PSM - Forget judges cleaning toilets, focus on exploitation of janitors

The spotlight on judges and court staff cleaning the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex, including its toilets, after janitors went on strike, has missed the point, according to PSM.

Party central committee member R Rani said the focus should be on the plight of the janitors who were not paid by their contractor for weeks past payday.

She said this was not the first time contract workers in government premises have gone without their salaries.

Rani described this as an injustice to low-income earners such as cleaners, security guards, and gardeners.

"The entire contract system adopted by the government for jobs such as the above in its many premises is unjust, exploitative, and in violation of the rights of workers.

"Work such as cleaning, gardening and providing security at schools, hospitals and other government departments is permanent in nature and needs to be done for as long as the relevant premises are operational.

"It matters a lot when permanent jobs are packaged as contract work and offered to women and men at the bottom of the employment ladder trying desperately to earn a decent wage to feed their families," she said in a statement.

Rani said under a contract system, wages often remained stagnant with no job security.

"A contract cleaner with 20 years of service remains a new worker, at the starting wage, and in addition, is deprived of all the benefits of length of service such as higher Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Social Security Organisation (Socso) contributions, more days of annual and medical leave, etc.

"Further adding to the misery of contract workers in government departments are the contractors, a significant number of whom further squeeze their workers by pocketing part of their workers’ wages, paying workers late, deducting but not contributing towards workers' EPF and Socso and dismissing workers at will," she added.

Rani said the government is the paymaster for hundreds of thousands of such contract jobs, a system created by the previous government that benefitted crony contractors at the expense of low-income earners.

"This situation needs to change, and as this wrongful practice is also the trend in the private sector, the Pakatan Harapan government should take the lead and set an example by ending the contract system for permanent jobs, and directly employing the workers in its premises. - Mkini