Singapore: cleaners, the second-most essential job

FMT in partnership with The Global Institute For Tomorrow (GIFT) brings you a Covid-19 “healer” from Singapore.

Susan Tan, 51, continues to clean all 39 floors of Blocks 231, 234 and 235, as well as the nearby carpark.

While most Singaporeans are under stay-at-home orders, Susan is an essential worker.

A survey by the Sunday Times found that Singaporeans believed cleaners to be the second-most essential job in Singapore after doctors and nurses.

Yet it is still a job that few locals would consider doing.

Susan earns less than SG$1,500 (RM4,650) a month.

Joel Chan is a fourth-year student specialising in photojournalism at Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University. His most recent project, ‘One man’s trash, another man’s treasure’, explores how unwanted tennis balls are helping migrant workers under lockdown in their dormitories in Singapore. View his profile here.

‘The Other Hundred Healers’ is an initiative by the non-profit organisation GIFT. The 240-page, full-colour, hardcover book can be purchased here at US$40 per copy for a minimum order of 20 copies.