THE contract system for school cleaners should be abolished and instead be put under the control of the government or schools, Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) deputy president S Arutchelvan said.

He said that this was crucial to protect the welfare of the cleaners who are now placed under private companies.

“The cleaners should be supervised by the government’s administration department instead of private companies,” Arutchelvan told The Malaysian Insight.

He said this after 53 school cleaners from 19 schools in Sabak Bernam protested outside the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) earlier this week after not being paid for four months.

“These contractors are mainly cronies and the selection of these contractors are hidden under the Official Secrets Act legislation,” he said.

A cleaner who only wants to be known as Mastura said they have not been paid their salaries for the past four months.

Mastura who attended the peaceful protest on Tuesday said officials from the Education Ministry and the PMO gave their word that their wages would be settled.

When contacted today, the affected workers said their outstanding wages were settled today.

Contract school cleaners are not the only ones facing salary issues.

Last month some 30 members from the National Union of Workers in Hospital Support and Allied Services (NUWHSAS) handed a memorandum to Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin on their “modern-day slavery” at the hands of the private contractors who hired them.

NUHWHSAS submitted three requests to abolish the contract system, absorb the cleaners as full time civil servants, give them Covid-19 allowances and stop harassment of the union.

It was the first time a health minister has met the union since contract cleaners first highlighted their problems five years ago.

The union’s 50,000 members want to be treated as permanent civil servants. – April 1, 2022.