Debated in Parliament on 24 Feb 2021.
Dr Tan Wu Meng asked the Minister for Health at public healthcare institutions in each year from 2010 to 2020 (a) how many cleaning sector workers were deployed (i) overall and (ii) in patient care areas; (b) what proportion of these were (i) direct hires and (ii) outsourced respectively; and (c) what was the the median salary for direct hires and outsourced workers respectively.
There were around 3,680 housekeeping and cleaning staff working in the public healthcare institutions1 as at end 2020. Of these, about 3,550 were outsourced workers. Overall, the number of direct hires for housekeeping and cleaning staff had decreased from approximately 170 in 2013 to 130 in 2020 and their average monthly salaries had increased by 33% from $1,380 in 2013 to $1,830 in 2020 (see Table 1 for details).
Due to changes in data definition, we are only able to ascertain the number of direct hires and their salaries from 2013 onwards. The public healthcare institutions only have information on the number of outsourced workers deployed as at end 2020 since this is recent. They do not have data on the salaries of outsourced workers who are employed by third-party contractors. Nonetheless, the third-party contractors engaged by our public healthcare institutions are required to adopt the Progressive Wage Model (PWM) for cleaners and abide by the Tripartite Guidelines for Fair Employment Practices to ensure that their staff are remunerated fairly according to the terms and conditions as stated under the Employment Act.
Information on the number of staff deployed to patient care areas is also not available due to the dynamic nature of the staff rotation across different areas within the public healthcare institutions.
PAPERCUTS