A total of 51 school cleaners in Perak who have gone without pay between seven and 10 months are hopeful that they will finally get the money owed to them from the Education Ministry.

This was after the Education Ministry in a parliamentary written reply confirmed it was in possession of the money and it had not disbursed the money to their contractor which had gone bankrupt.

The workers were hired by the now bankrupt contractor, which, under its agreement with the government, received funds from the Education Ministry which is used to pay the cleaners.

The government terminated the contractor's service in May last year due to unsatisfactory performance.

The company subsequently went bankrupt in July, but its cleaners were advised by the north Kinta district education office to continue working.

Network for Government Contract Workers coordinator R Rani said the cleaners were initially worried after they were told in a January meeting at the Education Ministry in Putrajaya that all the money owed to them have already been disbursed to their contractor.

However, the Education Ministry in a parliamentary written reply to PSM' Sungai Siput MP Jeyakumar Devaraj ( pix above ) last week said the ministry had not disbursed any payment to the contractor since May 31 last year.

"That means the salary and minimum wage of every worker of between RM7,000 and RM11,000 is safe.

"Therefore, the workers can get their unpaid salary and minimum wage as soon as possible," Rani said in a statement today.

In the parliamentary written reply to Jeyakumar, the Education Ministry said it had received order to pay more than RM31,000 to the Ipoh Labour Department for salaries owed.

"At the same time, the Education Ministry is getting confirmation from the schools on whether fines, deductions or compensation for breach in contract have been cleared by the contractor before payment is made to the Labour Department," it said.