Consider giving cleaners day off on Labour Day: Environment Minister Dr Balakrishnan

All constituencies should consider giving cleaners a public holiday on Labour Day, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan said on Wednesday, May 21, 2014. -- ST PHOTO: JAMIE KOH
All constituencies should consider giving cleaners a public holiday on Labour Day, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan said on Wednesday, May 21, 2014. -- ST PHOTO: JAMIE KOH

SINGAPORE - All constituencies should consider giving cleaners a public holiday on Labour Day, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan said on Wednesday.

Public estate cleaners often have to cover national holidays to ensure that Singapore remains tidy, and take their days off another time.

However after Nee Soon South residents reportedly picked up 500kg of rubbish during its annual "No Cleaners Day" on Labour Day on May 1, Dr Balakrishnan suggested the idea in a Facebook post.

"It will be an opportunity to witness the difference between a clean city and a cleaned city," he wrote. "More importantly, it will hopefully remind us of our personal and collective responsibility to keep our neighbourhoods clean."

He called the Nee Soon South rubbish haul a "staggeringly big load" and added: "This was not dust blown by the wind but litter dropped by human beings in a single day in a small precinct."

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