Committee of Supply − Head S (Ministry of Manpower)

The Chairman: Head S, Ministry of Manpower. Mr Patrick Tay.

11.30 am

Review of Labour Legislation

Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan (West Coast): Mdm Chairman, I beg to move, "That the total sum to be allotted for head S of the Estimates be reduced by $100."

Together with our tripartite partners, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has made major headways the past five years from amending the Employment Act (EA) and Industrial Relations Act (IRA) to cater to the growing professionals, managers and executives (PME) workforce to introducing the Employment Claims Tribunal (ECT) next month to provide adjudication for all workers for their salary-related employment claims. At the policy front, the Fair Consideration Framework and raising of Employment Pass (EP) salary criteria and other foreign manpower tightening measures have helped level the playing field for the local workforce. Enhancements to the Work Injury Compensation Act (WICA) and Workplace Safety and Health Act (WSHA) have also been instituted to keep pace with wage changes and workplace accidents.

From a manpower perspective, there are several challenges for us, with the first being rising structural forces and unemployment. What has been a worrying trend is that the layoffs especially affect professionals, managers and executives (PMEs) and the slower rate of re-entry into the workforce for this category of workers, especially those who are older in age. This is largely due to what I have previously identified as the "three mismatches of skills, expectations and jobs".

By the same token, we face a long-term challenge to sustain inclusive quality growth, bearing in mind we have an ageing workforce, relatively flat productivity the past five years and a much slower employment growth. With globalisation, Uberisation, digitisation, robotisation and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the future jobs, workforce, skills, training, labour market and the future of work are rapidly evolving and transforming. The new nature of the employment relationship, rising median wages, workforce profile change and diversity of work will require us to review our labour legislation to keep pace with the changes and the uncertain global outlook. I am, therefore, suggesting for MOM and our tripartite partners to continue its good work to carry out a review of the labour laws of Singapore − the EA, IRA, Employment Claims Act (ECA) and Trade Unions Act − to keep pace with the changes.

First, EA. There are several provisions which I believe can be further enhanced and improved in the EA and which the tripartite partners should examine to be relevant and inclusive.

First is whether there is a need to restrict the scope of EA to those earning less than $4,500 as well as exclude civil servants from the ambit of the Act.

Second, an oddly drafted section 45 of the EA which sets out eligibility for retrenchment benefits, but it is phrased as a negative eligibility clause. The section can be appropriately worded to give more certainty to the payment of retrenchment benefits and leaving the quantum to be negotiated, just as it is being done with collective bargaining. The tripartite partners can also explore removing the two-year time bar, as shorter employment terms are more common now. If removal is not possible, another possibility is to move this provision out of Part IV to the main body of the Act to be more inclusive since Part IV's application is limited.

Third, with an increasing number of mergers and acquisitions and organisational restructuring and reorganisation these days, we often face the challenge of whether a transfer falls squarely within the provisions of section 18A of the EA which allows for transfer of employees to a new entity without the need to pay retrenchment benefits. I suggest we further improve section 18A to provide more clarity. In particular, an inclusionary approach, such as a clearer and narrower definition of what situations are covered under section18A, would be a boon as the current provision is too broad and ambiguous. The scope should be limited to a sale of business. We should clarify that outsourcing is not covered. By the same token, transfers involving companies under receivership or judicial management should also be covered. Furthermore, a minimum notice period, of at least one month, should be stipulated and the notice should be in writing. To prevent multiple transfers, we should prohibit the transfer of the same group of employees for a period of one year after the first or subsequent transfers. Higher penalties specific to section 18A should be introduced and the union should be entitled to continue providing limited representation for up to two years so that PMEs do not lose protection.

Second, IRA. In the course of representing unions and union members in the Industrial Arbitration Court and advising unions on industrial relations issues, I have come across a number of situations in which the IRA does not envisage nor clearly address certain issues. I will just confine them to two areas for now.

First, the status of Collective Agreement (CA) during a Judicial Management/ Receivership. Other than having to formally apply for a leave of Court, there is limited scope for us to enforce a collective agreement or have recourse in the event of any non-compliance of the CA. I opine that the CA should continue to apply so as to protect the workers and there must also be an avenue for the union to enforce the CA during this moratorium in an economical yet expeditious manner.

Second, expanding tripartite mediation framework. Tripartite mediation is a very useful tripartite mechanism for alternative dispute resolution. It is also tightly linked to ECT as claims limits are raised if one goes via the tripartite mediation route. Although there is no salary cap, PMEs in certain categories where they are in management roles or where there may be conflict of interests as provided in the Act are excluded from utilising tripartite mediation. I submit we should review this prohibition. We should also explore extending tripartite mediation to cover unfair dismissals of those outside the scope of EA.

Third, ECA. I am delighted that the ECT will come into operation next month. The ECA currently covers all workers in an employment relationship but limited to 18 contractual and 43 statutory types of salary-related claims. With greater complexity in the terms and conditions of work as well as cases of unfair termination of contract where workers, especially PMEs, are just given notice pay and told to leave the company, I hope the Act can keep pace with the developments and address some of these issues which may not be salary-related.

Fourth, the Trade Unions Act. In light of an expected growth of freelance workers or what many call the "gig economy" in the next five to 10 years, the Labour Movement hopes more can become union members and enjoy the plethora of membership privileges the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and our unions offer. At present, the Trade Unions Act requires a person to be in a "contract of service" to join a trade union. Freelancers who are in a "contract for service" may not be full-fledged union members per se. As such, I suggest MOM form a workgroup to study this carefully and remove or relax the prohibition and explore ways to allow freelancers to be union members without compromising or contravening traditional collective bargaining and representation.

The above are my thoughts and suggestions based on the issues that confront us currently and which we need to address to ensure our labour laws are not just relevant but future-ready. The review cannot be done in silos and, in the spirit of tripartism, I ask for our tripartite partners to review and examine carefully and further strengthen our tripartite relationship in the course of doing so by bringing even more workers and companies within our fold.

Question proposed.

The Chairman: Ms Jessica Tan.

Economic Growth and Manpower Needs

Ms Jessica Tan Soon Neo (East Coast): Mdm Chairman, for Singapore to continue to grow, we need to have the right skills to fill the jobs that will support this economic growth. If we do not align our manpower with our economic growth strategies, given Singapore's tight labour market, manpower will become a bottleneck to economic growth.

Can the Minister for Manpower share the progress made with the manpower sectoral plans for the sectors that have already launched Industry Transformation Maps (ITMs)? Have the manpower sectoral plans been successful in helping companies in these sectors transform existing jobs as well as meet their manpower needs?

Singapore has a highly educated workforce, and professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) form more than 50% of our workforce. As business restructure, we need to pay special attention to this segment of workers. The Future of Jobs Report published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2016 indicates that the greatest losses of jobs with the digital revolution will be in white-collar roles, with new jobs created in computer, technology and engineering related fields.

Can the Minister share how the Adapt and Grow initiatives like Career Support Programme (CSP) and Professional Conversion Programmes (PCP) have been effective in helping workers acquire the skills required and transition into the new jobs created in 2016?

What were the learnings from the current Adapt and Grow initiatives and how have they influenced the enhancements that are being announced in Budget 2017 for CSP and PCP as well as the introduction of the Attach and Train and the Work Trial programmes?

Workforce Needs of Businesses in Restructuring

Mr Thomas Chua Kee Seng (Nominated Member): Madam, in Mandarin, please.

(In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] Chairman, Chinese characters always contain deep insights. In the character "企" which stands for "enterprise", it is made up of "人" or "people" on top, while the bottom part consists of "止" which means "cease", In other words, when there are people, there will be enterprises; if there are no people, then everything would come to a standstill. Currently, our workforce is saddled with two big challenges; the first being an ageing population, with the growth in the workforce shrinking every year; the second is the restructuring economy, bringing about changes to the labour force structure and skills.

The ageing population and low fertility rate has forced enterprises to leverage on technology to lessen the reliance on manual labour. While technology could improve productivity, workers need to be trained to use new technology. For the older workers in particular, they need to make greater adjustments to attitude and mindset to cope with the demands of new skills. Now, even the Government is encouraging civil servants to pick up digital technology. This is an outcome arising from the current environment. Economic transformation has created structural unemployment. Some industries would gradually vanish, while some new industries would emerge. The workforce needs to change its knowledge, skills and concept as quickly as possible in response to this transforming environment, and restructure, making the shift to new industries according to market needs.

It is impossible to solve the current manpower shortage in the short term. We need to treasure every person. As far as possible, we need to cater to society's needs, starting from basic education all the way to continuing education. The Government has already done much in the area of training.

Last year, it allocated $37 million to training programmes under the SkillsFuture Credit. However, only 6% out of those eligible had utilised these funds. May I ask the Minister for the reason behind this low take-up rate? Besides, the unemployed claim they cannot find jobs, while businesses perpetually say they cannot find workers. How should we solve this?

For many years now, the Workforce Development Agency and now SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG), has been working closely with the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, helping many working people to upgrade their skills. Going forward, we will continue to work with even more trade associations and industry associations to design training courses based on practical needs. As long as companies are supportive and employees who attend courses benefit from them, skills upgrading would form a trend, the quality of our entire workforce would be upgraded accordingly.

Employment and Quality of Jobs

Ms Jessica Tan Soon Neo: Mdm Chairman, based on current trends, we are seeing slower job growth, unemployment is rising and there are more redundancies. Employers are taking longer to find suitable talent for the roles they have available and there is greater mismatch of skills to jobs created.

Based on MOM's latest figures, in 2016, nearly five in 10 job vacancies in Singapore were for PMETs. MOM had indicated that this trend is expected to continue to rise as the economy restructures in tandem with the improving skills and education profile of the workforce.

The good news is that there are good PMET jobs being created in Singapore and this trend is expected to grow. The bad news is that even though these jobs do exist, it does seem that PMETs impacted by restructuring and looking for jobs are not able to fill them.

How is MOM addressing the mismatch and missed matches, especially for PMETs and mature workers? Which sectors will the new Attach and Train initiatives be focused on? Apart from wage support for employers, what is the Government doing to ensure the quality of training and reskilling under the Adapt and Grow initiatives? With the Sectoral Manpower Plans for the six ITMs that are already launched, can the Minister share the success in matching the jobs created to the skills developed?

With technological advances, lower-skilled and repetitive jobs, both blue- and white-collar jobs are being replaced by automation, robots and artificial intelligence. For many low-skilled and low-wage workers, their jobs will go away. What measures are in place to help these workers upskill to find good jobs and stay employed?

11.45 am

Last year, Minister Lim Swee Say had shared in Parliament that there are approximately 250 companies on the "triple-weak" watchlist. Are the numbers of companies in this list going down or up? For "triple-weak" companies that have been successful in getting off the watchlist, what have they done to strengthen the Singaporean Core in their workforce?

For flexibility and cost management, employment models are evolving with more companies hiring on contract terms. How is MOM ensuring fair and progressive work practices for these workers?

The number of freelancers is also growing. This is not necessarily bad as it allows freelancers with flexibility and scope to work beyond just what one company can offer. However, freelancers do not get Central Provident Fund (CPF) nor make CPF contributions. This may impact their retirement planning and adequacy. In Singapore, CPF is core to planning for retirement adequacy and CPF funds allow for savings which could be used for healthcare and home ownership. With the changing employment landscape, are there any plans to have businesses make CPF contributions for the work they acquire from freelancers and for freelancers to make contributions to CPF beyond just to their MediSave?

Another area to pay attention to is the unequal impact that job disruptions will have on men and women. Data from the WEF Future of Work Report suggests that if current industry gender gap trends persist, and job transformation for new and emerging roles in computer, technology and engineering-related fields continue to outpace the rate at which women are currently entering these types of jobs, women are at risk of losing out on tomorrow's best job opportunities.

What this means in absolute terms is that for every three jobs lost for men, one new job is created whereas, for women, there will be more than five jobs lost for every job gained. If current gender gap ratios persist over 2015 to 2020, this will mean that there will be one new Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) job per four jobs lost for men, but only one new STEM job per 20 jobs lost for women. With a highly-educated female population in Singapore and tight labour market, this is an area of both opportunity and focus.

Singaporean Core

Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan: Since the implementation of the Fair Consideration Framework, I wish to ask MOM how successful have we been in the drive towards hiring and developing a strong Singaporean Core. Can MOM provide an update on their additional scrutiny efforts, engagement with "double weak" and "triple weak" companies and the punitive actions on those on the "red lane"? In particular, can MOM share whether information and communications technology (ICT), financial sector and professional services continue to be among the top few industries where most of the watchlist companies are and whether we will impose even more punitive sanctions against those recalcitrant companies? I also urge MOM to pay attention to employment agencies as, anecdotally, I hear from fellow PMETs that they are culprits of "hiring of their own kind" practices.

Singaporean Core Workforce

Mr Low Thia Khiang (Aljunied): Madam, if we want Singapore to remain a shining red dot for Singaporeans, it is important that we make every effort to strengthen our Singaporean Core workforce and remove potential impediments to the employment of Singaporean workers.

One potential impediment is our National Service (NS) liability. Disruptions caused by reservist call-ups affect the employability of Singaporeans, especially in companies with fewer staff and less flexible operations. Two to three weeks' absence from work could mean poorer performance reviews or even reluctance by employers to hire workers with NS liabilities in the first place.

