ABSTRACT

A day after my first (and only) shift as a night kitchen cleaner for a five-star hotel, the skin on my right hand starts to peel. This is the direct result of cleaning with industrial strength chemicals without gloves – which I was not given; neither were the two other women I was working with. For a sevenhour night shift (11pm-6am), the wages were US$2.30 per hour (at the time of writing, the exchange rate was SGD1.00 to US$0.65; the wage in Singapore dollars was SGD3.50 per hour), of which US$6.50 was to be deducted for the contracting company’s T-shirt (it was mandatory for all cleaners to wear it).