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Cleaners Mr Lim Seng Chee, 87, and Madam Lew Ah Se, 60. For many of the elderly, cleaning toilets is their main avenue of work because the barrier to entry is low. -- PHOTOS: WANG HUI FEN
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Cleaning toilets. Clearing plates. And many of these cleaners are elderly.
Indeed, in the 13 years that Mr Ahmad Aman has been cleaning the toilets in shopping centres, two questions are constantly posed to him.
They are: 'Uncle, why are you still doing this job at your age?' and 'Uncle, why aren't your kids taking care of you?'
The father of nine is 83 years old. But he says he has to work because he has a family to feed.
He has two school-going children with his second wife. The former seaman is divorced from his first wife.
He is reluctant to take money from his other seven children, who he says do not earn very much either.
With only a basic education from Malaya before he moved to Singapore in 1946, there are few other available jobs for him.
The sight of such old cleaners prompted Straits Times reader Anne Chong to write to The Sunday Times last month, saying that the situation was 'a sad reflection of society here'.
'During my travels through China, from rural Yunnan to cosmopolitan Shanghai, I never once encountered an elderly toilet cleaner.
'This is perhaps because in China, it is considered a stain on the family honour if your mother, grandmother or aunt has to clean toilets to support herself, so the elderly are usually supported by the family network.
'The situation is the same in the Philippines,' she wrote.
Restroom Association of Singapore (RAS) president Tan Puay Hoon responded in a letter two weeks later. She said RAS was 'looking into the possibility of designing jobs for elderly toilet cleaners'.
'With sufficient funding, they can be trained as restroom assessors to audit and rate public toilets (for RAS),' she wrote.
Elderly cleaner Chuy Chee Yong, 76, who has worked for eight years as a table cleaner in Lavender Food Court, said he is 'somewhat ashamed' of his job.
The father of three would like to retire if he could, but needs money to pay for his heart medication and to take care of his wife, who is also ill. Like Mr Ahmad, he does not want to take money from his children because he feels that they too are struggling to make ends meet.
Cleaning contractors estimate that workers aged above 65 make up about 10 to 20 per cent of their total staff. They reckon that, of this estimate, perhaps half - people like Mr Chuy and Mr Ahmad - work because they need to. The rest do so to earn a little more pocket money.
Many of these elderly folk, moreover, are illiterate or have minimal paper qualifications. Cleaning is their main avenue of work because the barrier to entry is low.
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said that 'cleaners, labourers and related workers' make up the biggest number of jobs for people aged 65 and above here, with about 16,000 people employed in such jobs last year.
That makes up 35 per cent of the total number of workers for that age group. In comparison, these jobs comprise only 2 per cent of the total number of jobs for Singaporeans aged from 30 to 34 - and the percentage rises with each older age group. Cleaning contractors say that they are not out to look for older workers as the salary is the same - about $500 to $800 a month - whether one is young or old.
Mr Jason Low, head of operations for cleaning contractor Sun City Maintenance, put it this way: 'Who are the people who can survive on this amount? It's the old folk, who live frugally and need only to support themselves.'
RAS' Ms Tan agreed, saying that the industry will not be able to hire younger cleaners if the pay stays at this level. 'If you are young and need to support a family, you will need to earn at least $1,000 to $1,200,' she said.
A few contractors told The Sunday Times that hiring older workers is not a bad thing, even if they may be slower.
At cleaning contractor A&P Maintenance, for instance, about a quarter of its workers are aged 65 and above.
'What we like about older workers is they don't job hop, they're more loyal and they put in more effort. The young ones will go absent regularly,' said Mr Kenny Tan, executive director of A&P.
Mr Alvin Tan, operations manager of S21 coffee shops, said they also try to hire more old people. 'As there are limited jobs for older workers, this is our way of doing public service'.
Acting Labour Minister Gan Kim Yong, who is the chairman of the Tripartite Committee on Employability of Older Workers, said that 'all workers, including toilet cleaners, make a meaningful contribution to society and should be respected'.
Labour MP Halimah Yacob agreed. She said one should not assume that all older workers doing dirty jobs are unhappy.
'Many of the older workers I have met in these jobs have a great deal of pride in their work. I don't think we should be too judgmental about whether their work is shameful,' she said.
Additional reporting by Dhany Osman
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