While the advanced notice period was meant to give employers a longer runway to re-allocate work, in reality, it does little to mitigate the effects of reservist call-ups since employers will either have to ask other staff to cover the duties of the absent employee, which adds to their workload, or specially hire someone else to cover the worker's duties for that short period. Hence, the Government may want to consider an appropriate incentive scheme to encourage employers to employ NSmen, especially those who still have to fulfil high-key In-Camp Trainings (ICTs).

Next, we must also maintain a Singaporean Core leadership in every field and every industry if we want to see a truly vibrant Singapore with robust economic resilience in the face of challenges. In respect of this, I am happy to see the introduction of the SkillsFuture Leadership Development Initiative in 2015 and the follow up by the Government in this year's Budget announcing that it intends to groom 800 potential leaders in the next three years.

I request the Minister to share more details on the initiative and how it intends to identify and groom these potential leaders.

Local Talents

Miss Cheng Li Hui (Tampines): Mdm Chairman, one of the challenges faced by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is finding local talent. It is common knowledge that companies need high-quality staff to extend their businesses. Many SMEs want to employ local talents, but some locals prefer to work for multinational corporations (MNCs), whether for prestige or better human resource (HR) benefits.

I would like to propose two ways to help our SMEs. Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) and trade associations and chambers (TACs) have to work closely together to meet market needs. For example, many locals stay away from construction-related work. However, there are areas that pay well and need local talent. For example, quantity surveyors (QSs) with three or more years of experience earn from $3,000 to $6,000. But our polytechnics no longer conduct QS courses. The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) conducts QS diploma courses with few local takers.

One, can our Institutes of Technical Education (ITEs) fill this gap? Enhancing the skills and expertise of our local talent will allow us to rely on a larger and more stable workforce, compared to a foreign, transient workforce.

Two, can we also help with the marketing of SMEs by sectors, such as furniture, food and construction industries? Help them with the brand imaging to make the industries more appealing. Poster boys and girls, inspirational stories, pride and mastery of skills, passion in doing a meaningful job − all these can help to build up the image of our important industries like construction and tourism.

Workforce Competitiveness

Mr Lee Yi Shyan (East Coast): Mdm Chairman, Singapore has been ranked amongst the world's most competitive economies. One chief reason is our well-trained workforce. So long our workforce possesses the right type of skills, available in the right quantity, Singapore will remain an attractive place for investments, enterprise growth and entrepreneurship development.

In recent years, however, Singapore's indigenous workforce growth has slowed. In addition, the Government has also reduced the inflow of foreign workers needed to augment our pool. Coupled with rising worker levies and stricter dependency ratios, wages have risen. Between 2011 and 2015, wages outstripped productivity growth in every year. In fact, in 2015, real median wage growth was 7%, compared to labour productivity growth of 0.1%.

A number of economists have warned that "wage growth that outstrips labour productivity growth translates into declining profit margins, business closures and layoff of workers and, unless accompanied by a depreciation of the Singapore dollar, the increase in unit labour costs also implies a loss of international competitiveness."

The latest international Institute for Management Development (IMD) report also says, "Singapore is losing its edge in drawing and keeping talent". Worryingly, if this trend persists, Singapore will become less attractive for business and lose its ability to create good jobs. New investments may pass us by and existing businesses may relocate to more competitive economies.

I would like to ask the Minister for Manpower, besides being pro-workers, would MOM also be pro-business? How would MOM help our workforce to remain internationally-competitive? How would MOM work with present employers to improve workers' skills, and with would-be investors to develop future skills needed to support the future industries?

Lean Enterprise Development Scheme

Mr Chong Kee Hiong (Bishan-Toa Payoh): Mdm Chairman, the Lean Enterprise Development Scheme (LEDS) is one of the most comprehensive initiatives launched in recent years to help our SMEs. It aims to support the growth of SMEs by helping them to develop new capabilities, capacity and markets. It also helps SMEs to be more manpower-lean and helps them to improve their HR practices.

As of last November, 1,400 SMEs had joined the scheme. May I ask if the number has increased since? Does MOM have a target number of SMEs to help and is the Ministry meeting the goal? In addition, would the Ministry share the profiles of companies under this scheme, for example, the sectors, types of businesses, sizes, number of employees and their nationalities?

During last year's COS debate, the Minister of State mentioned that the majority of applicants for the scheme were from the food and beverage (F&B) sector. Understandably, the F&B sector is labour-intensive and, therefore, is a prime candidate to benefit. Are there more companies in labour-intensive sectors that have not come forward and would the Ministry consider more pro-active efforts in reaching out? Has there been any feedback on elements of the scheme that may not be compatible to different business models?

I am also interested to know if MOM monitors the progress of the SMEs after they joined LEDS, with respect to their productivity levels, revenues and profit increases or gains in market share. What types of changes in the companies' operations and transformations in work practices have resulted from LEDS? More success stories can be shared to encourage others to take a closer look at how the scheme can help them.

Manpower-lean Businesses

Ms Jessica Tan Soon Neo: Mdm Chairman, with Singapore's tight labour market, for long-term sustainability, MOM has been emphasising the need for businesses to become manpower-lean.

Can the Minister share what progress have businesses made in Singapore, especially the SMEs, in terms of innovating to be less manpower-intensive, improving the quality of jobs and being more productive?

The LEDS, with its focus to help SMEs develop their capabilities, manpower and markets has been in place since late 2015. What progress have SMEs achieved through LEDS? Have SMEs been able to restructure, create higher-skilled roles and transition from reliance on low-skilled foreign manpower to developing and recruiting locals? Has the quality of jobs been enhanced and are there better jobs?

An emphasis of this year's Budget is the need to develop deep skills. Key for businesses to becoming manpower-lean is to have manpower with deep skills. What measures are in place to support and accelerate the building of deep capability, especially for SMEs? What measures are in place to continue to support businesses as they drive this transformation to become manpower-lean businesses?

Supporting SMEs' Transformation

Mr Desmond Choo (Tampines): Mdm Chairman, SMEs are critical to Singapore and core to Singapore's future growth. They are now at a crossroads, caught in the fastest changing business environment in decades while in a slower growth cycle.

MOM's LEDS has been an innovative initiative to help companies at this crossroads. What is the progress and how many workers and companies have benefited? How will the Ministry enhance LEDS? Can the Government look into greater asset-pooling to reduce the capital expenditure (capex) needs of SMEs? P-Max has been an important part of SMEs' talent pipeline. Can the Ministry also share on the progress?

Even though this is a slower period, it is also exactly the time to implement long overdue business changes. I hope that our SMEs will look into the following.

One, reskill together with their employees. Management needs to also update their own skillsets, especially in digitalisation and technology. Set time aside to train collectively as a company. Two, utilise Government funding to redesign business processes which is usually not possible when order books are filled. Three, go regional. There is robust growth in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries. The Committee on the Future Economy (CFE) has outlined plans to support our global outreach. Our SMEs should seize the opportunities. In Mandarin, please.

(In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] I hope all of us can work in a determined and steadfast manner to achieve breakthrough in adversity.

Adapt and Grow

Assoc Prof Randolph Tan (Nominated Member): Mdm Chairman, for PMETs as well as rank-and-file jobseekers, skills under the Adapt and Grow initiatives provide wage and training support as well as opportunities to try out possibly unfamiliar job roles. This is especially important when jobseekers encounter job requirements that defer from what they had done in the past.

12.00 pm

In this Budget, the Government is going to increase wage and training support provided under existing schemes of the Adapt and Grow initiative, as well as introduce an Attach and Train initiative for certain sectors. Although the extended use of wage support schemes that have overly broad coverage is a cause for concern, wage subsidies provided under the schemes of the Adapt and Grow initiative do not raise the same concerns. This is because they are targeted at improving matching between employers and available workers. They also have clearly defined durations. Such schemes play an important role in helping both businesses and workers. It is neither possible nor desirable for businesses hit by economic weakness to completely rule out the option of shedding jobs.

The Adapt and Grow initiative helps workers to adapt to changing needs and grow in their capacity to handle higher-skilled jobs, thereby expanding their opportunities for regular employment. This preserves the employment potential of workers who have been unemployed. The Attach and Train initiative goes further by targeting companies that are not ready to hire yet. Although the risk of participants not being offered permanent placements could be higher, the benefits of a rewarding career could also be higher.

I have some questions. First, would it be reasonable to expect that at least some of the participating employers must view it as being worth their while to hire under such arrangements even without Government wage subsidy? If that is so, what is the rationale for increasing wage support?

Second, how are schemes under the Adapt and Grow initiative evaluated? It should not just be assessed on their contributions to solving the short-term manpower shortages of participating companies. By giving prospective hirings an early induction into the field, they could also enlarge the pool of eligible workers for such companies in the future. Since such programmes address issues about matching, it should be useful to evaluate how the placements improve the capacity of participants to be matched. By helping employers understand the skills involved in their operations, they can also promote greater participation from employers.

Finally, what are the prospects that workers have of acquiring deep technical skills through such programmes, and what are the realistic targets to aim for in a typical placement? I am thinking about this in terms of the skills frameworks under SkillsFuture. During the placement, will a worker placed under one of these schemes be expected to acquire certain key skills he/she did not have before, utilise those skills to add value to the participating employer? In other words, what does the placement process include? A structured assessment of a participating worker's skills condition?

The Chairman: Mr Dennis Tan.

Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong (Non-Constituency Member): Madam, I would like to withdraw the cut.

The Chairman: Okay. Dr Intan Mokhtar.

Long-term Unemployment

Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar (Ang Mo Kio): Mdm Chairman, while our unemployment numbers remain among the lowest in the world, there is a group of Singaporeans who face long-term unemployment. This number, while still low, has risen to 0.8% in September last year, up 0.2% from September 2015.

For some of these Singaporeans who face long-term unemployment, they are individuals with little formal education, low skills and little relevant experience who have difficulty looking for employment. Some of them are seniors or above 50 years old. Some of them are displaced because of disruptive technologies or are unwilling to accept jobs that pay lower salaries.

However, some of them are in their 20s or 30s and are tertiary-educated but still are not able to gain longer-term employment.

I have met residents who are either university or polytechnic graduates but who have difficulty finding employment after leaving or being retrenched from their first job. One of them graduated with a first degree in Engineering. However, when the company he was working with closed down because of poor business, he found himself unemployed. With a young son just born, he tried applying for another job as an engineer. Six months into his job search, he was still not able to secure an engineering job. In the end, he took up a part-time position doing administrative work just so he can earn an income to support his young family.

What more can be done to help the long-term unemployed to ensure they are able to find employment within six months of their last job, and stay employed for at least six months in their new job? Could this be attributed to a lack of skills on the part of the jobseekers, or a lack of awareness about available jobs or new skills that they do not know about? Or could it be due to a mismatch of expectations between them and prospective employers with regard to salaries, work responsibilities or work hours?

Helping the Long-term Unemployed

Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan: Although we have a relatively low resident unemployment rate of 3.1%, my biggest worry will be for those who are long-term unemployed, especially the PMEs. Since we started in April 2014 until last month, NTUC's U PME centre has assisted more than 2,500 PMEs, out of which 1,350 are for placement assistance. About 70% of them are PMEs aged 40 and above. Some take six to nine months while others take longer to find suitable employment. Older PMEs have it tougher in terms of re-entry. Those in their 30s are also not spared. I have three points to put forward to MOM. I call it the "3Ms" of Mentoring and Case Management, Mid-Career Entry and Mindsets.

First, helping the long-term unemployed requires a case management approach. We need to adopt a one-to-one or one-to-few approach and not a one-to-many approach, unlike traditional job placements and career fairs. These long-term unemployed require more than just counselling or being notified of career fairs or job openings. They require peer support, mentoring and coaching. NTUC's U PME Centre started our Career Activation Programme 18 months ago to do just that and we have achieved positive feedback and steady progress by getting about 20 out of the 100 on our programme employed. We intend to expand this, moving forward.

Second, one particular observation I have with the PCP is that when PMEs move into a new sector or totally new job, he/she enters at the entry point of that new sector or job. I find this unsatisfactory considering mature PMEs have accumulated decades of work experience and skill. There is strong inertia from many PMEs to explore new industries due to the high opportunity cost. It is with this in mind that I hope the Government can look into helping PMEs transit into second careers more seamlessly by exploring the adjacency of jobs and the adjacency of skills so that these PMEs can move into, move across or move up into new roles which capitalise on their acquired skills and knowledge so that they can even enter mid-career and be given credits for their experience.

Third, mindsets have to change, not just employees but employers as well. Employees must stay able, agile and adaptable. Ability is vital because we need skills for current and future jobs. Agility is not just about being able to change but change quickly and flexibly. Adaptability is crucial with shorter economic cycles, job obsolescence, new forms of work and new work streams. We need a new work mindset to embrace change before change embraces us. Employers, too, must play their part not to discriminate against mature PMEs and redesign jobs to embrace the tight, shrinking and ageing workforce.

Young PMEs

Assoc Prof Daniel Goh Pei Siong (Non-Constituency Member): Madam, the Government has rightly been doing more for senior PMEs, as they bear the brunt of retrenchments and the effect of restructuring. But we must not forget the younger PMEs, who have their own unique problems as a sizeable segment in the workforce.

Moreover, young PMEs are now also facing substantial risks of being laid off and affected by restructuring. I would like to reiterate my call for the Ministry to allow all retrenched PMEs aged below 40 to qualify for CSP without the condition of having to be unemployed for six months.

