Chapter 6: Cheating the Old folks, Foreigners or Lowly-educated Ones

It was just another morning at the office. After I had booted up my notebook, I habitually walked to the pantry to get a cup of fresh coffee. There, I saw the three cleaning aunties in our company mumbling softly and solemnly in a corner.

“Morning aunties,” I greeted as I walked past them to the coffee machine. They paused to greet me back before continuing their mumblings. While waiting for my coffee to be made, I could not help myself eavesdropping their conversation. No, it was not because of me being too busybody. It was because hard as they tried to keep their voices down, their conversation was still audible in the small pantry.

“So how long has the boss being cheating him?” asked the youngest looking cleaning aunty.
“He said six months,” replied the fattest cleaning aunty. “When his son checked the transactions on his CPF account via the internet, he discovered that starting from April, the boss has not been depositing his CPF contribution into his account.”
“Gosh, I guess I’d better ask my daughter to check my CPF account as well,” said the worry looking cleaning aunty with short hair.

It appeared that one of the cleaning staffs has been cheated by their employer again. Yes, I said ‘again’ because the previous cleaning company had cheated these cleaning staffs before. The cleaning contract for our company was awarded to a different cleaning company every year, probably depending on who was the lowest bidder. After a new cleaning company has won the contract, it would employ the same cleaning staffs from the previous company. When these cleaning staffs were employed by the previous cleaning company, the company failed to deposit its share of employer CPF contributions into their CPF account.

All of the cleaning staffs were kept in the dark for about eight months till the daughter of one of the cleaning staffs discovered that her mother had been cheated of CPF contributions from her employer. When the rest of the cleaning staffs checked on their CPF accounts, they realized that none had been receiving their employer’s CPF contribution. Companies in Singapore are required to pay the employer’s and employee’s share of CPF contributions monthly for all of their employees at the rates set out in the CPF Act. The contributions payable were based on the employee’s actual wages earned for the month. By cheating on the employer’s share of CPF contributions, the cleaning company could save a substantial amount of money from its operations.

Furious that the cleaning company had cheated on them, the cleaning staffs wrote complaint letters to the CPF Board, which started investigating on the company. Even after being probed by the authority, the cleaning company did not pay up the owed CPF contributions to its employees and eventually it was being sued. The cleaning staffs did get their CPF contributions from the cleaning company, but the full amount was only credited after a period of six months.

After the current cleaning company won the cleaning contract, the boss informed these cleaning staffs that he would definitely deposit its share of employer CPF contributions into their CPF account, under one condition. He explained to them that due to the low price that the company had quoted to win the bid for the cleaning contract, he would need to deduce an amount equivalent to the company’s share of employer CPF contributions from their existing salaries. This meant that, if a cleaning aunty’s existing salary of six hundred dollars required a sixty dollars employer’s CPF contribution, her salary would be reduced to five hundred and forty dollars. He also threatened that any of the cleaning staffs were unhappy with their reduced salary, they could always resign. Unhappy but unable to negotiate on the conditions, the cleaning staffs accepted the boss’s proposal. Never did they expect to be cheated again.

“But I think we’re pretty lucky already,” commented the fattest cleaning aunty. “One of my friends is working as a cleaner in a school, and you know what? She has not been paid for half a year!”
“What? You mean her boss has not been paying her for six months and yet she’s still working?” asked the shocked youngest looking cleaning aunty.
“Yes, she’s still working there. Because on every month’s pay day, her boss promised the staffs that all the salary that he has owed will be paid to them on the following month. But of course, on every month, there’s another next month.”
“Why don’t the staffs complain to the Ministry of Manpower?” asked the cleaning aunty with short hair.
“Hey, that smart boss has thought of that!” exclaimed the fattest cleaning aunty. “He threatened them that if they complain to the authority, he will declare bankruptcy and they won’t get a single cent from him!”
“So scheming!” the cleaning aunty with short hair sounded miffed.

