School cleaners speak of struggles after massive pay cut

 

Syed Haizal shuddered to think how he will feed his three school-going children after his pay as a contract cleaner at a Kelantan government school was cut by a whopping 40 percent.

The lone breadwinner in his family, he said this was his only job.

The deep pay cut means Syed Haizal will have to make major changes to his usual spending habits.

“The most important thing is food. Most of my salary is spent on food.

“If I lose 40 percent of it, how am I, my wife and children going to survive this month?” he said during an online press conference by Jaringan Pekerja Kontrak Kerajaan (JPKK) yesterday.

The latest Education Ministry guidelines state that only 60 percent of the usual school cleaning staff can continue working during the movement control order (MCO).

The ministry will thus be paying contractors 60 percent of the usual rates. This has led to some contractors cutting workers’ pay by 40 percent.

School cleaners are typically paid between RM1,100 and RM1,200 a month. This policy is expected to affect a sizable portion of 50,000 such workers.

“The government should go to the ground and see who these cleaners are.

“Maybe they don’t know. Maybe there is someone new at the ministry who thinks these cleaners are foreign workers. Even if they are foreign workers, we should not treat them like this.

“We need money for food. There will be social problems if there is no money,” lamented Syed Haizal.

‘Can’t even eat like I used to’

Another contract school cleaner facing the same predicament was Wardah Ibrahim, who works at a school in Perlis.

She characterised the pay cut as a form of oppression and urged the government to change its decision.

“We contract workers really depend on our salary. We feel pressured and are very opposed to this move.

“We ask the government and relevant authorities to consider this matter seriously because we have small salaries and we have to contribute some of it to the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF).

“I am the only one working. My husband does some menial work in the kampung,” she said at the same press conference.

“I can’t even eat like I used to. What more to pay rent, pay for my motorcycle and its expired road tax?” added the 36-year-old.

A third worker to share his woes was M Ponmalar, who is employed at a school in Malacca.

According to the 49-year-old, he is set to be paid less than half of his RM1,200 salary.

“I don’t understand (why it was cut). I will have even less when they take some for my EPF contribution. I will only get RM500 a month,” he calculated.

Ponmalar disclosed that he was recently rejected when he applied for sick leave using a medical certificate and was asked to take it out of his annual leave instead, a move which he disagreed with.

Pay cuts violate govt policy

During the press conference, JPKK coordinator M Sivaranjani shared that these pay cuts have been happening since last month.

The PSM leader said the cuts were affecting a portion of the workers employed in this sector.

She stressed that these cuts appeared to violate the Human Resources Ministry’s MCO guidelines - that state employers are not allowed to cut employee salaries.

“The Education Ministry has breached the Human Resources Ministry’s policy. These two ministries are contradicting one another. But in the end, it is the poor workers who suffer.”

Sivaranjini said that JPPK had been receiving complaints about these pay cuts and has since reported the matter to the Labour Department (JTK).

JTK, however, urged affected workers to file individual complaints.

The workers’ organisation also wrote to the Human Resources Ministry, Education Ministry and Finance Ministry last month about the issue but has yet to receive a reply.

JPPK is campaigning for contract school cleaners to have their salaries reinstated in full and for a raise to their base pay. It is also calling for such workers to be vaccinated alongside teachers and others from the education sector.

Malaysiakini is seeking a reply from the relevant parties. - Mkini