Another issue is that many young PMEs have been switching to contracts for service. Many are doing it for the flexibility of time and space, while some are doing it to expand the market for their skills, so that they can be engaged by overseas companies paying a better price. But this also makes them more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, especially since they will not be able to lodge claims and obtain assistance through the usual channels.

The last issue I would like to highlight is that in this category of young PMEs are many young mothers who would like to return to work after a period of leaving the workforce to care for infants. There was a well-attended career fair organised by social enterprises last year that for the first time catered to women returning to work. I hope Workforce Singapore could look into career services targeting this special group of young PMEs.

Helping Middle-aged and Older Workers

Mr Desmond Choo: Mdm Chairman, the Government has provided much support for our middle-age and older workers. However, they face a double threat. We have not eradicated ageism and the rapid pace of technological changes make getting new jobs and career transition difficult.

Adapt and Grow is an important policy to help these workers adapt to a new work and economic environment. I would like to suggest some enhancements to the scheme.

First, some employers, especially the SMEs, shared that the $4,000 qualifying salary for CSP is too high. More middle-age and older workers can benefit if we lower this qualifying salary.

Second, PCP can be enhanced by lowering the entry requirements and the duration of training. It can be intermediate job grades and functions before the full conversion is done.

Third, Attach and Train can be a gamechanger. The entry salary should use PCP's as a benchmark. I also encourage the public sector to participate actively in Attach and Train.

To provide holistic support for these workers, the tripartite partners must work together to be innovative and adopt differentiated approaches because of our workers' physical and skills requirements. I propose to set up an interagency unit to study employability for middle-age and older workers. This unit can look at evolving the Jobs Bank for age-friendly employers, develop employability programmes and train specialised coaches to help them navigate the job market.

In addition, we can also create new jobs in the heartlands. The Northeast Community Development Council's (CDC's) Community Employment Programme developed by Mayor Teo Ser Luck is a good example of how seniors can be productively hired for community work. To evolve the programme further, we should work with companies, such as Honestbee, to create micro jobs accessible to our more senior residents.

Supporting our middle-age and older workers is not only the Government's responsibility. In an ageing Singapore, they can be the vibrant driver of growth if we give them opportunities. They have carried Singapore's development on their backs over the years. It is time and imperative that Singapore give these veteran soldiers their second wind.

Job Redundancies, Older Workers and Professional Conversion Programme

Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar: Mdm Chairman, many of us may think that a post-secondary educational qualification or relevant work experience or the development of relevant work skills are requisites for getting employment and staying employed. Or that those who face unemployment are individuals with little formal education, low skills or little work experience.

However, increasingly, this is no longer the case. A resident I know, Daniel, has a degree in computer science from one of our local autonomous universities (AUs), which he obtained about 20 years ago. He held a stable and well-paying job in an MNC dealing with computers and information technology (IT) for about 15 years before he was retrenched from the position due to internal restructuring and the dissolution of the department he was in. In other words, he found himself facing job redundancy. Since then, he has been looking for employment and only managed to get short-term contract work, now and then, if he is lucky.

Daniel is tertiary-educated, has about 15 years of work experience in the IT sector and is now in his early 40s. Yet, he has difficulty getting a job even though his expectation for a monthly salary is lower than that for a new university graduate. I feel extremely sorry for him and have also tried to personally help him gain employment to no avail, as yet.

Another resident, Saiful, a polytechnic graduate in the marine and offshore sector, worked for three years in the industry. He left his job to look for a better paying one but after months of futile job-searching, resorted to working as a security guard. He has worked as a security guard for the past two years as he could not find a job in the marine and offshore sector. He is in his late 20s and is already facing employment difficulty.

With the current state of the economy and employment market, I am sure there are many more in the same predicament as these residents. How can MOM assist Singaporeans, such as Daniel and Saiful, who seem to have exhausted all means to gain longer term employment, despite having post-secondary educational qualifications and substantial work experience? How do we address job redundancies, particularly for employees aged 40 and above, and those who are PMEs?

Is the PCP well taken up? What is its impact for this group of employees? Under PCP, how do we ensure that those who undergo PCP will not always start at the bottom of the rung in the new industry in which they have joined because they do not have the relevant experience or simply because they are quite desperate to just find employment?

Professional Conversion Programme

Mr Chong Kee Hiong: Mdm Chairman, I am heartened to note that the number of PCPs had more than doubled in the last year to hit 50, covering almost every sector in our economy.

The Minister shared last month that MOM managed to match about 60% of PMETs to jobs. Does MOM keep track of how long they remain in their new jobs and their subsequent progress, and can the Minister share these statistics? He also mentioned there are mismatches between the number of applicants and number of job openings across these 50 PCPs and that MOM is trying to minimise the imbalance. Can the Minister share more details on how this is being resolved?

The Economic Development Board (EDB) has identified Healthcare, IT, Telecommunications and Aviation as our growth sectors. Thousands of jobs in civil, computer and precision engineering, project management, software development, systems analysis and design, data science and robotics will be created. Will MOM be looking into PCPs for such positions?

So far, the PCP is reactive in nature. Most applicants would have lost their jobs before they enrol. I would like to propose that MOM take a more proactive and high-profile stance for PCPs. MOM may consider publicising PCPs to feed the needs of growth sectors and co-design modular training courses with the participating employers. This is so that interested applicants, who may still be employed but at risk of redundancy, can join in the training in the evenings and weekends, similar to pursuing an additional degree or certification. This would offer a smoother transition for the affected PMETs.

The Attach and Train initiative was announced by the Finance Minister for sectors that have good growth prospects but where companies are not ready to hire. Would the Ministry elaborate on what these sectors are, the types of companies within these sectors that would be eligible for this programme and the eligibility criteria?

The Chairman: Parliamentary Secretary Faishal Ibrahim.

12.15 pm

Assoc Prof Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim (Nee Soon): Mdm Chairman, I applaud the Ministry's effort in implementing PCP to help fellow Singaporeans to reskill and acquire the necessary knowledge and competencies to take on new jobs.

I would like to ask the Minister for an update of PCP. How has PCP benefited Singaporean PMETs? Does the Ministry have a support system and support group to engage the affected PMETs?

I have received feedback from affected PMETs that they have to start at a low level in terms of salary and grade in their new profession. While the PMETs mentioned that they are appreciative of the effort of the Government, they feel that it can be quite painful for them and their family having to see them, especially the main breadwinner, to start at a low level and having to live with a reduced salary. I urge them to be patient and encourage them to do well in their new career while my Parliamentary colleagues and I engage the Government to improve the PCP.

During his Budget speech, I am very pleased that Minister Heng mentioned that there will be enhancements to the Adapt and Grow initiatives. Can the Minister share what enhancements will be made to PCP?

The Chairman: Ms K Thanaletchimi; not here. Mr Chong Kee Hiong.

Enhanced Career Support Programme

Mr Chong Kee Hiong: Mdm Chairman, CSP was launched two years ago to help Singaporeans aged 40 and over who have been looking for jobs for at least six months to access mid-level and more senior jobs. CSP minimises the wage cut by subsidising for 12 months employers who hire such jobseekers in any job that pays a gross salary of at least $4,000 a month.

Can MOM share an update with the latest statistics on the progress of CSP, such as the number of PMETs in the various job functions and sectors under CSP and the sectors which have been conducive for CSP?

SMEs can seek help from Workforce Singapore (WSG) to recruit PMETs through CSP. With more SMEs encouraged to expand overseas, it will be a win-win situation if experienced PMETs with an MNC background with overseas exposure can be matched with such SMEs. Will MOM consider enhancing CSP by actively facilitating such matches? For this subset of CSP employees, can the period of support be extended beyond a year as projects involving foreign markets may have long gestation periods?

Does MOM follow up with CSP placements and monitor their progress? And were there cases where the CSP placements did not work out as envisaged? These insights will help to refine the programme such that it is beneficial to both the PMETs placed and the SMEs hiring them. If the benefits are viewed as being one-sided, then the good intentions of the programme would be lost.

The Finance Minister announced that the Government will increase wage and training support for CSP. Will the Minister elaborate on these? The CSP initiative was originally intended to run until October 2017. Will the programme be finetuned and extended?

National Jobs Bank

Mr Muhamad Faisal Bin Abdul Manap (Aljunied): Madam, the national jobs bank was set up in 2014 to support the implementation of the Fair Consideration Framework and is set to evolve into an online marketplace for jobs that helps to map career ladders in different industries and offers recommendations on the types of scales and trainings workers require to get the jobs they want.

I have two recommendations to enhance the effectiveness of the Jobs Bank in facilitating job-matching. First, a key challenge in job-matching is ensuring that there is a match between an employee's skill and the job requirements as well as between expectation of employers and employees regarding the job. The Jobs Bank can enhance skills matching by allowing jobseekers who have just completed training courses to be automatically directed to job openings that require those skills. This dynamic matching does not only facilitate the job hunting process, but it will also help jobseekers recognise the value of learning new skills.

Second, I would like to propose that non-Workforce Skills Qualification (WSQ) training providers be subject to a certification standard TrainTrust which can be modelled on EduTrust. To encourage providers to come on board, courses and providers that are TrainTrust-certified can be given priority on the list of courses that are recommended to Jobs Bank users. A certification standard will go some way in ensuring the quality of skills learnt has strengthened the trust of the potential employers in the courses attended or certification obtained by the jobseekers. It will provide a reassurance to jobseekers on the values of the certification that they are spending time and effort to earn.

In addition, I also have two questions for the Minister. First, what is the actual number of Singaporeans who have successfully found jobs through the Jobs Bank in each year since its inception in 2014? Secondly, what proportion of the overall number of postings is there in the Jobs Bank?

Enhancing the Jobs Bank

Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan: The National Jobs Bank was started as part of the Fair Consideration Framework's mandatory advertising requirement. I feel that the Jobs Bank has an important role to play in minimising the mismatches and missed matches. Moving forward, I have five new suggestions for MOM and WSG to consider.

First, applications through the Jobs Bank are without acknowledgement. Some question whether employers are just paying lip service by posting job advertisements merely to fulfil the mandatory requirement for EP applications. Is there a way we can make the employing company at least acknowledge the receipt of the job application and update whether the vacancy has been filled or that the applicant is unsuccessful? As highlighted previously, there should be some way to confirm or audit the Jobs Bank to confirm the veracity and validity of the job openings as some businesses may post non-existent job ads to boost up investor relations and confidence.

Second, the Jobs Bank gives people the impression that the jobs posted there are not for higher paying jobs, since mandatory advertising are for jobs below $12,000 monthly salary. For higher paid jobseekers, they will go to the executive search firms and headhunters. Maybe an awareness campaign can be run to improve the public's perception of the Jobs Bank and promote the universal adoption of the Jobs Bank by all employers and businesses so that all will use it to post all their job vacancies.

Third, beyond job advertisements and to help narrow the skills gap, the Jobs Bank can be enhanced with a skills gap analysis feature by comparing the applicants' curriculum vitae (CV) with the desired job's requirement.

Fourth, a comprehensive big data analytics module can also be incorporated into the Jobs Bank to educate jobseekers with the trends and types of in-demand skills that employers desire.

Finally, to imbue greater confidence on employers as well as jobseekers, WSG can share placement rates and, if not, explicitly feature the testimonies of employers and employees of successful cases of placements via the Jobs Bank.

Strengthening Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practices

Mr Saktiandi Supaat (Bishan-Toa Payoh): Mdm Chairman, I would like to ask the Minister if he may share further plans to strengthen the Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment (TAFEP) and equip it with more teeth. I am aware it is not mentioned in the current Budget. This is crucial to the current tight labour market against the backdrop of global uncertainty. If we are to encourage more groups of people to remain contributing members of the labour force − mothers, women returning to the workforce after a hiatus, the elderly and those with handicaps – their rights must be protected.

We must also ensure that in our multiracial and cosmopolitan city, all workers, regardless of gender, race, religion, disabilities and also recently those in the "gig economy", have access to an accommodating and empathetic job market that respects their right to contribute and grow as any regular employee. The latest introduction of the employment claims tribunal introduced last year has been a good step but it only relates to salary disputes for PMETs, for example.

I urge the Ministry to take the next step and grant TAFEP more enforcement powers to protect the practice of fair employment and non-discriminatory recruitment policies in Singapore, especially in the current frequent changing markets and labour market environment.

Sharing of Productivity Gains

Mr Desmond Choo: Mdm Chairman, Singapore has supported our companies with various grants, for example, Capability Development Grant (CDA), the Increase SME Productivity with Infocomm Adoption and Transformation (iSPRINT), Productivity and Innovation Credit (PIC) and Inclusive Growth Programme (IGP). Our companies have benefited from such support. Indirectly, workers have also gained through better jobs and wages.

The IGP is a more direct approach. Every company which utilises the funding must commit to sharing productivity gains with our workers. Workers and company grow inclusively. They are also motivated to find even better ways to implement the projects. I believe there is scope to expand such an approach to other Government schemes.

I note that not all gains are realised quickly and might neither be shared readily nor easily quantifiable. I propose that we expand gains-sharing to include investment in workers' training, such as subsidising training courses or providing training leave. In such a way, there will be longer-term entrenched benefits for workers. Can the Government also consider making this expanded definition of gains-sharing a key performance indicator (KPI) for our grants and initiatives?

