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Caught in the pay squeeze
In the last six months, Madam Mala Swamy has cut down on weekend
outings with her two children. She saves on transport costs by
taking them to parks or malls that are within walking distance.
Since December, her boss has stopped paying her $50 every month
in Central Provident Fund (CPF) contributions, claiming it is not
in her contract. The 39-year- old, who has only three O-level
passes, earns $750 a month as a carpark attendant in a commercial
building in Bukit Merah. She works an eight-hour day from Mondays
to Fridays and half-days on Saturdays.
By day, she badgers her boss for the CPF money, such that he has
taken to avoiding her. At night, she lies awake, worrying how she
will meet the payments for the four-room HDB flat she lives in with
her odd-job worker husband.
But she does not dare to complain officially, for fear of losing
her hard-won job. She secured it only after over 60 job
applications and after 10 years as a housewife. At countless
interviews, she was told that her previous work experience as an
administrative assistant was 'not relevant'.
Hers is the typical plight of the underpaid - and often unfairly
treated - contract worker in Singapore.
Each month, the Unit for Contract and Casual Workers (UCCW), set
up by the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) in May last year,
handles about 10 cases, mostly complaints about withheld wages, CPF
payments, medical benefits and annual leave.
The complainants may be a disgruntled individual, or as many as
50 workers contracted to a single company.
Mr Mah Cheong Fatt, head of UCCW, said a survey conducted
between January and March this year of 2,000 contract workers,
mainly school cleaners, reflected similar alleged mistreatment. But
many, he noted, often do not complain officially, for fear of
losing their jobs.
'Contract workers' typically refer to those who work on
fixed-term employment contracts, usually lasting a year, or until
their service contract with a company ends, whichever is sooner.
They usually work as cleaners, landscape workers, dispatch riders,
carpark attendants, security guards or valets here.
Their numbers are rising, according to the Ministry of Manpower
(MOM), which defines contract workers as those who work part-time,
full-time and on ad-hoc projects that last a few months.
From 80,000 workers, forming 4 per cent of the workforce in
2002, their numbers rose to 172,000, or 12 per cent of the
workforce in 2006. Last year, this group inched up to 183,600.
Of these, UCCW's statistics show that 20 per cent are cleaners
and labourers, 19 per cent in professional and administrative
services, 15 per cent technicians, 15 per cent in sales, 15 per
cent clerks and 16 per cent machine operators, craftsmen and
others.
Most contract workers tend to be aged 40 and above, and are
primary or lower secondary school dropouts. Most get into casual
work as a last resort - after difficulty in landing full-time
employment, prolonged illness or time away from the workforce -
thinking it is a temporary measure to make ends meet, but they end
up as serial contract workers, often for life.
AT THE MERCY OF EMPLOYERS
Out of eight contract workers - two cleaners, two gardeners, two
airport trolley handlers and two carpark attendants - interviewed
by The Sunday Times, the lowest monthly wage earned was $550 and
the highest, $1,200.
All said that upgrading their skills to remain relevant, as the
Government constantly exhorts, was near impossible as they work
shifts, have irregular days off, or pull 12- to 18-hour workdays,
holding two jobs to make ends meet.
Six work at least six days a week. Six receive no CPF. Five have
no medical benefits. Four had their salaries docked when on medical
leave. In one case, a cleaner who declined to be named even had $50
deducted from her salary when her supervisor found water droplets
on the toilet floor.
Most said they have seen their pay packets shrink progressively
through the years. Whenever their contracting company loses out
during the tender process to a cheaper bid, they are either shed
with little notice or absorbed into a 'new company'.
But the 'new company' was often new in name only: The workers
remained in exactly the same job, cleaning or guarding the same
premises, but at reduced rates.
NTUC's deputy secretary-general Halimah Yacob, who has raised
the plight of contract workers in Parliament, has noted that
contractors often offer 'cut-throat prices' to secure contracts,
then 'cut corners with workers'.
A 66-year-old cleaner, who lives in a one-room flat in Ang Mo
Kio, told The Sunday Times he was paid less each time he 'changed
uniform'. He has had three such changes in the last six years. He
now earns $650, down from $700 in 2001.
