The bank's outsourced cleaners fail to benefit from the anti-epidemic fund and the union urges equal treatment

The government earlier announced the 6th round of the Anti-epidemic Fund to provide a monthly subsidy of $2,000 to front-line cleaning and security staff of property management and government-related agencies for a period of 5 months, and then to "catch the gap" and expand it to accept HA services The cleaners of contractors, post-secondary institutions, and non-government school service contractors, but front-line cleaners employed by banks were excluded. Some labor unions pointed out that the workers in this class work in high-traffic places, which are also at risk of infection, and the workers are even more unfortunate I hope the authorities will treat them equally.

Bank outsourcing cleaners do not meet the three categories of application qualifications

In the sixth round of the Anti-epidemic Fund Scheme, cleaning and security staff in private residences, mixed-use buildings, industries and commerce, including shopping malls and buildings, can receive a 5-month subsidy of HK$2,000, and then the beneficiaries will receive a subsidy of HK$2,000. Expansion to HA service contractors, tertiary institutions, non-government school service contractors' cleaners.

In the application form, the categories of applicants are listed as property management companies, managers of mutual covenants and owners' organizations, but the outsourced cleaners for bank branches are recruited by the bank through outsourced cleaning companies, so they do not belong to the above three categories of applicants .

Sister Touzhi, who has been working as an outsourced cleaner at a bank branch for more than 4 years, has been asking her boss whether they can apply for it since the anti-epidemic fund was piled up.

After the announcement of the 6th round of the Anti-epidemic Fund, my sister saw that most of the cleaners were able to apply for the subsidy under the expanded scope of benefit. Other workers often reminded her that she could apply for the relevant subsidy and shared the form with her. After filling out the form, I look forward to returning it to the company.

The boss initially replied that it would take time for the office to stamp and submit the form, and later pointed out that after asking different departments, the bank’s outsourcing of cleaners was not suitable for the subsidy application, so the company could not assist with the stamping application.

Ms. Tou, who has been working as an outsourced cleaner at a bank branch for more than 4 years, has been asking her boss whether they can apply as early as the anti-epidemic fund has been piled up, and the situation has been postponed to the sixth round of the anti-epidemic fund.

(Photo by Zeng Fengting)

Unfortunate bank cleaner was infected with the virus and questioned why he was not allowed to apply for funding

Afterwards, the girl stated in the application form that the applicant category needs to be property management companies, deed of mutual covenant managers and owners’ organizations, that is, outsourced cleaners directly hired by the property management company or the owner for their properties are eligible to apply.

Since they are not hired directly by the property management company or the owner, but by the bank, they cannot benefit.

The sister was very disappointed by this, and pointed out that many workers had high hopes for the anti-epidemic fund this time, but in the end their wishes were still in vain.

The sister mentioned that the bank cleaning work is also high-risk. The bank has a high flow of people. Some branches are located in shopping malls and buildings. The cleaning work scope includes multiple ATMs, and there is a risk of infection every day.

The younger sister also unfortunately contracted the virus in February. She believes that the cause of the infection is related to the working environment.

Since their scope of work is the same as that of other private or commercial building cleaners, I hope the authorities will treat them equally.

Leung Chi-yen, secretary of the cleaners union, believes that the authorities should benefit all cleaners equally, because the risks to workers are equally high under the epidemic.

(Photo by Zeng Fengting)

Union: The owner's organization is unwilling to help the application after receiving help from the workers

Leung Chi-yan, secretary of the Cleaners Union, pointed out that they had conducted a questionnaire survey on the Anti-epidemic Fund earlier. Among the 150 workers who responded, more than half of them said they did not know whether they were eligible for the application or not benefited.

They are mainly outsourced cleaners for offices, banks, MTR and some government departments.

She believes that the authorities should benefit all cleaners equally, because the risks to workers are equally high under the epidemic.

The trade union also received complaints from eligible workers that they were unwilling to help with the application because the owners' organization did not understand the relevant measures, and even pointed out that "outsourcing is not a problem", so that they lost the opportunity to receive subsidies.

Leung Chien suggested that the government could change the relevant applications to individual applications under the identification documents provided by the cleaning workers, and put the allowances directly into the workers' accounts, instead of applying and distributing them on behalf of the property management company, the DMC manager or the owner's organization.

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The sixth round of the Anti-epidemic Fund’s outsourced cleaners continues without a trade union: the practice is bizarre The Bureau of Material Supervision of the New Round of Anti-epidemic Fund expects 180,000 management personnel to benefit from the survey, and more than half of the surveyed cleaners have less than 40% of the anti-epidemic products under pressure The level is moderate to very serious, high-paid cleaners are hired in the square cabin, some outsourced workers are paid zero minimum wage, and there is no subsidy to increase unequal pay for equal work.