Separately, the cleaning business licensing framework will introduce three classes of licences, all valid for two years at a time.

Currently, there is only one type of licence for cleaning businesses, and it is valid for one year and is renewable.

Under the proposed framework, the Class 3 licence, which has requirements similar to the current licence’s, is a non-renewable one available only once to new businesses and those still licensed under the current regime from Dec 31, 2023.

It is meant to give new entrants leeway to ramp up their operations and ultimately commit themselves to the industry, as well as give existing players two more years to grow to what two higher classes of licences require.

In the long run, cleaning businesses are expected to at least hold the renewable Class 2 licence, which requires licensees to hold a paid-up capital of $25,000.

This paid-up capital requirement was introduced to ensure that operators can keep up with wage climbs under the cleaning sector’s existing PWM for the long haul and adopt more technology, NEA said.

Firms with higher capabilities may apply for the Class 1 licence, an enhanced tier with a higher skills bar requiring staff to complete at least three Workforce Skills Qualifications training modules, compared with two modules for Class 2 and 3 licensees.

Class 1 licence holders also must have more paid-up capital – $250,000 – and be free of convictions in the 24 months preceding its application. This licence replaces the voluntary accreditation that firms currently apply for separately from the existing licensing regime under the Enhanced Clean Mark Accreditation Scheme.

Said NEA: “Class 1 licensees can signal their commitment to invest in training of the workforce to attain more cleaning competencies, and to provide more assurance to service buyers that they are equipped with further resources to undertake larger cleaning projects.”

Both Class 1 and Class 2 licensees need to attain Level 3 on the bizSafe workplace safety and health programme too.

Mr Chew Ming Fai, NEA deputy chief executive of public health and director-general of public health, told reporters at a briefing that the agency is looking into revising an existing requirement for government agencies to procure cleaning services only from accredited businesses.

“We are looking into whether this requirement can be revised such that government procurement agencies procure cleaning services from Class 1 licensees in the long run.”

About one-third of the 1,550 licensed cleaning businesses currently qualify for at least a Class 2 licence, said NEA.

The criteria for a Class 2 licence are reasonably attainable, said Mr Tony Chooi, president of the Environmental Management Association of Singapore.

The association has 114 member firms, which together hire about 70 per cent of cleaners at NEA-registered firms, with almost half of its members hiring 100 cleaners or fewer.

“We feel that the paid-up capital reflects the company’s commitment to the cleaning business. This commitment would translate into investment in improving professionalism, which is necessary to uplift overall cleaning standards and contribute to building a more resilient and competent workforce,” Mr Chooi said.

Consolidation of market players could occur, he said, noting that the number of NEA-licensed cleaning businesses is high, considering Singapore’s size and population.

SINGAPORE – The construction sector remained the most pressed for labour as at last September, with almost one position unfilled for every labourer it hired.

Reflecting the shortage of blue-collar workers – who make up a fifth of Singapore’s. 3.5 million resident workforce – seven out of the 10 jobs with the most need for staff were for operational roles such as bus drivers, security guards, cleaners and table-service employees.

Some of these jobs will come under the Progressive Wage Model, which will cover lower-wage workers in the food service sector, administrators and drivers in March.

The trends were seen in the latest job vacancy data released by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) on Friday.

The percentage of unfilled positions wanted for each job is measured against the total number of vacancies in its respective industry, which can be construction, manufacturing, transportation and storage, as well as others.

Three white-collar jobs – marketing sales executive, software developer and software applications manager – were among the 10 professions that had the least success in finding workers.

MOM also reported vacancies in different occupational groups and qualifications.

Among professionals, coaches and trainers were the most in demand, with 13.6 per cent vacancies. Welders and flame cutters were the most sought-after in the craftsmen category, at 29.5 per cent.

Among clerical support workers, the general office clerk probably had the widest choice of employer, with 56.4 per cent vacancies, or one opening for every employed clerk.

For job seekers with a diploma, getting a management executive position was their best bet, while those with a degree or higher qualifications had the best chance at a sales and marketing executive job, which had 8.9 per cent room to hire.

For 2023, recruiters are pointing to technology and banking as hot job sectors. There will also be opportunities in healthcare, sustainability and cyber security.