This corresponds with the latest Report on Wages in Singapore
2006, which showed that low- wage earners' salaries had fallen by
30 per cent. For example, cleaners and labourers who earned $860 in
1996 took home just $600 monthly 10 years later in 2006.
National University of Singapore sociology lecturer Vedi Hadiz,
who researches labour issues, said: 'This is because of the
spillover effect on the local labour market with the existing
reliance on foreign workers - wages get depressed and local workers
can be displaced.
'Serial contract workers are a trend worldwide. But the
difference between Singapore and other countries is the level of
protection that the workers enjoy under the law.'
In Singapore, the Employment Act does not stipulate, for
example, minimum wages or if there should be a written employment
contract.
SEEKING FAIR TREATMENT FOR ALL
But there are other official channels to seek redress here. The
MOM has received around 800 complaints in the past two years from
contract and casual workers. The bulk of these involved non-payment
of wages. Seven in 10 cases were successfully mediated. To date,
all of UCCW's complaint cases have been resolved without the
ministry having to step in.
Parliamentarians have also been calling for a better deal for
the growing pool of contract workers here. Acting Manpower Minister
Gan Kim Yong, in March this year, and Prime Minister Lee Hsien
Loong, in last month's May Day address, also voiced their concerns
for contract workers.
The Tripartite Committee on CPF and Work-related Benefits for
Low-wage Workers issued six guidelines earlier this year for
companies that outsource services. These include awarding bids to
contractors that comply with employment laws and ensuring that
contract workers have written employment contracts which clearly
state working hours, pay and benefits.
In March, the MOM issued an advisory to all companies and
contractors on responsible outsourcing practices. It put on its
website a sample employment contract spelling out terms such as
basic salaries, allowances, CPF contributions, overtime rates and
leave that contract workers should be entitled to. It also
published an employee booklet in four languages to educate contract
workers on their entitlements.
The UCCW has also held workshops for about 100 companies and
contractors. UCCW's director, MP Zainudin Nordin, is working
towards inculcating 'best sourcing' practices. That means companies
should assess contract bids not on price alone, but also on
contract workers' benefits, salaries and leave.
'It is a moral responsibility on their part. They cannot just
not see when the cleaner in their office is not well treated,' he
said.
The UCCW is also encouraging companies to include outsourcing
practices as part of their corporate social responsibility ethos,
said Mr Mah.
'Corporate social responsibility is about treating all workers -
including workers in the contracted company's payroll - with decent
salaries and benefits,' he said.
But the trouble is companies outsource services like cleaning
that require a lot of manpower, precisely because they want to take
it off their payroll, to concentrate on their core business. By
extension, they see it as the contracting company's responsibility,
not theirs, to look into workers' welfare.
Organisations like SingHealth and the Civil Aviation Authority
of Singapore which outsource services such as cleaning, pest
control, housekeeping and landscaping, said in replies to The
Sunday Times that they 'leave' management of contracted staff to
the contractor.
Businesses, being businesses, also face constant bottom-line
pressures to pick the lowest bid when choosing contractors, partly
because it is the most logical and easiest to justify to
management.
A purchasing officer with a company that outsources its
cleaning, lift maintenance and landscaping services said frankly:
'Most companies here don't have an attitude of paying for services.
We want it cheap and good.'
Nevertheless, some companies are conscientiously bucking the
trend by weighing in the welfare of contract workers. One local
hospital, which declined to be named, does a detailed assessment of
the deal the contracting company offers its workers. It looks
closely at their salaries, benefits and leave terms.
Some contracting companies, such as Danish-owned ISS Facilities
Services, also refuse to play the 'bargain basement' bidding
game.
The 13-year-old Singapore- based company which provides
cleaning, waste disposal and landscaping services and hires over
3,000 Singaporean employees, makes it a point to bow out of bidding
for a contract if its homework shows that the company awarding the
tender is focused on the lowest price.
Its chief executive officer, Mr Woon Hiap Chuan, said: 'I am
happy too as I cannot bring myself to bid lower and then bully the
'little people' by cutting their salaries or benefits.
'Cheap and good cannot always work. We need to think of workers'
livelihoods.'
This article was first published in The Sunday Times on Jun
8, 2008
