On 9 January 2023, the Environmental Public Health (Amendment) Act 2023 (“Bill“) was introduced in Parliament. The Bill was passed by Parliament on 6 February 2023.
The Bill seeks to enhance the delivery of waste disposal services by:
(a) Extending the Progressive Wage Model to Singaporeans and Permanent Residents working in the waste management sector. The Bill gives legislative effect to the recommendations by the Tripartite Cluster for Waste Management Industry dated 24 January 2022, to introduce the Progressive Wage Model for the waste management sector. The Progressive Wage Model will apply to the waste collection and materials recovery sectors. The changes will come into effect from 1 July 2023 and the wage schedule is expected to stretch to 30 June 2029.
(b) Creating a new licensing regime for cleaning business. The revised cleaning business licensing framework is proposed to take effect from 1 January 2024. The current cleaning business licensing regime and the voluntary Enhanced Clean Mark Accreditation Scheme will be merged into a single framework. There will now be three classes of licence (class 3 licence, class 2 licence and class 1 licence) each with a two-year validity. The revised cleaning licence framework differentiates cleaning businesses based on their capabilities.
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