ways that the industry can be enhanced through improvements in work processes, better wages and working conditions; as well as better career progression opportunities to help grow the Singaporean Core within the industry and address the issue of a shortage of cleaners. To this end, it initiated the setting up of the TCC to recommend a PWM for the cleaning industry to provide a pathway for cleaners’ wages to progress with training and improvements in productivity and standards. In its deliberations on the progressive wage scales, the TCC considered factors such as:

1. what cleaners’ wages could have been if their wages had kept pace with productivity growth,
2. nature and working conditions of the various cleaning jobs,
3. wages of occupations with workers of similar educational profile as cleaners,
4. wages of cleaners working for responsible buyers who best source, and
5. information and inputs from the cleaning industry

The TCC has also taken into account the built-in wage increase of at least $50 for low-wage workers recommended by the National Wages Council for 2012/2013.

Helping 10,000 Cleaners Climb the Wage Ladder

Since June this year, NTUC introduced its PWM to help workers in different sectors achieve sustainable real wage increases through the tailoring of wage ladders unique to each job sector. It is intended to enable workers at all levels of the ladder to upgrade and progress to their next respective wage points.

The BFM Cluster is targeting to help an initial 10,000 cleaners from three sub-sectors achieve progressive wages through various strategies and programmes, namely:

1. improving productivity through funding subsidies from the Inclusive Growth Programme
2. encouraging service buyers to adopt the Best-Sourcing Initiative over cheap-sourcing

The PWM for the three sub-sectors within the cleaning industry comprises three wage ladders for three broad categories of cleaning jobs that account for the most common types of cleaning jobs.

Depicted in the appended diagram, the TCC recommends $1,000 as the entry-level basic wage for cleaning jobs in offices and commercial buildings, as well as the F&B establishment sector; and $1,200 in the conservancy sector. In addition to the entry-level wage point, each ladder comprises additional wage points to provide a pathway for cleaners to progress to higher wages as they become better skilled, more productive or take on higher responsibilities. Currently, from the BFM Cluster’s records of unionised companies’ gross salaries, the median wage of cleaners for these positions are between $675 and $950.

Mr Zainal Sapari, BFM Cluster Lead, explained the benefits of the PWM, “The wage ladders explain to cleaners how they can achieve wage progression, and this helps to motivate them to improve their skills and value-add. Employers (service providers) should actively train their cleaners and look at ways to improve work processes to increase productivity and meet higher cleaning standards. We encourage employers to consider more investment in technology and process re-design to help their cleaners climb the ladder and attain higher wages.”

In summary, what this means for:

The Building and Facility Management Services Cluster

1. boosted wages and better career progression opportunities for cleaners in these three sub-sectors
2. strengthened Singaporean Core

The Employers - Service Providers

1. heightened staff morale, leading to lower staff turnover and happier workers who will be more productive 
2. expanded business opportunities, increased competitiveness and sustainability

The Employees - Cleaners 

1. higher wages commensurate with improved training, higher standards and productivity
2. better-skilled, more valuable and better placed to pursue career progression

The Service Buyers

1. assurance of better and more reliable service and quality

The BFM Cluster would like to seek the support of the Government for the PWM. For example, the public sector could take the lead in best sourcing and encourage its cleaning service providers to adopt PWM. This would ensure that improvements in standards and productivity translate into commensurate wage increases for cleaners.

Easing Processes and Increasing Workers’ Productivity

At the Learning Journey organised by BFM, the Sembawang-Nee Soon Town Council shared their cleaning practices. The Town Council has introduced an incentive scheme to motivate their contractors (service providers) to reward their workers with higher salaries. Cleaners of the town council demonstrated their ability and skill in handling new machineries, such as the all-terrain-litter-vacuum and the OMO Battery-operated Cart, at the public space managed by the Sembawang-Nee Soon Town Council. The close and positive relationship between the town council and its cleaning service provider reaped a triple win outcome for all parties, including residents of the town council.

Issued by the National Trades Union Congress and Tripartite Cluster for Cleaners

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The Tripartite Cluster for Cleaners consists of:

Annex A

Progressive Wage Model for Cleaners in three sub-sectors

Proposed Training Guidelines for Cleaners