Best public toilets often worst places for cleaners, survey finds
The city's best public toilets are often dangerous workplaces where cleaners face verbal abuse and dirty needles, a survey has revealed.
The Cleaning Workers Union and Hong Kong Women Workers' Association interviewed 20 cleaners to gauge their thoughts on the cleanest public toilets voted for in an online poll organised by RTHK and the Hong Kong Toilet Association.
The workers' groups said neither the government nor the service contractors had provided guidelines to cleaners on how to handle 'special trash' such as used needles that were often found in toilets.
'The workers are only given pincers to pick up the needles,' Cleaning Workers Union organiser Chan Po-ying said. 'But it can still be very dangerous. Some [needles] are even hidden in toilet flushing apparatus and in light wells.'
Workers said their own restrooms were often used to store toilet paper, soap, cleaning tools, and some had no lights or fans.
A cleaner named Fung Jeh has complained about being ill-treated by the public and is horrified by their rudeness.
'I work at a public toilet close to a market so it has high usage,' she said. 'Some people come in to wash vegetables and even rice cookers. Some people even wash their feet in the basins. I tell them not to do so, but they just yell at me, saying, 'you are paid to clean up', or use very abusive language. I feel I am being disregarded.'
She said she was only paid about $20 an hour to endure such treatment. More than 60 per cent of cleaners are paid $4,600 a month for 10 hours of work a day, the workers' survey said.
Toilet facilities were frequently stolen or damaged by users, it said.
Food and Environmental Hygiene Department senior supervisor Li Mei-siu said: 'Sometimes even hand-dryers, fans and drainage lids can be stolen at night. It's very strange.'