SINGAPORE – Hawker centres may get automated table cleaners under the National Environment Agency’s (NEA) plan to support manual labour.

A two-month trial of a robot will be conducted at a suitable hawker centre and stallholders there will not need to bear any costs of the trial, an NEA spokesman told The Straits Times.

Observers said the robot could help to meet the manpower crunch as the cleaning workforce ages, but its development might be slowed by the still-developing autonomous table-cleaning technology.

In a tender called by NEA on Nov 7, the agency said that while its tray-return policy has drastically reduced the workload on the cleaning workforce, there is a need to supplement manual cleaning labour with automation that can patrol, clean and wipe tables that have been vacated.

Even after the returning of trays was made mandatory in June 2021, cleaners generally must still clean dining tables as well as sort and clear used crockery, cutlery and trays of food remnants at tray-return stations before used items are washed, the NEA spokesman said.

Autonomous table-cleaning robots can support and complement cleaners so that tables are cleaned faster, she added.

According to tender documents, the robot should be able to clean the table in under one minute and navigate from table to table within another minute, leaving unsuitable tables for human cleaners.

If successful, the machine could be one of the earliest mass-produced table-cleaning robots in the world, said observers and robot developers.

Associate Professor Pham Quang Cuong from Nanyang Technological University’s School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering said that while the technology for automated floor-cleaning robots is widely commercialised, those that can clean tables appear to still be at an early stage.

In November 2021, for instance, Google disclosed that it had developed a robot that can wipe tables with a squeegee, but to date, the machine is still not mature enough to be commercialised, said Prof Pham.

Cleaning robots that are currently commercially available are used only for routine and repetitive tasks such as cleaning floors, windows and swimming pools, not for dynamic environments, said service robot company Ourglass Robotics’ chief executive William Dai.

Mr Ling Ting Ming, founder and CEO of robotics company Otsaw, said NEA’s robot will need to navigate crowds on top of cleaning crockery.

He said: “Having a robot navigate dynamic groups of humans will be a challenge, especially since hawker centres can get quite crowded and are not built for robot cleaners to move between tables.”

While NEA did not disclose the location of the trial, tender documents said the robot must be able to pass between tables spaced apart like those in Marsiling Mall Hawker Centre.

Hawkers at the centre told ST on Nov 25 that they had previously observed another table-cleaning robot being trialled at the centre, adding that any future robots had to be faster for them to be convinced.

Ms Wei Xia, 46, who was manning the Beef King by Yassin Kampung stall, said: “If it could lower the costs of cleaning that would be good, but when a table-cleaning robot was trialled a few months ago, I felt that humans were faster.”

Freshly Made Hong Kong Style Zhu Chang Fen stallholder Kevin Yong, 60, who noticed that the robot stopped whenever people walked past it, said he was concerned that the machine might stall during peak hours because of human traffic.

Said Mr Yong, who identified himself as the secretary of Marsiling Mall Merchants’ and Hawkers’ Association: “Just one table is going to take donkey’s years.”

The recent tender comes amid a surge in the use of autonomous cleaning robots in the healthcare and hospitality sectors during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hotel chains such as Hilton, InterContinental and Marriott are using robots for room cleaning and to make room service deliveries, said Professor David Tan, co-director of National University of Singapore’s Centre for Technology, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and the Law.

He added that in a future where autonomous table-cleaning robots are deployed, organisations will have to determine which parties are responsible for paying compensation if a cleaning robot spills a bowl of hot soup onto a young child.

It should also not come at the cost of vulnerable segments in Singapore, he said.

He said: “In Singapore, the use of cleaning robots may arguably be more efficient or even desirable in the light of the manpower crunch experienced by the food and beverage sector.

“However, one also has to look at the social impact of such accelerated automation, as more vulnerable segments of our local population may be relying on such cleaning jobs as their stable source of income.”

Ourglass Robotics’ Mr Dai said it is more productive and efficient to make robots that can help workers, instead of ones to replace them. He added that many of the elderly workers his company has spoken to have fears that they might be replaced by machines.

He said: “Elderly workers are still better at wiping the table. They are just not strong enough to carry (heavy items) and can’t walk fast enough.

“Pairing up workers with a delivery robot is a good solution. It can turn a cleaner auntie into a robot supervisor or a super-auntie – that would make her feel better.”