Salary Terms in Cleaning Contracts Managed by NEA

Mr Zainal Sapari asked the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources (a) what is the number of hawker centres whose cleaning contracts are currently managed by NEA; (b) for those not managed by NEA, who is overseeing the cleaning contracts; and (c) what is the average gross salary of hawker centre cleaners under (i) non-NEA managed cleaning contracts and (ii)

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NEA-managed cleaning contracts.

NEA currently manages the cleaning contracts for all the 25 MEWR-owned hawker centres directly. These cleaning contracts cover three categories of cleaning, namely general cleaning, toilet cleaning and table-cleaning. For the 82 HDB-owned hawker centres, the respective Town Councils (TCs) manage the contracts for the general cleaning and toilet cleaning functions, while individual Hawkers’ Associations (HAs) manage the contracts for table-cleaning services.

For new cleaning contracts called from 1 April 2013, NEA will only engage cleaning contractors accredited under the Enhanced Accreditation Scheme (EAS). This would apply to all MEWR-owned hawker centres. The EAS, among other conditions, requires accredited cleaning companies to adopt progressive wages for their resident cleaners as recommended by the Tripartite Cluster for Cleaners. This means that full-time resident cleaners under the NEA’s new contracts will be paid starting basic wages of at least $1,000 per month.

The TCs and HAs of the HDB-owned centres make their own decisions as to who to award cleaning contracts to. Nevertheless, NEA will work with the TCs and HAs to encourage them to contract cleaning only to companies accredited under the EAS, so that their cleaners will have ready access to the suite of benefits, including wages that match their level of skills and training and a progressive wage system.