I refer to last Sunday's article, 'Town councils push for fair deals', by Ms Braema Mathi.

It alluded to the fact that town councils have taken ownership to raise the skills level and productivity of our cleaners. This is done through making changes in the new cleaning contracts under the Job Re-creation Programme (JRP).

One example of the changes is the setting of specific performance standards using the Singapore Standard for Cleaning Performance for Housing Estates (SS533) guidelines. With these guidelines, the cleaning companies are motivated to train their workers in order to perform consistently to the standards specified in the cleaning contracts.

The cleaning companies are required to send all their workers for the mandatory National Skills Recognition System (NSRS) Clean Residential Estates course under the new contracts.

Full-time cleaners who have been trained and are able to perform consistently to the specified standards will be in greater demand and will get better pay. By paying the workers more, the cleaning companies will, in turn, have better-skilled, more productive workers and a lower turnover rate.

There is no minimum wage requirement imposed on the cleaning companies for their workers in the new cleaning contracts. But, under the technical specifications of the new contracts, a $1,000 starting salary for full-time workers and a $500 salary for part-time workers are recommended.

In the example quoted in the article, Mr Abdul Karim, a cleaner in Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council, now earns a higher wage of $1,200 a month, from his previous pay of $750, under the JRP.

This goes to show that workers can earn higher wages through training and skills upgrading in the JRP.

Albert Teng Ann Boon

This article was first published in The Sunday Times on Jun 15, 2008