Coming Clean: A Study on the Well-being of Bangladeshi Conservancy Workers in Singapore
31 August 2020
Coming Clean: Watch this interview with a Bangladeshi Conservancy Worker
Conservancy workers are essential workers who maintain our high-rise public housing estates, ensuring that they remain clean and habitable. Every day, they empty rubbish chutes, wash common areas, and sweep corridors, roads, and carparks, amongst other things.
The total cleaning workforce in Singapore, is 57,000: with 40,000 Singaporeans and Permanent Residents (PRs) and 17,000 foreigners working as cleaners. However, despite their ubiquitous presence in our housing estates, insufficient attention has been given to address the needs and circumstances of our conservancy cleaners.
Coming Clean is a report by HOME that details the findings of the research and HOME’s recommendations as regards the working lives of Bangladeshi conservancy workers (BCWs). The key problems and struggles faced by BCWs include excessive debt burdens, depressed wages, long working hours, heavy workloads, a lack of rest day, and restricted access to medical care.
This report started as an outreach effort in 2013 to get to know BCWs better. HOME realised that the working conditions faced by Bangladeshi Conservancy Workers need to be looked into. HOME spoke to over 30 BCWs, including semi-structured interviews and informal conversations between 2014 - 2020.
Excessive debt burdens
BCWs pay recruitment fees in the range of S$8,000 to S$14,000, for jobs that pay a gross monthly salary of S$500 - S$800. They may also be asked to make illegal cash payments (“kickbacks”) for contract renewals, costing them between S$2,500 and S$4,000 for a 1-year contract renewal. However, while collecting kickbacks is a punishable offence, this practice is indeed an open industry secret, with employers finding ways around these obstacles. For example, employers frequently outsource the task of collecting kickbacks to external ‘agents’ to disguise the money received from their employees. Reporting employers for kickbacks is very risky for the workers as many are threatened by their employers with termination and repatriation. It is also difficult for them to file such reports as kickback transactions usually do not leave a paper trail, making it unlikely for the authorities to accept such complaints.
Low and depressed wages
While gross monthly salaries of BCWs may range from S$500 to $800, basic salaries can be much lower, ranging from around S$300 to S$400. The difference between basic salaries and gross salaries is attributed to the long working hours and lack of rest days, which increases the monthly wages earned when working hours are accounted for. In general, the basic hourly rate for BCWs is extremely low; around S$2 per hour, sometimes less.
It is unclear, however, if these entitlements are calculated in compliance with Singapore’s labour laws, as time cards and itemised pay slips are not carefully scrutinised. While some men receive salary slips, others are not allowed to keep theirs; all the men we spoke to also did not receive time cards.
Long hours and no rest days
BCWs work long hours and take on heavy workloads without being remunerated fairly. BCWs generally work 12-hour days, although work intensifies during festive periods, when work can extend to 15 or 16 hours per day. It is not uncommon for BCWs to clear the rubbish from 30 blocks of flats each day, while also being expected to sweep the corridors and the car parks in between.
There is also an expectation that BCWs should be “on standby” 24/7 to attend to unexpected mishaps that require cleaning, such as loansharks splashing paint. In one estate, some BCWs are also tasked to clean the estate’s hawker centre and wet market, leading to exhausting 16-hour workdays.
The impact of COVID-19 resulting in an increased workload for BCWs as there is more rubbish to clear due to people staying at home and the increased frequency of cleaning. However, while working hours have increased from 12 to 16 hours, none of the workers we spoke to reported an increase in their wages or allowances.
Many of the BCWs we spoke to, do not get any rest days or annual leave at all. BCWs are often threatened with repatriation upon asking for a rest day. On important cultural holidays, such as Hari Raya, some cleaners, at the discretion of their employers, are granted a mere few hours ‘off’, to have lunch and visit the mosque before resuming work. The lack of rest days can take a drastic toll on the physical and mental health of the BCWs.
Restricted access to medical care
Such long working hours, lack of rest days, and low worker ratios vis-a-vis their workloads impact workers’ access to medical care and their recovery from illnesses and injuries. Despite falling sick, BCWs are afraid of, and simply cannot take medical leave- they must continue to work in physically demanding jobs without getting the rest they require to recover fully.
Recommendations
Ensure regular weekly rest days
Ensure equal pay for equal work starting by including BCWs in the Progressive Wage Model and increasing their wages such that it matches that of local cleaners employed for the same job
Foreign worker levy payments should be redirected from being paid to the state to increasing salary payments for BCWs
High recruitment fees and ‘kickbacks’ also need to be tackled better
Undertake a review of the tender process where cleaning companies have to bid for contracts with the Town Councils. Pressure to keep costs down has resulted in the exploitation of many BCWs.
BCWs in Singapore perform work that is essential yet stigmatised, with pay rates and working conditions few, if any, local workers would accept. Their exploitative realities are multifaceted and intertwined, but we must work towards treating all workers fairly regardless of nationality or citizenship, and ensure that the fundamental labour rights of all are duly respected.
The full report is available here.