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Sitecore Context Id: 31d84e70-1388-42a6-adb7-541f664516fa;
Through the efforts of the Tripartite Cluster for Cleaners (TCC), concrete steps have been taken to improve the livelihood of cleaners. After TCC developed a Progressive Wage Model (PWM) for the cleaning industry in 2012, the progressive wage requirement was introduced as a criteria under the National Environment Agency (NEA)’s voluntary Enhanced Clean Mark Accreditation Scheme. Subsequently, the progressive wage requirement was implemented under the Cleaning Business Licensing regime through an Order imposed by the Commissioner for Labour, with the passing of the Environmental Public Health (Amendment) Bill in 2014.
In 2016, the TCC recommended sustainable wage increases that would see the income of our resident cleaners grow at an average of 4.6 per cent per annum over six years. Coupled with the Workfare Income Supplement scheme, many cleaners today are seeing an increase in their take-home pay and CPF savings.
Taking further steps to address the challenges facing the industry today and through the revised TCC report released in December 2016, the TCC has also recommended, a PWM Bonus (known as ‘annual bonus’ previously) to be paid to cleaners from 2020 onwards.
PWM Bonus from 2020
On 2 October 2018, the Environmental Public Health (Amendment) Bill was passed in Parliament to mandate the payment of PWM Bonus to eligible cleaners from January 2020. This bonus will benefit more than 40,000 Singaporean and Permanent Resident cleaners.
The PWM Bonus is to be paid to workers who have been employed by the same cleaning business for at least 12 months. Besides helping to uplift their wages, the PWM Bonus will serve as a retention tool to motivate cleaners to stay with the same employer longer for better career progression. It would also go towards incentivising cleaning businesses to invest in workers’ training to raise productivity.
Implementation of PWM Bonus
The TCC had consulted service buyers and service providers in the cleaning industry on the implementation of the PWM Bonus. It is important to note that the PWM bonus is not tied to worker’s performance.
Service buyers need to adopt progressive and fair procurement practices
Notwithstanding that licensed cleaning businesses must meet the progressive wage requirement and to pay eligible cleaners the PWM Bonus, the TCC strongly encourages service buyers to adopt progressive and fair procurement practices when procuring cleaning services.
One best-sourcing practice for service buyers is to adopt outcome-based contracting to mitigate the limitations of headcount-based contracts. This addresses the issue of shortage of manpower, as well as low adoption of technology and low productivity. Outcome-based contracting also encourages service providers to adopt technology to achieve better service outcomes. Another best-sourcing practice is the use of Price-Quality Method (PQM) to evaluate tender submissions, where price is not the only assessment criteria. Using the PQM, service buyers should instead place more emphasis on the quality of the proposed services provided, ensuring a more equitable assessment.
The TCC urges all service buyers to ensure that tender prices commensurate with the level of service and investment in technology and training, without compromising the welfare of cleaners. In addition, when changing service providers, service buyers should incorporate a clause within the tender specifications stating that existing workers who join the new service provider would not be worse-off in terms of their employment terms and benefits.
NTUC Assistant Secretary-General Zainal Sapari, who is also Chairman of the TCC, said, “Efforts to help the vulnerable workers in the cleaning industry are still a work-in-progress. The mandatory payment of PWM Bonus is a landmark improvement to the welfare of our resident cleaners. It will put an end to resident cleaners’ common work grievance of not being paid bonuses. It is our hope that the PWM Bonus will serve as a motivational tool to encourage workers to stay longer with the same employer, as well as incentivise employers to invest in training their cleaners. This way, as cleaners become more skilled, this will be accompanied by higher productivity and better wages.”
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