Good Afternoon
Brother Zee,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Introduction
Thank you for taking the time and effort to join us for the cleaning carnival. Today’s event is jointly hosted by the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) and NTUC LearningHub, a social enterprise of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC). Over 150 cleaners and 10 cleaning companies are here to join us for this event.
Through today’s carnival, we hope that more workers will be encouraged to take on training and build up on their skills capacity. Similarly, employers can also do their part by providing financial support for training and fairer employment terms for their workers.
Training and Skills Upgrading
Over the last 10 years, incomes of low-wage workers have remained stagnant with a mere increase of 0.3% in their real wages. The situation is further worsened with the rising cost of living and the low-wage workers are bearing the brunt of it. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that our workers remain competitive and constantly upgrade themselves by undergoing training and skills upgrading.
Currently, NTUC LearningHub has various training and upgrading courses available to help workers upgrade themselves. In addition to that, training materials should be suited to workers’ needs to help them better understand the training content. I applaud NTUC LearningHub’s effort in translating course materials into other vernacular languages and providing simple workplace English courses for workers with lower literacy level.
While we can create many of such training opportunities, workers can only benefit from them if their employers are willing to go the extra mile to allow employees to go for training. Coupled with rising demands from global competition, employers have to keep up the productivity level of the workers. I would like to take this opportunity to urge all employers to provide training opportunities for workers to upgrade themselves and enhance their productivity.
Employers can provide such support by encouraging flexible work arrangements and providing financial grants or course fee funding for the workers. They can also provide incentives such as wage increment or bonuses for them.
Encouraging Best Sourcing and Unionization
Furthermore, the cleaning industry is very competitive and stiff competition is pushing down workers’ wages. Competition should focus on quality and service standards and companies should move away from cheap sourcing practices. By embarking on best sourcing, companies can compete on a level playing field and cleaners can receive fair employment terms and better wages.
Just to share with everyone a story of a cleaner in his 60s, whose house is in complete darkness every night. The reason why he does not switch on the lights is not because he is saving electricity. It is because he is unable to afford the monthly utility bill with a meagre income of $600 every month. He used to receive better employment terms and higher wages when the cleaning service was in-sourced. However, cheap sourcing practices resulted in his wages being pushed down as cleaning companies compete and undercut each other on the basis of price. To reduce the tender price, many cleaning companies tend to push down the manpower cost since it makes up a significant component.
Moving forward, we encourage all service buyers to move away from cheap sourcing practices and for cleaning companies to provide fair employment terms for all workers. As we strive for inclusive growth for all Singaporeans, we must ensure that low-wage workers are not left behind. It is essential to push up their wages and provide fair employment terms for them.
Unionizing cleaning companies and making sure that cleaners are unionized ensures that workers receive fairer employment terms and conditions. Not only can the unions represent workers to negotiate for better working terms and conditions, union members are also entitled to many other union benefits. Being part of the union, they are also able to enjoy benefits such as NTUC group insurance, vouchers, hardship grants and other subsidies. As an employer, going the extra mile by providing for the workers’ union membership will help elevate the company’s image as a model employer to all workers.
I strongly believe that more can be done by our ministries, public institutions and employers to improve the lives of our low- wage workers. All the agencies should continue to work hand in hand to help this group of Singaporeans so that they will not be disadvantaged.
Appreciation to the Cleaners and Cleaning Companies
Last but not least, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the hardworking people behind the scenes in the cleaning industry for their efforts in keeping our environment clean and green. I would like to extend my utmost appreciation to the employers for their efforts in supporting training for the workers and re-employment of older workers.
Thank you to all our brothers and sisters from the cleaning industry and all our guests for joining us today. I wish you an enjoyable time at the carnival!
Thank you.