Firms on Watchlist and Close Scrutiny

Assoc Prof Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim: Mdm Chairman, during last year's COS debate, I raised the issue about Singaporean and foreign workers. I shared with the House that there were companies which had the locals' interests in their hearts, although they had a regular EP inflow. On the other hand, there were also companies whose hearts were not with our locals, where I received feedback that they use the locals in filling up the numbers and were not particularly interested in developing our local workers.

I am pleased that the Ministry has developed efforts to place companies on the watchlist for weak commitment to the hiring of local Singaporeans. I would like to ask the Minister on the progress of efforts in looking at firms on this watchlist and under close scrutiny. Can the Minister share the profile of these firms? How have these efforts encouraged these firms to employ more Singaporeans? How have other firms responded to this signal?

Jobs for Singaporeans

Ms K Thanaletchimi (Nominated Member): Madam, I must applaud the tremendous effort of MOM in helping Singaporeans who are retrenched, in search of jobs, and looking to switch industries through various schemes, such as PCP, CSP and the latest Attach and Train Programme.

The new Attach and Train programme allows workers to join companies for training attachments and the firms do not have to hire them. This is unlike the traditional Place and Train scheme where workers are trained after they have been hired for jobs. This way, workers can still stand a chance to be trained on the job and gain experience while trying out new sectors. As much as we welcome the programme, how can we ensure that students or workers on the programme are remunerated fairly and can be placed in a job after the training? Does the labour law protect such workers?

Next, I wish to further call upon the Ministry to do more for "mumpreneurs" who would appreciate flexible work arrangements (FWAs), such as working from home. Perhaps the Government can consider providing grants or tax reductions for costs in setting up and running of home offices for this group of women entrepreneurs?

Now, I wish to speak on re-entry and re-employment of women and having enough in their nest egg for their old age. Based on the CPF Board's report in 2013, there seems to be a significant improvement in women's CPF balances. However, this analysis was done with women aged 25-54. For the elderly aged 55 and above, they may lack savings and rely greatly on contributions by family members and assistance from the Government. Can informal jobs, such as caregiving within the family and friends, be incentivised in terms of Government MediSave top-ups?

The tripartite approach to address age management and employment concerns is, indeed, commendable. However, as women live longer, it would be worthy to drill further down the concerns of mature women and their needs as they age beyond 60, whether or not they are in employment.

The Chairman: Mr Lim Biow Chuan, you have two cuts. Please take them together.

Employment Support for Singaporeans

Mr Lim Biow Chuan (Mountbatten): Mdm Chairman, one of the bugbears which I frequently hear is about Singaporean workers who lose their jobs and were replaced by foreign workers who are either less costly or who are related to their foreign employers. Another area of frustration of many Singaporeans is that they work in a company where the majority of employees are foreigners.

Can MOM update this House on the actions taken by the Government to reduce such unfair and unethical practices and what measures are there to protect Singaporean workers? We need to assure Singaporean employees that the Government does not condone such behaviour of employers who discriminate against Singaporeans.

Are there any punitive actions taken against any such companies found to have flouted MOM's regulations? It is also important for MOM to signal to employers that there are severe consequences if they take advantage of policies to employ mainly foreigners in their companies. In such a case, we might as well not allow such companies to operate in Singapore as there is no benefit to the country. For recalcitrant companies, would MOM consider cancelling the Work Permits or EPs of these companies? It is a drastic action but I cannot see the benefit of having such companies operate in Singapore if they do not provide sufficient employment for Singaporeans.

12.30 pm

Mandatory Retrenchment Benefits

Last year, during the Budget Debate, I appealed to MOM to consider a mandatory retrenchment benefit law for workers who had lost their jobs due to retrenchment. MOM had then shared about their schemes to help workers who were retrenched. I was particularly impressed by the Adapt and Grow initiative and CSP which provided wage support for companies which employ eligible Singaporean PMETs. Thus, the Government is helping companies with their wage bill if they employ retrenched workers. There have also been tripartite guidelines given requiring employers to inform MOM within five days of laying off workers and to provide the employees' details. Unfortunately, as can be seen from a recent case when an employer terminated several workers on grounds of poor performance, employees who lose their jobs for whatever reasons will face a certain period of financial uncertainty in their lives.

With an increasing number of workers who have lost their jobs in 2016 − I think it is 11,890 in the first nine months − may I urge MOM to reconsider the need to provide mandatory retrenchment benefits to workers? After all, a recent survey in late 2016 showed that 90.6% of employers do pay retrenchment benefits to workers who were retrenched. If retrenchment benefits are made compulsory, only a small number of workers will be affected. But making retrenchment benefits compulsory would certainly help these workers. And to the worker who is retrenched without any compensation, it is really a frustrating time for him as he struggles to provide for his family.

I know the Minister has spoken on this topic just last month but allow me to be a little bit more persistent, because workers whose employment is terminated really do not know what their rights are and what they can do to seek fair compensation from their employers. So, may I urge the Minister to reconsider the need for a mandatory retrenchment benefit law?

The Chairman: Minister Lim Swee Say.

The Minister for Manpower (Mr Lim Swee Say): Mdm Chairman, with your permission, I have asked the Clerk to place an infographic, MOM's Committee of Supply in brief, on Members' seats. May I also seek your permission to display some slides on the LED screen during my speech, please?

The Chairman: Yes, please. [Copy of infographic was distributed and some slides were shown to hon Members.]

Mr Lim Swee Say: Thank you, Madam. Madam, I thank Members for their views and suggestions. NTUC Deputy Secretary-General Heng Chee How and several Members had shared that, on the ground, there is growing concern on job opportunities and job security. I can understand.

Retrenchment has gone up to its highest since the Global Financial Crisis in 2009. Unemployment, though low, has gone up, too. The resident unemployment rate had held steady at about 2.8% for four years since 2012 but went up to 3% last year.

As we transform to take our Singapore economy into the future, some may wonder what the future economy will bring us. Will more workers be displaced by technology? Will more workers be made redundant? Will more jobs go to foreigners? Will the rise of the digital and gig economy change the employment landscape, resulting in less employment and more freelancing? In short, will we have enough jobs, enough good jobs, or will more workers be hit by unemployment, under-employment and structural unemployment?

Madam, this cannot be the kind of future we want for our workers, our people, our children. The purpose of us transforming towards our future economy is to improve our jobs, our careers, our lives, not to make them worse. Of course, there is no guarantee that all economic transformations will be successful, as seen in failures in some countries. But for Singapore, we have succeeded time and time again, so far. So, working together, whole-of-Singapore, we must make sure that we succeed again.

This will not be easy because to open the door to a future of good jobs and better careers for all our people, we must have not one, not two, but actually four keys in our hand. The first key is the key of Quality Job Creation, to create enough jobs of good enough quality for everyone, young and old, PMETs and rank-and-file.

Madam, the net growth in our total employment, excluding foreign domestic workers, has slowed significantly from more than 200,000 a year before the Global Financial Crisis to more than 100,000 a year after the Global Financial Crisis, to less than 25,000 in 2015 and less than 10,000 last year. Why?

There are two reasons for this. Externally, due to business uncertainty, companies are hiring less. The recruitment rate for companies with 25 or more employees has come down, from 2.8 new employees per 100 existing employees in 2012 to about 2.2 last year. But, more importantly, internally, our local workforce growth has slowed quite significantly. With ageing and low birth rate, coupled with an already high labour force participation rate, local workforce growth is heading for stagnation over the next 10 years.

Slowdown in hiring is cyclical. It will pick up again when business sentiment improves. But slowdown in our local workforce growth is structural. Our local workforce growth will never go back to the high growth of 2%, 3%, 4% of the past. Hence, if we try to bring employment growth back to 100,000 a year, we will need to bring in many more foreign workers. If we take in 50,000 more a year, this will mean 500,000 over 10 years.

Higher economic gains will come with even higher social costs. This is not what we want. We have little choice but to learn how to grow our economy with a workforce growth of about 1% from now on. This means about 33,000 net increase in total employment a year. There will be fluctuations from year to year. Some years less, maybe 25,000; some years more, maybe 40,000. So, 25,000 to 40,000, this range should be achievable. But even so, we will still be faced with the challenge of rising under-employment. This will happen when the improvement in job quality − not just new jobs, but also existing jobs − is not able to keep pace with improvement in the education and skills profile of our local workforce.

So far, the overall quality of our local employment has been improving. The proportion of PMET jobs has increased from 49% in 2007 to 55% last year. As we help every worker to upgrade to become a better worker, we need to make every job a better job, every career a better career. Will we succeed? I believe we can, but only if we look at technology not as our competitor for jobs, but as our partner in the creation of jobs, quality jobs.

Madam, technology is the main driving force of future growth, globally. We can either use it to our advantage or allow our competitors to use it to our disadvantage. The choice is clear. To be on the winning side, we need to keep crossing the technology gate, better and faster than the competition, so that we will not end up in the black hole of global competition. However, with so many innovations out there, crossing the first gate of technology is essential but will not be enough. There is still the second gate to cross − the market gate − to compete successfully for customers and build market share. Those who fail again will end up in the black hole of global competition.

To cross the two gates, we have been building our bridge of innovation. Our next challenge is to make this bridge of innovation longer, stronger and wider, so that many more can get through as individual companies, as clusters of industry and as one future economy; not just the Pioneers, not just the early adopters, but the early majority and, eventually, the late majority as well.

Some may wonder, the more we strengthen the bridge of innovation, would technology not take away even more jobs from us?

Craftmark is a distributor and retailer of over 20 brands of footwear and leather goods and accessories. With the use of radio-frequency identification (RFID), it cuts down manhours for stocktaking by 90%. Workers were redeployed to serve customers better. As a result, they achieved not just better business for the owners but also better jobs for the workers. So, the key words for MOM are "Better Jobs".

The Soup Spoon is a popular restaurant chain with more than 20 outlets. To expand overseas, the company decided to move from food retail to include food manufacturing as well. With automated packaging process, its operation is not only competitive, but also 25% more manpower-lean. So, the key words for MOM are "Manpower-lean".

Tiong Seng is a market leader in construction. To maximise the impact of using a technology known as BIM, the company helps all its subcontractors to adopt the same technology. As a result, they improved productivity, not just within the company but across the entire value chain, by 35%. So, the key words for MOM are "Productivity Gain".

Madam, these companies show us that the real threat we face in the competition for jobs is not technology but global competition. Instead of worrying about technology taking away our jobs, we should focus more on how to partner technology to take away customers and jobs from our competitors before they do it to us. This is why over a year ago, MOM initiated LEDS to bring various agencies together, to provide a one-stop service, making it easier for the SMEs to develop business capability, manpower and markets. Where necessary, MOM is even prepared to allow short-term flexibility on foreign manpower quota to help make changes happen faster.

Mr Chong Kee Hiong and Ms Jessica Tan asked about the progress. Madam, progress of LEDS is encouraging, supported by many agencies − SPRING, WSG, the Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA), BCA, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), EDB and NTUC's Employment and Employability Institute (e2i). More than 2,000 companies, mostly SMEs across 18 sectors, have responded to LEDS. Among them were the three I cited earlier. This year, we will go three steps further.

First, we will strengthen the scope of LEDS with new schemes introduced this year. Our agency partners will help more SMEs to go digital as well as to expand market overseas.

Second, we will speed up the development and deployment of what we call "Cluster" solutions and promote their widespread adoption, not just by the individual companies but by clusters of companies, in a cheaper, better and faster way.

Thirdly, we will work closely with sectors that are facing and will continue to face manpower shortages due to ageing of their existing workforce or growing demand for labour. We will partner them to redesign their workflow to be more manpower-lean, and to offer jobs and careers of better qualities to our locals, so that they can compete better for local manpower to support their growth.

One example is lift technicians. We need 1,000 more lift technicians over the next three years. We will support BCA and the industry to upgrade existing workers and attract and train more locals to strengthen our Singaporean Core.

My colleague Minister of State Teo Ser Luck will speak more on the key thrusts of our Transform and Grow efforts.

Madam, with the first key in hand, creating quality jobs can help us to prevent rising unemployment and under-employment. But we will still face the risk of the third kind, which is structural unemployment, a result of mismatches in the labour market. We, therefore, need a second key − the key of Workforce Adaptability. We must help our people to adapt to change, take on better jobs − both new and existing jobs − and build new careers we are creating for them in our future economy.

12.45 pm

Last year, WSG, together with NTUC e2i, the Singapore National Employers' Federation (SNEF) and our tripartite partners, we helped more than 20,000 jobseekers to secure jobs. This is an increase of about 15%. The profile of jobseekers we assisted is inclusive – young and old.

About 30% were above age 50. Assoc Prof Daniel Goh may be pleased to note that about 45% were in their 20s and 30s. Likewise, we helped workers who are employed, unemployed and long-term unemployed. Among the unemployed, 40% of them who found jobs last year, were long-term unemployed.

Also, the split between PMETs and rank-and-file is about 50-50. So, it is a good mix. But a majority of jobseekers are what we call the missed match cases. They are ready for jobs. The jobs are suitable for them. It is just that they have yet to find each other. So, we help them to plan their careers, search for jobs, prepare their CVs for interviews, and more than 16,000 workers ─ what we call the missed match workers ─ found jobs successfully.

