Debated in Parliament on 2 Feb 2021.
Dr Tan Wu Meng asked the Minister for Health (a) how many and what proportion of workers at healthcare institutions are currently outsourced; (b) what proportion of outsourced workers perform roles which in the pre-outsourcing era would have been in frontline or patient care areas or involving handling patient samples; and (c) whether human resource practices for outsourced workers are harmonised with direct hires, including recognition for COVID-19 related work and frontline exposure risk.
Sir, as a doctor and a unionist, I want to thank all our frontline healthcare workers for their sacrifices and hard work during this COVID-19 crisis. About 10,000 staff, or about 13%, working in public healthcare institutions are hired by third party contractors. Some examples of outsourced workers include housekeeping staff, security guards, and staff doing landscaping, pest control and kitchen or food services. Of these outsourced staff, almost 70% of them are in roles which require them to be at the frontline or patient care areas, but less than 5% are involved in handling patient samples.
In general, the third party contractors have been engaged by the public healthcare institutions under a contract for service arrangement for specific projects or services. They are engaged for a fee and take on the responsibility of hiring the staff required to meet the needs of these projects or services. Hence, the compensation and benefits of staff that they hire is determined and paid by these contract companies.
Nevertheless, to ensure that the welfare of outsourced staff is taken care of during the COVID-19 outbreak, the public healthcare institutions have extended various initiatives to them. Outsourced staff who work in high-risk areas are trained in infection control measures and provided with full PPE, or Personal Protective Equipment, when discharging their duties. They are also included in the COVID-19 vaccination exercises for our healthcare workers.
The public healthcare institutions appreciate the contribution of these outsourced workers in our battle against COVID-19 and many of these institutions have extended goodwill donations and care packs to their outsourced staff. The Ministry certainly encourages the public healthcare institutions to continue looking into ways to show appreciation for the hard work of outsourced staff in many different ways.
Dr Ta Wu Meng.
Mr Speaker, I thank the Senior Minister of State for his answer. I have two supplementary questions I would like to put to MOH. As preamble, I just want to make reference to the Budget 2020 Round-up Speech delivered last year by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, and I quote from paragraph B24(a), "The Government will award public officers on the frontline who are directly battling with the COVID-19 disease up to one additional month of special bonus. This will include many healthcare officers in MOH and the restructured hospitals."
Sir, in the context of this, I can share that my Clementi residents tell me, and my brothers and sisters in the Labour Movement tell me, that there are cleaners serving in our hospitals, cleaners who are cleaning COVID-19 patient rooms, cleaners who are cleaning COVID-19 patient room toilets, who unfortunately, at the moment, do not qualify for this bonus because they are outsourced. So, can I ask the Senior Minister of State will the Ministry consider extending this bonus to outsourced cleaners and rank and file workers who are embedded deep in the COVID-19 frontline? I ask this again, Mr Speaker, because in the pre-outsourcing era, these workers would have been in-sourced, would have been direct hires and in the pre-outsourcing era, they would have qualified for similar bonuses and support. And it would also be in harmonisation with the existing measures the Senior Minister of State has mentioned – provisions of vaccination support and PPE support. So, I raise this for the Ministry's consideration, please.
Sir, I agree with the Member that outsourced workers who share the same risks in very high-risk areas, for example, the COVID-19 ICUs or the COVID-19 wards, need to be appropriately recognised. And I am sure the healthcare institutions will look at ways to honour their hard work and sacrifices, and the risks that they take as well. We will give the healthcare institutions the latitude and the time to plan for appreciation in the various ways that they can to show solidarity with these workers who have also taken risks, just like any of our other healthcare workers in the frontline sector.
Mr Speaker, I thank the Senior Minister of State. I have one question. Does the Ministry make it a requirement for service providers to extend work injury compensation to outsourced healthcare workers?
Sir, can I just clarify if the Member is asking about compensation by the hospitals or work injury compensation in general?
It would be specific to the service providers, because these are outsourced workers. There are situations – not exactly in the healthcare setting but sometimes, other settings – where the worker is on a contract for service arrangement and no Work Injury Compensation Act or WICA benefits accrue to such workers. So, I am wondering whether healthcare institutions make it a requirement for companies that provide such outsourced services to healthcare institutions, whether it is a requirement by the healthcare institutions themselves for these workers to have WICA coverage.
Sir, I do not have specific details on this pertaining to the institutions but I would imagine that the generic provisions for workplace injuries and compensation would apply in this setting as well.
PAPERCUTS