The local cleaning industry is indeed full of cheats. But these cleaning aunties are definitely not alone. Slick bosses are thriving in the construction industry and among maid employment agencies as well. There are rampant tales of bosses abusing the foreign workers in the construction industry like not paying their salaries to them on time (no, not late for a few weeks, but late for a few months), requiring them to pay for their own meals (at a price that is twice the actual cost) and requesting for rentals for their stays at the cramp and dirty containers at the construction site.

As for the maid employment agencies, these bosses are constantly thinking of ways to save more operation costs as well. Somebody had recently reported to a local newspaper about the lady boss of a maid agency who made her maids slept exposed in her terrace house’s backyard. These maids spent their day at the employment agency's office and only returned to the house at around 9p.m. to sleep. They would lay huddled on the cemented backyard, sleeping on thin mattresses, mats and newspapers underneath the zinc roofs. When questioned by the newspaper, the lady boss claimed that the arrangement was only "temporary" until a new boarding house was ready. Of course, only the maids knew whether there was a new boarding house at all.

One commonality between the cleaning companies, construction companies and maid employment agencies is that their employees are usually old, foreigners or lowly-educated. These people are the best victims to be cheated because they might not even be aware that they are being cheated. Even if they do, they might not know the correct channel to lodge a complaint. Even if they do lodge a complaint successfully, the authorities could take months to investigate into the matter. By then, the company could have already closed down and started afresh as a new company.

Besides cheating on salaries and CPF employer’s contributions, the companies could shortchange their employees on other matters as well…

“Ah Leng Aunty, I might be taking a week’s leave during the December,” said the youngest cleaning aunty.
“Are we allowed to take leave? I thought the boss has said that we need to work for one year before we can apply for any annual leave?” asked the cleaning aunty with short hair.
“I know, but my son’s getting married! I’ve got to take leave!”
“I think you can talk to the boss about it. Anyway, I think this regulation about working for a year before applying for our annual leave is crappy,” commented the fattest cleaning aunty.
“Yeh, remember our previous boss?” reminded the cleaning aunty with short hair. “He didn’t allow us to take any leave till we’ve worked for one year as well, then when he didn’t win the bid for renewing the cleaning contract and this new boss took over, this new boss said we can’t claim the annual leave we’ve brought over from the previous year!”

Geez, these cleaning aunties were only allowed to apply for their annual leaves after working for a year? And what if their boss loses the cleaning contract to another company next year? When will these cleaning aunties ever get to see their annual leaves?

“Peng, do you still have Aunty Sun’s contacts?” the youngest cleaning aunty asked the fattest cleaning aunty.
“Are you going to look for her to be your replacement?” replied the fattest cleaning aunty.
“Yeh, I hope she’ll be free around that period.”
“Susan, how much are you paying your replacement?” asked the cleaning aunty with short hair.
“Thirty dollars a day,” replied the youngest cleaning aunty. “That’s my daily salary.”
“Okay, I’d just like to let you know that sometimes these replacements will ask for a few dollars more.”

What kind of working life were these cleaning aunties having? Not only were they expected to look for their own replacements while they were on their annual leaves, they would also need to pay their replacements’ salaries out of their own pockets? Is this even a legal regulation that is recognized by the Ministry of Manpower?

“Erm… hello aunties, where’s that old aunty who only speaks Cantonese?” I interrupted after realizing that one of the cleaning aunties seemed to be missing from this conversation.
“Oh, you mean Aunty Lim? She’s hospitalized.”
“Hospitalized?” I was shocked because I thought I had just seen her in the pantry the day before.
“Yes, she fell down last evening when mopping the floor,” replied the youngest cleaning aunty. “But don’t worry, she’s okay. Just a minor fracture on her right leg.”
“Poor thing, I heard that the hospitalization bill is pretty high,” commented the fattest cleaning aunty.
“Hospitalization bill? I thought she was injured at work? Won’t the hospitalization bill be paid by the company then?” This comment was even more shocking than the hospitalized part.

At that point, the three cleaning aunties laughed at me as if I had just told them that a camel can swim.

“Young man, we are not insured by the company, and no, we don’t have any medical benefits.”