To help more jobseekers and employers to find each other, we will make better use of technology. We have improved the user friendliness of the National Jobs Bank to provide better search functions. I recall there was feedback given by Assoc Prof Randolph Tan last year.

Jobseekers are also better updated on their application status, a point raised by Mr Patrick Tay. As we have not mandated both the employers and jobseekers to inform us of successful job placements, I do not have the statistics that Mr Muhamad Faisal Abdul Manap asked for. In other words, the National Jobs Bank is a place for employers and workers to find each other. WSG and MOM are not in the loop, but we provide the platform for them to find each other. We have also piloted Virtual Career Fairs which are of a longer duration than the physical job fairs. It is also easier to access. Feedback has been positive.

Our next big move is to transform the entire National Jobs Bank into a one-stop non-stop online marketplace. It will enable various groups of jobseekers to search for what types of jobs they are looking for. For example, First Jobs for young graduates, Next Jobs for those in mid-career, and Next Careers for those changing profession.

We also linked up the online marketplace with the Individual Learning Portfolio portal to be launched by SSG so that we can provide seamless access between the two ─ from skills to jobs, from jobs to skills, as suggested by Mr Patrick Tay as well as Mr Desmond Choo during the Budget Debate.

These major enhancements will be rolled out progressively this year. We will keep enhancing the online marketplace facilities, including the useful suggestions by Mr Patrick Tay.

Besides using technology to widen our outreach to more jobs and more jobseekers, we will also expand the channels of job-matching services through closer collaboration with private sector employment agencies. Having explored with leading employment agencies, both locally and overseas, we are now ready to partner two leading employment agencies which have been working with the government agencies in the UK and Australia. They were selected because of their business focus on active jobseekers, meaning these are the workers who are actively looking for jobs, rather than passive jobseekers where the jobs are looking for the workers. We will partner them to help place PMETs who are made redundant and those unemployed for three months or more, and will launch this new partnership in the second quarter of this year.

Madam, as we gear up to serve more of these missed match cases, we will also do more to reduce mismatches in our job market. Last year, the number of missed match cases has increased from 14,500 to about 16,000, an increase of about 10%. However, the number of mismatch cases has increased even faster, from 3,000 to almost 5,000, an increase of more than 60%. Even though the current split between missed matches and mismatches is about 75:25, we expect to see a continued shift towards more mismatches in the future.

Madam, I share the concerns of Mr Patrick Tay, Ms Jessica Tan, Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar, Mr Lee Yi Shyan, Mr Desmond Choo and Assoc Prof Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim. Structural unemployment is sticky and harder to solve. So, it is better that we act faster and act more proactively. Last year, at the COS, we introduced the Adapt and Grow initiative to help PMETs who need the extra help in overcoming these missed matches. This year, we are enhancing the Adapt and Grow initiative again.

Let me explain why. As we support businesses to transform and grow faster, more old jobs will be destroyed, more new jobs will be created, and more existing jobs will be recreated. This has implications for our workers.

In the past, we strived for lifelong employment for our workers. One career, one employer for life. Today, with keener and stronger competition, instead of lifelong employment, one career, one employer for life, we now have lifelong career. One career but with many different employers throughout our working life.

In the future, lifelong career will go, too, giving way to what I call lifelong re-employability, meaning not just many employers, but also many careers in our lifetime. Each time, when we move from one career to another career, we will have to learn new skills, adapt to new environment, to regain our employability time and time again. That is why we call it re-employability. Therefore, we can expect to see more PMET jobseekers facing three growing mismatches in future: job mismatch, skill mismatch and wage mismatch.

First, job mismatch. Last year, we launched 36 new PCPs to help more than 1,000 PMETs to switch careers and to take on job openings in those sectors that are still growing and hiring.

One of the new PCPs is for data analytics. One company, as they moved on into smart manufacturing, they created new roles, such as data analytics. But at the same time, some of the existing jobs and staff were at risk of being let go. Instead of retrenchment, WSG, the company and a training provider, worked together to retrain these redundant workers who are mostly more than 40 years old. Building on their domain expertise, they are now leading projects using their new skills in data analytics. In other words, with professional conversion, these PMETs have moved into an emerging area with potential for career growth. In fact, they can look forward to becoming data scientists and programme managers one day.

Madam, currently, a majority of the jobs offered by employers for PCPs are entry-level positions. This is a point that several Members have raised. Mr Chong Kee Hiong may be pleased to know that the PCP participants, not all of them, wait till they are unemployed before they join PCP. In fact, about half, or maybe even more than half of them, are still in employment. I believe they are what the Secretary-General of the NTUC called "the future retrenched". These PCP participants, they are actually in employment today, but still they have decided to take up PCP to convert into their new professions. Why? Because when they look at where they are today, either they feel that they could be at risk of being retrenched in the future, made redundant in the future, or maybe the new career can offer them better growth prospects. So, I want to assure this House that for PCP, we are targeting at both the redundant workers of today, as well as the redundant workers of tomorrow, to help them take on careers of the future. These are the concerns raised by Mr Patrick Tay, Dr Intan Mokhtar, Mr Chong Kee Hiong and Assoc Prof Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim.

To encourage employers to offer more PCP jobs at the mid-level, we will raise the entry support caps from $2,000 currently to $4,000. What this means is that, under PCP, since we support 70% of the wages, at $4,000, we will be able to support PCP jobs with a salary of up to $5,700. Employers pay $1,700, we pay $4,000. Together, we can fund mid-level jobs of up to $5,700.

Mature PMETs, who are more than 40 years old, or the long-term unemployed for more than six months, they will continue to receive higher support, an increase from today's $4,000 to $6,000. For them, the wage support is 90%. So, at $6,000, we will be able to support PCP jobs of a salary of up to $6,700. With these enhancements, for a PCP of six months conversion period, we are able to support up to $24,000 worth of salary.

For mature PMETs or those who are long-term unemployed, salary support can be up to $36,000. This is on top of the training subsidies of an average of $9,000 for a six-month PCP.

Madam, the second mismatch is skills mismatch. To equip PMETs with the new skills needed for the future and ensure that they are able to put the new skills to good use, we have all along been adopting Place and Train, that is, place first and train later approach for PCP, and this has worked well up to now.

But we now face a new bottleneck because during this period of economic transition, the pace of hiring is slower, as I mentioned earlier. Even though there is a demand for manpower to meet future needs but, in some sectors, companies are holding back hiring due to business uncertainty in the immediate term. This poses a problem for both the jobseekers and the employers because training for conversion takes time. So, precious time is wasted if we have to wait until the employers are ready to hire before we start skills conversion, a point echoed by Assoc Prof Randolph Tan.

To overcome this, we will introduce Attach and Train to convert PMETs ahead of job placement. I just want to clarify one point made by Assoc Prof Randolph Tan, which is that Attach and Train is not targeted at companies. The Attach and Train is targeted at industries. In other words, we do not choose companies to support, but we choose industries to train these PMETs ahead of job placement for the industry.

Ms Thanaletchimi asked about payment for trainees on the Attach and Train programme. We will provide them with training allowances, which are about 50% to 70% of prevailing salaries for the jobs they are being trained for. This will be capped at $4,000 per month, in lieu of salary grants that we pay to the employers. Since there is no employer, so we do not pay wage support to the employers but, instead, we pay these training allowances to the PCP trainees.

To lower the risk of non-placement, trainees are attached to companies as an integral part of the conversion process. In other words, they do not just attend classroom training. In fact, they have to be attached to companies, equivalent to working in a real-life environment, to learn the conversion in a real-life environment. This is to familiarise them with their new jobs and new workplace, so that they will be more job-ready when companies are ready to hire them.

To minimise potential abuse by employers, we will select a few sectors to start with and manage the programmes closely with our industry partners. So, it is not a programme for all sectors but only for selected sectors.

How do we go about selecting these sectors? The criteria are the outlook for sector growth must be promising; industry leaders must be committed to help select and place trainees and rally the support of the industry members; they must also be committed to jointly spearhead industry transformation and manpower development for their respective sectors.

Mr Chong Kee Hiong and Ms Jessica Tan asked which sectors will pilot the Attach and Train programme. We are looking at the logistics sector because it is one of the key growth sectors identified by CFE. At the same time, the sector has in place a professional conversion facility known as SCALA, and the interest from PMETs is high. In fact, when SCALA conducted their first PCP course, they had 80 training places, but they received 250 applications. But at that time, there were only 43 jobs from 14 companies and, as a result, 37 of the PCP places were wasted.

With the introduction of Attach and Train, we will be able to take in more PMETs for future courses, train them, attach them to potential employers, help them to be more job-ready when companies are ready to hire them.

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Ms Jessica Tan asked about the progress of various Sectoral Manpower Plans (SMPs) and support for the respective ITMs. Madam, to meet the manpower needs of the industry and employment needs of our workers, we translate the individual ITMs into skills framework − defining the jobs, career paths and skills requirements − and we follow up with our industry partners with programmes, such as the PCP, CSP, Career Fair as well as the Attach and Train programme, with the logistics industry. More will be done as and when more ITMs are launched.

Miss Cheng Li Hui asked about support for the SMEs and the various sectors, such as construction. Yes, likewise, we will do the same.

Other potential industries for the Attach and Train include infocomm. We are looking at IT system administrator − apparently there is a shortage of them. We are also looking at healthcare, in consultation with the Ministry of Health (MOH), and also biologics, which is a new growth sector in manufacturing. We will also partner NTUC to help more workers to migrate into future growth sectors, something that the Secretary-General of NTUC is most passionate about.

Third, wage mismatch. To encourage employers to hire mid-career PMETs, we provide wage support through CSP. Assoc Prof Randolph Tan asked why the need to subsidise wages. Madam, these mature PMETs may have the expertise and experience, but the match may not be 100%. By reducing wage cut for the affected PMETs and reducing wage costs for the employers, during this transitional period for up to one year, we hope to bring more of them together for both sides to know each other better, so that they can continue employment without our wage support after the transitional period.

Ms Sim Lay Koon was previously a finance manager. She left her job in mid-2015 due to job misfit. The job search took longer than expected, so she took the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) certification while looking for a job. Finally, she came to NTUC-e2i. With the help of CSP, her new employer was prepared to give her a chance and to try her out in a role which is slightly bigger and different from what she used to do in her previous job. She is now a senior accounts associate doing accounting for the SME clients. Ms Sim used to be doing accounts for her own company but now, in her new job, she is doing accounts for the SME clients. It is something different but, with the support of CSP, both sides were prepared to have a go and, so far, things have worked out well. In fact, the new employer is so supportive of her that her employer would grant her a half-day time-off every week for her to complete her final ACCA module.

Mr Chong Kee Hiong asked for the progress of CSP. Madam, so far, more than 300 have benefited from the programme. To help more PMETs affected by redundancy, especially those who are long-term unemployed (LTU), a point raised by Dr Intan Mokhtar and Mr Patrick Tay, this year, we will enhance our support for three groups of PMETs. First, the mature PMETs who are unemployed and have been actively looking for jobs for more than one year. They are not just LTU; they are longer-term unemployed.

Their employers will receive higher wage support and for a longer duration, up from 12 months to 18 months of 50% of wage support for the first six months; 30% for the second six months; and 20% for the last six months. In total, the wage support can be as high as $42,000 over 18 months for the employers. Second, PMETs aged 40-49, who are made redundant or unemployed for six months, will now get the same level of support as those PMETs aged 50 and above. Currently, those aged 40-49 receive a lower level of support compared to those who are aged 50 and above. We have decided to combine the two groups. Now, those aged 40-49 will receive the same level of support as those who are more than 50 years old.

What this means is that we will double our wage support for this group aged 40-49. For the first six months, we will increase it from 20% today to 40%; for the next six months, from 10% today to 20%. In total, we support up to $25,200 of wage support over one year for the employers.

Third, we will extend CSP to all PMETs who are unemployed for six months or more, regardless of their age, regardless of whether they were made redundant. In other words, younger PMETs who are in their 20s or 30s can now receive 20% of wage support for the first six months; 10% of wage support for the second six months; a total wage support of up to $12,600, even if they have not been made redundant. As long as they are LTU, they will qualify for CSP.

We will also enhance CSP to help match more PMETs to SMEs, a concern expressed by Miss Cheng Li Hui. The qualifying salary for CSP is currently set at $4,000. As mentioned by Mr Desmond Choo, the feedback from SMEs is that some may not be able to meet this qualifying salary, especially during this period of weaker growth. We, therefore, will lower salary threshold for SMEs, from $4,000 to $3,600. I want to emphasise that this is not to depress wages for the PMETs but to increase job opportunities, especially for the younger PMETs who are LTU. We will also allow the hiring of PMETs for overseas job assignments, as long as the employees meet the criteria of CSP.

Madam, we are also enhancing support for the rank-and-file workers facing job expectations mismatch. For those having greater difficulty finding jobs, we believe it is useful for them to try out the jobs and employers before taking up the jobs. Likewise, employers want to try out the jobseekers, too, before they are ready to make the offer for employment.

SDB Solutions is a company that specialises in digitising and archiving hardcopy documents. The work requires patience, precision and attention to details, and they find it challenging to find workers of the right fit. Under the Work Trial programme, they tried out five jobseekers for two weeks, and three of them decided to continue with the job.

One of them is Heidi. She stopped work for 11 years to raise her children and she was not sure whether she can do the job. After the two weeks of work trial, it turned out to be a good fit. In fact, the company, SDB Solutions, is so happy that it is now offering three more Work Trial places under the programme.

Dr Intan Mokhtar will be happy to note that to help more LTU rank-and-file workers to return to work, especially the lower-skilled and lower-wage workers, we have decided to extend the current 80 hours, or two weeks, of work trial to as long as three months, with an allowance of up to $1,200 per month.

During or at the end of the work trial, if the employers offer employment to these rank-and-file workers who have been unemployed for more than one year, we will provide wage support of 30%, capped at $600, for the first six months of employment. In other words, those who are LTU workers for one year or more, we put them on a work trial, we support them up to three months, and during or at the end of the attachment, if the employer offers him or her the employment, we will subsidise the wages of 30%, up to $600 for the first six months. The whole purpose is to help as many of our LTU workers to go back to work and, hopefully, stay on the job.

These workers will also get an additional incentive payment of $1,000 for staying in the job for at least six months. To support inclusiveness at our workplaces, this enhanced Work Trial also supports Persons-with-Disabilities (PwDs).

Madam, we will also support the Returnship Programme proposed by NTUC and Mr Desmond Choo. We will partner NTUC to tap on the various support schemes under Adapt and Grow to support this Returnship Programme.

Madam, I wish to emphasise that the key factor determining the success of Adapt and Grow is not how much money we put in to help our jobseekers and employers but rather it depends a lot on how much our jobseekers are prepared to adapt and grow, and how much our employers are prepared to be fair and inclusive.

Members shared during the Budget Debate some unhappy cases where jobseekers did not succeed in finding jobs. They asked, what went wrong? Madam, no matter how hard we try, how much passion and commitment we put in, still we are unable to succeed in helping every jobseeker to find a job. For the rank-and-file workers, our success rate currently is about 70%. For PMETs, it is about 60%.

One of our unsuccessful rank-and-file cases is Mr A. He left his job as a logistics assistant due to differences with his boss. He had specific expectations in his job search − it must be within four bus stops from where he lives; work only from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm. He demanded that the career coach must arrange at least two job interviews every week for him until he found a suitable job. And he refused our help to improve his resume and interview skills. With his unrealistic expectations, uncooperative and demanding attitude, we have not been able to help him to secure any job. We have not given up on him, even though he has been uncontactable for six months.

In contrast, Ms B, 50 years old, is a successful rank-and-file case. She is a single-income parent supporting two children and an elderly mother. She has a brain tumour, but under control. She left her previous job as a property consultant and approached our career centre after 10 months of unsuccessful job search. She needs to work near her home and end work at 5.00 pm every day due to family responsibilities. She wanted to join the healthcare sector. So, with advice from her career coach, she took up the WSQ Higher Certificate in Healthcare Support. She had financial problems. Tough.

The Chairman: It is okay, Minister, take your time.

Mr Lim Swee Say: We helped her with transport cost so that she can attend the course. She missed a few modules when she fell ill, but she persevered to complete the course. Because of her determination and willingness to learn and improve herself, today, she is working as a Clinic Assistant.

We have mixed outcomes with PMET jobseekers, too. Ms C is highly-qualified, with 10 years of experience in banking and finance. She told her career coach what she wanted. It must be senior management position in investment banking, minimum pay of $10,000. But she was unreceptive to advice to enhance her resume and improve on her interview skills. When rejected by potential employers, she demanded that the employers must share with her the resumes of the successful candidates to verify that they were actually more qualified than her. She even verbally abused our staff on several occasions. For the current status of such a case, it is "no successful outcome".

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On a positive note, Mr D, 47, is a successful PMET case. He worked for more than 20 years as a plant manager. He spent the last 10 years based in China. He lost his job when the factory closed down. And the last time he looked for a job, it was more than 10 years ago. He did not know how best to search for jobs, so he sent out his resume blindly to 70 companies. Five companies responded but all unsuccessful.

After eight months, he approached WSG career centre. Our career coach helped him discover his strengths and teach him how to market his strengths to the potential employers. We helped him to improve his resume to better reflect his capabilities and experience. He attended career fairs and walk-in interviews whenever there were opportunities. With the support of CSP, he secured a job as a production manager without having to suffer any wage cut. We are happy for him.

Madam, when a jobseeker succeeds in securing a job with the help of our career coach, we do not claim full credit. It is the result of good teamwork between the jobseeker and career coach. Likewise, when the outcomes are negative, please do not put all the blame on our career coaches. Please remember this is a joint responsibility, and we can only help those who want to help themselves.

Every time I talk to our career coaches at WSG and e2i − we have about 120 of them − I am struck by their competence, passion and dedication. They are certified career development facilitators, with skills in group facilitation, basic counselling, emotional support, use of psychometric and career-matching tools. They also have to keep themselves abreast of industry, jobs and career trends. Most of all, their hearts are in the right place.

Senior Career Coach Cheng Hing Nan can feel the pain and anxiety of jobseekers because he himself was retrenched before. One client, Mr Wong, was an LTU whose previous salary was more than $10,000. Career Coach Hing Nan knew Mr Wong was under immense stress and had low morale. So, he focused on the emotional well-being of Mr Wong. He stayed in constant touch with him, checked on his family, helped him with industry research and also prepared him for interviews. After six months of teamwork, Mr Wong found a job as a project manager with a local research facility.

Madam, serving people who have lost their jobs and careers is never easy. It requires us to be sensitive and responsive. As Mr Patrick Tay mentioned, we have to adopt a case approach, a very personal approach. I salute our career coaches at WSG, e2i and our Career Centres for their passion, professionalism and their perseverance in serving our jobseekers one to one, one by one, day after day, with their heads and hearts. I urge them to press on because our work is never done.

Madam, with the slowdown in our workforce growth from 2%, 3% of the past to just 1% in future, we have to value every worker even more, young and old, PMETs and rank-and-file, local and foreign. We need to strengthen the inclusiveness of our local workforce to strengthen our social cohesion. At the same time, we also need to enhance the complementarity of our local and foreign workforce to enhance our economic competitiveness, a point made by Mr Lee Yi Shyan.

Therefore, the third key we need to have is the key of inclusiveness and complementarity. My colleague Minister of State Sam Tan will address our support for mature workers, low-wage workers and workers who have caregiving responsibilities at home. I will share my thoughts on how we can manage better the inter-relationship between the local and foreign workforce in Singapore.

One third of our Singapore workforce today is foreign manpower. This is a permanent feature because we can never be self-sufficient in having enough local workers, both in number and diversity of expertise. Excluding foreign domestic workers (FDWs), we now have about 1.2 million foreign workers. Are they here to complement us, or to compete against us? Forty percent, or about 450,000, of them take on labour-intensive jobs − construction, marine, process sectors – demanding jobs few locals want to do.

For example, in the construction sector, they build our HDB flats, roads, Mass Rapid Transit networks and other amenities to make Singapore more liveable. Forty-five percent, about half a million, of them do jobs that locals want to do, too. But we do not have enough locals to do all these jobs. For example, PMETs − nurses, engineers, technicians; rank and file − cleaners, drivers, service staff.

For example, integrated circuit (IC) design is a highly specialised profession. It requires minimally a Bachelor's degree in Electronics Engineering and half of them have postgraduate qualifications in IC design and microelectronics. We have such local engineers in Singapore. But we do not have enough of them. Given the global shortage for such talent, having foreign IC Design Engineers here is a plus for us. They help us to support the growth of our industry and thereby create more such good jobs for Singaporeans. Of course, we will continue to strengthen our Singaporean Core through MOE's Singapore Industry Scholarship and EDB's Industrial Postgraduate Programme.

Of the remaining 15%, those in global headquarters help bring jobs to Singapore. Global companies can locate their global headquarters anywhere in the world. Having them here is good for our Singaporeans because for every three foreigners in our headquarters workforce, headquarters operations, there are about seven locals. So, three versus seven. They also give Singaporeans more opportunities to be exposed to new job functions, international working environment and global best practices. Those in info-communications help to bring technical skills to Singapore. There are about more than 100 skills clusters that can be found in the info-communications industry in Singapore. Foreigners are stronger in some of these skills clusters than our locals, and likewise our locals are stronger in some of these skills clusters compared to the foreigners. Therefore, together, they make us more globally competitive.

On the whole, most of the foreigners working in Singapore do complement our local workforce rather than substitute our locals. Why then this persistent view that foreigners are here to take away our jobs? I believe one reason is "pockets of concentration". Because in some companies, some segments of industries, some locations, the employers have not given fair consideration to the recruitment and development of our local manpower. What they have done is wrong, so we are taking actions against them, subject them to closer scrutiny.

Last year, I announced the implementation of a Fair Consideration Framework (FCF) Watchlist. Mr Patrick Tay, Ms Jessica Tan, Mr Lim Biow Chuan and Assoc Prof Faishal Ibrahim asked for an update on the FCF watchlist. Madam, it started with 100 companies, the list has grown to 250 as at the end of last month. They come from various industries − ICT, professional services, financial and insurance activities, amongst others.

Once placed on the FCF Watchlist, TAFEP guides them to improve their employment practices over a period of six months. Some have responded positively. They stepped up local recruitment with the help of WSG and NTUC-e2i. They collaborate with IHLs on the recruitment of new graduates. They put in place inhouse programmes to groom our local talents and they facilitate know-how transfer to our locals. Collectively, these firms hired 800 more Singaporean PMEs since being placed on our watchlist. If they continue to improve and adopt fair and progressive practices, they can progressively be removed from the watchlist. However, about 50 of them have not been receptive or cooperative. We have not seen enough improvement after six months of engagement with them.

Mr Saktiandi Supaat suggested that TAFEP be given more teeth. Indeed, we are working towards that. At the recommendation of TAFEP, more than 500 EP applications from these 50 employers have been rejected by MOM or withdrawn by the companies. We will continue to curtail their work pass privileges until they improve.

Madam, the FCF watchlist is a negative measure taken against "unfair" employers who are just a small minority of firms in Singapore. I want to emphasise that the vast majority of the employers are treating our locals fairly. We hope our action against these unfair employers will help reshape the local-foreign mindset for the better, from one of "2/3 versus 1/3" towards one of "2/3 and 1/3".

As we move into the future economy, we need to go another step further, not just "2/3 versus 1/3" to "2/3 and 1/3", but towards a new mindset of "2/3 plus 1/3" can be bigger than one.

This will take time. We are starting small with a select group of employers and their employees. Last month, we launched the Human Capital Partnership programme with 74 employers employing about 100,000 Singaporeans. They come from different industries, from manufacturing to services, export-oriented and domestic bound, hi-tech and hi-touch. They also belong to different types of enterprises − local enterprises and MNCs, Government-linked companies (GLCs) and SMEs, business enterprises and social enterprises. They are very different enterprises, but they all share three same commitments.

Mr Chong Kee Hiong asked what are the criteria. The criteria are that they must share three same commitments as everybody else. The first is the commitment to strengthen the Singaporean Core by nurturing the "2/3"; second, strengthen the complementarity between local and foreign employees by forging a workplace culture of "2/3" and "1/3", not "2/3" versus "1/3"; and thirdly, strengthening know-how transfer adopting the mindset of "2/3 + 1/3>1" to groom our promising local executives into regional and global executives, or what I call, the Glocal talent, for short. This can be supported under the SkillsFuture Leadership Development initiative, a point made by Mr Low Thia Khiang.

One example of PCP is Applied Materials. Yvonne Lee joined the company eight years ago. She and our local pioneer team learned from four foreign experts. They were also sent overseas for training exposure. Today, in what is a traditionally male-dominated environment, Yvonne is now a Senior Manufacturing Director, leading a team of more than 300. They are based in Singapore and Austin, Texas. So, the development of local talents has made the Singapore facility the global facility for a major series of equipment in Applied Materials.

Madam, to facilitate the growth of progressive employers in Singapore, we will provide our Human Capital Partnership (HCP) programme partners with "Fast Lane" access to our development schemes and services ranging from Transform and Grow to Adapt and Grow and SkillsFuture and from Earn and Learn, all the way to Leadership Development. They also have hotline access to MOM. With the FCF Watchlist and HCP now in place, henceforth, we will adopt a differentiated approach in our engagement of companies. "Fast Lane" for HCP who are progressive employers with the mindset of "2/3 + 1/3>1"; "Normal Lane" for the majority who are fair employers with the mindset of "2/3 and 1/3"; and the "Slow Lane" for FCF Watchlist companies. They are employers who engage in unfair HR practices with the mindset of "2/3 versus 1/3".

This will send a clear message to all employers that foreign manpower is and will always be an integral part of our Singapore workforce. However, we do expect and require all employers to give fair consideration to the recruitment and development of our local manpower. This is not only the right thing to do for our people, but also the right thing to do for businesses for both to grow better in the future economy.

Madam, last but not least, the fourth key we need to have for a better future is the key of Fair and Progressive Workplaces for all workers. Over the years, we have made major changes to our labour laws to cover more workers. Last year, Parliament passed the Employment Claims Act in August to resolve salary-related disputes, both statutory and contractual. This is especially helpful for PMEs who are not covered by the EA and have no access to the Labour Court, a point made by Mr Patrick Tay.

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Last year, we also announced the setting up of the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM) to mediate the ECT claims, so that only the unsuccessful cases need to be heard at the ECT. I am happy to confirm that ECT and TADM will start operations as scheduled, on 1 April this year.

I am also happy to share with the House that we have started a pilot since September last year to offer voluntary mediation for disputes that are outside the scope of ECT. We have tried out 50 cases so far involving disputes over termination, training bonds and so on. We are encouraged that 80% of the cases were resolved successfully. We will build on this early success and progressively broaden the scope of services at TADM, again, a point made by Mr Patrick Tay.

TADM will also work with Law Society of Singapore to provide access to legal clinics. Where skills upgrading or new employment is needed, TADM will partner WSG and e2i to help. For those who require help with financial or socio-emotional issues, TADM will link them up with Social Service Offices and Family Service Centres respectively. They can also find out more about services provided by the unions at TADM.

Last but not least, TADM will also operate a short-term relief fund to provide quick relief to local low-wage workers who are owed salary by employers in financial difficulties or business failure.

Madam, the setting up of ECT and TADM are major steps forward in strengthening our employment protection framework. And yet at the same time, more need to be done

In our future economy, we will see higher proportion of PMETs; at the same time, rank-and-file workers will also become more skilful and professional. So, the line between PMETs and rank-and-file will become less distinct in the future economy.

As the employment profile of our workforce continues to evolve, our current framework of employment protection and workplace practices will need to evolve, too. Not just the EA, the Industrial Relations Act and Trade Unions Act, which we will continue to review, but also tripartite mechanisms.

Mr Patrick Tay has made several suggestions to review our employment legislation. These are important to the unions. At the same time, employers may have their concerns and reservations, too. We need to find the right balance and this is best done through tripartite consultations. So, we will follow up with the suggestions made by Mr Patrick Tay and to engage NTUC and SNEF together to find a way forward.

Today, on one hand, we mandate basic workplace practices through laws and supplement them with tripartite guidelines. Failure to comply can result in action by MOM. One example is the Retirement and Re-employment Act, and the Tripartite Guidelines on Re-employment of Older Employees. Employers must comply when making Employment Assistance Payment (EAP). Failing to do so can result in MOM taking actions against the employer.

On the other hand, we promote and encourage progressive work practices through tripartite advisories, for example, The Tripartite Advisory on Managing Workplace Harassment. It recommends companies to develop a harassment prevention policy on a voluntary basis.

Mr Lim Biow Chuan asked to mandate retrenchment benefits. Mr Patrick Tay also asked whether we can make it more certain for employees to be entitled to retrenchment benefits. Madam, as Mr Lim Biow Chuan said, I have explained the tripartite position in my reply to the Parliamentary Question by Ms Thanaletchimi just last month. The current approach, we believe, is a balanced one. Of course, we will keep updating it but, right now, we think it is a balanced one.

One limitation of our current approach is that there is a gap between the two: law and guidelines for compliance; and advisories for voluntary adoption. Workers do not know exactly which employers are committed to adopt which progressive workplace practices. Likewise, progressive employers are not able to differentiate themselves and be known as fair and progressive employers to better attract talent.

The tripartite partners, therefore, decided to introduce what will be known as Tripartite Standards to complement the existing employment laws, tripartite guidelines and advisories. Each standard will specify a set of progressive practices that are verifiable and can also be sector-specific. For example, we can have a tripartite standard on FWAs or we can have one that specifies working arrangements in a specific sector like the media sector.

Employers can then make public their adoption of the standards through the Jobs Bank and TAFEP website. Jobseekers would be able to identify these companies as employers of choice. The first series of tripartite standards will be launched by the end of the year. More details will be available then.

Taken together, laws, guidelines and standard advisories will form a comprehensive map to help employers build fair and progressive workplaces.

Mr Low Thia Khiang asked about discrimination against NSmen. This is against the Ministry of Defence Enlistment Act. If Members know of any specific cases, they may refer them to TAFEP for investigation. Madam, before I conclude, please allow me to say a few words in Mandarin.

(In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] Many workers are worried. Those currently employed worry about losing their jobs, while the unemployed worry about when they can find a job. I can totally relate to how they feel. This is because economic growth has been lower than previous years, while retrenchment figures have been higher than before, and the unemployment rate has gone up.

Therefore, when we talk about the new direction for future economic development, it is inevitable that people would have questions in their minds. They wonder if job prospects would be more uncertain in the future and if there will be less job security. Entrepreneurs in Singapore are also wondering, with so many difficulties in getting customers and workers, will it become increasingly difficult to conduct businesses and manufacturing operations?

I can assure our people that what we are trying to achieve for our nation and companies is not a slowing economy and employment market. On the contrary, through economic transformation, we want to strive for better business opportunities, better jobs, better prospects in the future economy and a better employment market.

In this fast-changing globalised economy, competition is stiff and survival hinges on creativity and innovation. To succeed and thrive, workers and companies must be highly-skilled and utilise technology fully.

At the outset, it seems that utilising technology would reduce demand for workers, hence, it is not good for them. In fact, however, if we are able to adopt and make use of technology faster than other countries and companies to enhance our competitiveness, technology can improve how we work and help us do more and do better, then more and better opportunities will come to Singapore. All these will benefit our people as they enjoy better job opportunities and our SMEs will have even more opportunities and more room for development.

We all know that success does not come easily. If we run too slowly, we might lose our competitiveness. If we run too fast, some businesses and workers might lag behind. Therefore, we must be decisive and united, support one another and move forward together. The tripartite partners will do their best to help workers upgrade their skills, adopt technology, adjust to new jobs constantly and do well in their new career. We are also committed to help SMEs transform themselves, streamline manpower and maximise the usage of resources, so as to bring value-for-money products and services to both domestic and export markets more quickly.

When it comes to economic transformation, Singapore has never failed. Be it now or in the future, we will continue to be successful. I, therefore, urge everyone to be confident and to have faith in the future. Let us work together to strive for better jobs for our workers, better markets for businesses and a better future for our people.

(In English): Madam, it was dark at night. A man was looking for something under a bright lamp post. A passerby asked: "Are you looking for something?" He said, "Yes, I am looking for my key." "How big is your key?" "This big." "Oh, that should be easy to find." So, the passerby joined in the search. After five minutes, they found nothing. "Are you sure the key is this big?" He said, "Yes." "Are you sure you lost it here?" "No, no, no, over there, in the bushes." "Then, why are we searching for your key here?" "Because it is too dark over there." "It's brighter, it's easier to search here."

Madam, many countries today face the problem of failure: problem with high and sticky unemployment, problem with wage stagnation. What we face is different. Not a problem of failure but challenges of success. How to sustain wage growth? How to sustain full employment?

We got here because we did not take the easy way out: searching for lost key at the wrong place. We had the courage to restructure when needed, continuously. Most of all, we got here because our tripartite partnership is strong and our workers, our businesses, our people, they are good. So, working in unity, we are pro-worker, we are pro-business because, if one is weak, the others cannot be strong. The two are either mutually reinforcing, like what we have here in Singapore, or mutually weakening, like what we see elsewhere.

The mutual support we give to one another, the mutual trust we have built and earned with our people, workers, unions and our businesses has enabled us to emerge from every economic downturn, from every economic restructuring, not weaker, but stronger.

We are not the only one trying to unlock the door to a future of good jobs and better careers, a future of fair and progressive workplaces. Many countries are searching for keys, too, but not many have succeeded. Some may have found one out of four, two out of four or even three out of four, but not four out of four. At least not yet. So, maybe these four keys are simply not there in the bushes in the first place. This is why instead of joining in the search for keys, whether in dark bushes or under a bright lamp post, we have always made our own keys to create our own future, the Singapore Tripartite Way.

Madam, guided by the seven strategies outlined by CFE, our tripartite partners, both at the national and sectoral levels, are working together to implement all the ITMs. Together, we can help our businesses to transform and create quality jobs, help our people to adapt to new jobs, make our local workforce more inclusive while strengthening the complementarity in our local-foreign workforce and, lastly, enhance our employment protection framework for a fair and progressive workplace. So, these are the four keys to a future of better careers for all.

We know what we need to do and we are working in unity to get there ahead of all the others. So, please have confidence in ourselves, in one another and in our future. Let us transform and grow together to create growth in our economy, adapt and grow together to create good jobs, better careers for all our people to live a better life. On that note, thank you. [Applause.]

The Chairman: Mr Kok Heng Leun.

Recruitment of Migrant Workers

Mr Kok Heng Leun (Nominated Member): First, I want to thank the Minister for the stories that resonate with us. Madam, let me recount a forum theatre performance that I did in an outdoor space.

It was created and performed by migrant workers. The protagonist, a migrant worker, knelt in front of his supervisor pleading not to be sent home because of a small injury.

In forum theatre, the audience would come up to enact solutions. A member of the audience, who is also a migrant worker, wanted to offer his. He came up. Then he knelt down and pleaded for forgiveness, which was the same as what happened in the original play. Then, this migrant worker told his own story, the same story, and then he broke down on stage.

Foreign workers experience displacement that comes with high risk of life derailment. They come here to provide for their families and in the course of it, they also contribute to Singapore. Many achieved their aims of a better life, but for no small numbers, things turned out badly. The derailment they suffer is quite often very severe because of two reasons.

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First, the sunk cost of getting a job here. A foreign construction worker looking for his first job in Singapore typically pays about S$15,000 as recruitment costs, a result of recruitment channels placed in the hands of the few who go out to maximise profits. When basic salaries are around $600 a month, no workers can expect to save enough during the 12 months' duration of a typical Work Permit to recover this sum.

He desperately hopes that the Work Permit will be renewed for a few years. Since he must avoid doing anything to jeopardise his job or displease his boss, the power relationship is severely distorted against the worker. Even when bosses do not pay salaries for months, he may feel unable to protest too much or lodge complaints.

This is where the second factor comes into play. Work Permit holders cannot seek alternative employment in Singapore without first being repatriated. But if a worker lodges a complaint against his non-paying employer and loses his job, he will be sent home. Then, if he wants another job, he has to pay an agent thousands of dollars again.

MOM has said "Change of Employer" permission were granted to 2,200 workers in the last three years. But this is only a fraction of the salary complaints workers have raised which, at 4,500 per year, would be 13,500 over the last three years. In any case, no worker contemplating lodging a complaint over salary non-payment will feel secure by relying on mere assurance of discretionary considerations. In view of this, I would urge the Ministry to review the policy requiring workers to be repatriated once an employer terminates the job.

I also urge the Ministry to look at ways to eliminate recruitment costs to workers. I understand the South Korean government has, since 2004, begun operating a system that caps costs to workers to well under US$2,000, for contracts of up to five years. It may be a model worth looking at.

Giro Payment for Domestic Workers

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang (Nee Soon): Salary disputes between domestic workers and their employers often arise because there is no record to prove whether payments were made correctly.

While local employment agencies are only allowed to collect a maximum of two months' salary as placement fees, domestic workers often have salary deductions that exceed this limit. These excessive deductions are often characterised as loan repayments for agency fees incurred in the worker's home country. But the lack of any records makes it difficult to determine if these deductions are legitimate.

Electronic payments would help authorities to determine if workers are paid correctly and punctually and begin to throw some light on this problem of excessive salary deductions. The Centre for Domestic Employees (CDE) has announced its intentions to push for electronic payment by General Interbank Recurring Order (GIRO) or bank transfer for domestic employees, which has also been welcomed by the Association for Employment Agencies. Can the Ministry share if there any plans to work with these two organisations in the implementation of such a scheme?

The Chairman: Minister of State Teo Ser Luck.

The Minister of State for Manpower (Mr Teo Ser Luck): Mdm Chairman, with your permission, may I display some slides on the LED screen?

The Chairman: Yes, please. [Some slides were shown to hon Members.]

Mr Teo Ser Luck: Minister Lim Swee Say mentioned the importance of strengthening the bridge of innovation so that more companies can transform and grow and successfully cross both the technology gate and market gate. Companies which can do so will be better placed to tap on growth opportunities, contribute to our economic growth and create more quality jobs for our workers.

Since its start in October 2015, when Minister Lim launched the Lean Enterprise Development Scheme (LEDS), to end-January 2017, LEDS had been "playing this bridge", the bridge of innovation. To date, 2,100 companies have signed up with LEDS and we are helping them to take steps to cross, especially the technology gate towards the market gate.

The vast majority, close to 90%, of the 2,100 companies were helped by some form of digitisation or technology adoption or, for some, it is just simply outsourcing. This is how we are helping SMEs to go digital. It is not just the companies that have benefited from this, but workers have also benefited from improved productivity and technology adoption.

Based on our analysis, nearly 10,000 good jobs are expected to be created by firms supported by SPRING under LEDS. For a scheme that has been about one year old so far, there is an average of 18% wage increase for those whose roles were redesigned or upgraded through LEDS projects supported by NTUC-e2i.

I agree with Mr Chong Kee Hiong that success stories should be shared so that we can encourage more companies to come on board. Let me just share an example of how LEDS helped a small SME to benefit from LEDS. The example is "The Singapore Curry by Velu", a restaurant, a very small SME, implemented a very simple software solution to help them so that they can become less reliant on manpower.

Before the change, service crew either memorised or took down orders on paper, which is quite common if you go to some of the merchant shops or even the small restaurants. With over 100 items on the menu, this conventional method was unproductive and also prone to errors as some orders were missed out and this affected customer service standards. It was obvious that the restaurant needed some change.

With support from NTUC-e2i and WSG, it introduced an integrated system to link up the ordering system with the point-of-sale (POS) system and the kitchen processing system. So, orders are now taken using tablets that relay the orders to the kitchen electronically, the service crew no longer need to memorise the orders or rush to the kitchen to relay the orders before they forget, and no orders will be missed out.

As a result, the business operations are now smoother. The time taken from ordering to serving has been cut by 40%, table turnover is faster, customer satisfaction has increased and their customer base has expanded, too.

Technology has also transformed jobs for workers and, most importantly, it has also changed the mindsets of workers. Now, they treat technology as their co-worker and also as a friend instead of as a threat.

Let me give you an example − the same example − the service crew within the same restaurant, 65-year-old Mr Anwar Aziz Marican is one local worker who had benefited. As he is 65, he does not know technology nor how to use a tablet computer until this change. So, it is now easier for him to perform his service duties. He picked up the new skills, learning how to use technology, such as tablet computers. With greater confidence in using technology, he was also able to apply his newly acquired skills in his daily life, learning how to use the WhatsApp messenger to communicate with his grandchildren.

As Mr Anwar improved his productivity and enhanced his skills − he has a good employer − his employer increased his salary by about 16%. This example illustrates that when a company innovates and transforms to become more productive, jobs improve and the workers benefit as well through acquisition of new skills and higher wages. It is a win-win for both firms and workers.

Therefore, I fully support Mr Desmond Choo's very good suggestion to encourage firms which have received support for productivity improvement to share their gains with their workers, either in the form of higher wages or investment in their training.

For some, this is already happening. Under LEDS, NTUC-e2i has already built in a wage increase requirement for supported workers − the IGP. For all firms, whether under LEDS or not, subsidies, such as the substantial training subsidies and absentee payroll, are provided for companies to continue to invest in upgrading workers.

Mr Desmond Choo will be pleased to know that almost 1,100 SMEs were supported and 1,200 PMETs were placed under the P-Max programme in 2016. Nonetheless, we can do more to encourage productivity gains sharing. We will explore this with the LEDS Taskforce agencies in the coming year, and that will be our main focus.

Mr Desmond Choo and Ms Jessica Tan asked how we are continuing our efforts to help more companies transform. I have just described the benefits that can be derived or gained from a single company or a single enterprise transformation.

But this year, our objective, our focus will be to provide or to push out cluster solutions, as Minister Lim had mentioned, for groups of companies, cluster of companies, sectors and the industry. We want to make it as pervasive as possible.

We already have some examples. There were 30 preschool centres that have actually outsourced their backend kitchens to a single centralised kitchen and a solution. They have reduced manpower savings by 50%. But we can do more. We want to make sure that it is pervasive and nurture more industry cluster-based projects to create a viral effect in adopting some of the solutions, whether it is technology or just process redesign.

We will do this by supporting the development of "cluster" solutions that have been prequalified by IMDA and the sector agencies, such as SPRING Singapore, to be capable of driving productivity improvement, skills development and innovation across each industry. These include off-the-shelf technology and those solutions under the SMEs Go Digital Programme announced by the Minister for Finance in his Budget speech. Let me share with Members two solutions prequalified by IMDA.

The first solution is the one that can be adopted at the individual company level that can also be scaled up for industry-wide adoption by multiple firms. This is the Biometrics Attendance Management System. It is very simple and is from a company called Intercorp Solutions. It uses highly precise facial biometric technology to capture and track real-time manpower utilisation, such as workers' attendance, working hours and productivity manhours spent onsite. It is a simple solution to use, off-the-shelf.

With this solution, companies no longer need to rely on the conventional way of tracking manpower utilisation onsite by marking workers' attendance manually. For smaller companies, they can actually self-register through the system. This reduces the administrative burden on the operational staff so that they can spend more time on other higher value jobs.

In addition, this management system allows users to generate detailed comprehensive graphical reports from the captured workforce data that they can use to enhance their operations. For example, project managers can use the reports to understand manpower utilisation onsite and improve the operational efficiency with better manpower planning and allocation.

This solution can also help workers avoid salary disputes on working hours as it can be customised to integrate with any third-party payroll software, ensuring seamless transference of working hours for the employers to compute the salary payment. I am pleased to share that 90 SMEs have adopted this solution.

The second solution is a shared-service solution that can be adopted by many manufacturing companies concurrently. It is an online B2B Industrial Excess Marketplace from Excess Inventory Guru Pte Ltd that provides a cloud-based platform for manufacturing companies to manage their online sale of excess inventory and automate some of their tedious and manual business operations.

For this year's economic climate, this may be an important software platform for many companies out there. With this solution, companies can expect to reduce their excess inventory holding from 30% to 15% and achieve manpower savings of 10% as fewer workers are required to conduct stocktaking of the excess inventory items.

This is a good solution that can help manufacturing companies save carrying costs and also help them achieve a leaner backend operation. Thirty-one SMEs are using this solution today. These are just two of many prequalified solutions that have proven effective. Currently, we have 71 solutions, some off-the-shelf, spread across 17 industries that we are going to push out and make pervasive.

Our objective is to accelerate adoption of these solutions, not just having one or two more companies doing this, but from "Addition to Multiplication", from individual firms to cluster- or industry-wide adoption.

We know that this is not an easy task. We need to have a lot of handholding and encouragement to encourage the companies to come forward. We are going to adopt a three-pronged approach: engagement, access and support for faster development.

First, engagement. Mr Chong Kee Hiong would be pleased to know that we will step up efforts to outreach through our network of 18 LEDS multipliers to reach out to more companies and industries. Roadshows will be organised, and more of them will be organised, for relevant prequalified solution providers to showcase their solutions to the companies.

The LEDS Taskforce will also work even closer with industries, especially those that have lesser companies applying to LEDS or undergoing the Lean Management Change. They can be in the hospitality, landscape and cleaning industries, which are those that we hope to encourage more to move up the productivity index. We will also work with the relevant agencies that are championing some of the other sectors to push out more solutions to the companies.

Second, we must continue to give companies ready access to all these prequalified solution providers. The spirit of LEDS is for "One Stop Service" because we will bring all of our schemes and grants between the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) and MOM together. Companies which are willing to transform need only take the first step − approach any of the LEDS agencies or our LEDS partners, SME centres inclusive, or they can also approach NTUC-e2i and the TACs, and we will take them through this journey and link them up with these solution providers.

To accelerate adoption, we are prepared to grant the prequalified solution providers and the solutions that are provided by these companies, temporary manpower support under LEDS. We want to scale up and help to ramp up this solution towards the sector. We need to enable those companies that provide these solutions.

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This flexibility in manpower will only be granted to solution providers who have demonstrated to us that they can scale up and, at the same time, there is demand for their solutions and that they have also considered Singaporeans for these job opportunities before we allow for such manpower flexibilities.

Mdm Chairman, as we strengthen the bridge of innovation, our target for 2017 is to support LEDS or to have more companies coming under LEDS, on top of the 2,100 companies that are already under the scheme. We are targeting at 2,400 companies this year alone and we want the sector to change, and we want it to be pervasive across all sectors. Our position is very simple – we hope that LEDS can not only transform a company but strengthen the sector as well, so that more quality jobs can be created.

Mdm Chairman, Minister Lim also spoke about foreign workers being an integral part of our Singapore workforce. They take on demanding jobs that few locals want to do and jobs where there is a shortage of local workers.

I agree with Mr Kok Heng Leun that we should ensure that our foreign workers are treated fairly and provided with good working conditions. Of course, it saddens me to hear such a story being related and we are continuously trying to tighten our process to make sure our migrant workers are protected. This would include ensuring that they have safe workplaces as well, and also that they receive their due salaries and get compensated if they are injured on their job.

For foreign workers with valid claims of salary non-payment, MOM will help them see through their claim and allow them to change employer and stay on in Singapore, even if their employer terminates their work pass. However, not all foreign workers want that, because sometimes when you talk to them, they may not want to change employers. They may just prefer to return home after their claim is resolved. So, we need to have a lot of consultation and work with the workers as well.

Mr Kok mentioned about the Korean system and the issues with recruitment cost. Our laws today already cap the costs that will be charged by the employment agencies to foreign workers to two months maximum or capped at two months of their salary. But we constantly learn from other countries and that will include the Korean system as well, and we will review and study it further.

I would like to stress that it is every employer's responsibility to ensure their workers are well taken care of, their workplaces are safe and also to prevent accidents. In the unfortunate event of an accident, employers must additionally take care of their injured workers, help them recover from their injuries and assist them to return to work quickly.

Foreign workers today receive compensation for work injuries under WICA. When applying for or renewing the work passes of their foreign workers, employers are required to provide insurance policy details to MOM. Moving forward, MOM will step up efforts to ensure that the policies remain valid throughout the worker's work duration in Singapore. We will also want to educate and reach out and remind employers on the need to maintain insurance coverage for their workers during their stay. We will partner the General Insurance Association of Singapore and the Singapore Contractors Association Ltd on this front.

Similarly, it is every employer's responsibility to ensure that salaries are paid on time. Where employers willfully refuse to comply with the law to pay the salaries due to their workers, MOM will take such employers to task. However, beyond punitive enforcement action against such employers, we should ensure that, in the meantime, foreign workers are provided with adequate assistance. In this case, my Ministry works closely with the Migrant Workers' Centre (MWC). Foreign workers who approach MOM on housing or other subsistence issues will receive timely assistance from MOM and our partners like MWC. MWC has been helping foreign workers with various employment issues since 2009. Such assistance includes providing housing and subsistence to workers in need, as well as advising and assisting the workers on the enforcement of Labour Court orders. In some cases, foreign workers have been provided with an ex-gratia payment if the prospects of recovering the monies were slim. MWC's aid to the workers is provided using the Migrant Workers' Assistance Fund (MWAF). This Fund was set up in 2012 and more assistance can come out of the Fund to help the workers like a relief fund.

We have seen MWC in action. As an example, MWC has been helping two Bangladeshi foreign workers who were badly burnt in a serious workplace accident since January this year. MWC has been working closely with like-minded partners like Silver Ribbon and Healthserve, as well as the hospital, to provide emotional, psychological and physical support to the workers. As the employer has exhausted his finances helping the workers, MWC stepped in to provide the workers with housing and financial assistance for the payment of additional surgery through the Fund.

To better help foreign workers in need, MWC will set up a new office − it is an additional office − to be co-located with the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM) at the MOM Service Centre. This is in addition to their two offices, as I mentioned, and the other two offices are in Serangoon and Geylang. Foreign workers who need help can approach MWC at any of these three locations.

Besides having a safe working environment, it is also important that foreign workers return to a clean and safe accommodation after a hard day's work. These standards ensure foreign workers have access to a cleaner and safer accommodation with amenities. It is exactly the reason why we implemented the Foreign Employees Dormitories Act (FEDA) from 1 January last year to regulate large dormitories that house 1,000 or more workers. These are mostly purpose-built dormitories (PBD).

With the higher standards required under FEDA, foreign workers in licensed large dormitories are assured of safe and well-maintained living spaces. They also have access to recreational areas and amenities, such as automated teller machines (ATMs), canteens and mini-marts, all within their dormitories. So far, 48 out of 50 large dormitories have been licensed.

As announced in August 2016, factory-converted dormitories (FCDs), which are smaller, will also have to meet additional conditions, not just meeting the minimum standards but some additional conditions, including personal lockers to workers, and establishing a feedback mechanism and the installation of wi-fi.

While the new requirements were put in place only in January this year, over 70% of these FCDs inspected already comply with these standards. And for many, before we even come up with the additional conditions, they have already implemented them.

On FDWs, Mr Louis Ng asked if MOM had plans to support the CDE and employment agencies in their push for electronic payment of salaries for domestic workers as proof of salary payment in the event of a dispute. Our employers are required to maintain a record of the monthly salary paid to FDWs. Employers are also required to pay the FDWs' salary electronically if she so requests. Some FDWs may prefer to be paid in cash and to avoid being charged a fee if their bank accounts fall below the minimum sum required. But we are open to Mr Louis Ng's idea and we also support CDE's push for electronic payment. It is heartening to note that CDE is currently working with some banks to help FDWs set up bank accounts more easily and with better returns and we will help to facilitate that and support them.

Mdm Chairman, migrant workers come here to earn a living for their families. We will continue to work with the employers, employment agencies, non-government organisations (NGOs) like MWC and CDE, to ensure that these foreign workers can work safely and be treated fairly during their stay in Singapore.

The Chairman: Mr Desmond Choo.

Helping Families at Workplaces

Mr Desmond Choo: Mdm Chairman, more companies are making FWAs available to their employees. This is encouraging. However, broader adoption is tepid because of mindset, manpower and operational constraints. Senior Minister of State Mrs Josephine Teo's pilot announced on 2 March is an important step to broader adoption at the sectoral level.

We must reinforce this call for FWA. I am glad that MOM will go beyond the Tripartite Advisory and develop tripartite standards for companies to answer the clarion call. This tripartite code or standards will be an important step to further companies' commitment. I also suggest that these standards come attached with incentives for abiding by the standards. Employees in companies where there is such a standard have a right to FWA. We can also consider implementing this sectorally, starting with those where technology-enabled FWA can be made more pervasive, such as the banking, accounting and ICT sectors. Participating companies in the Human Capital Partnership Programme should also commit to these tripartite standards.

Progressive- and Flexi-work Arrangements

Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar: Mdm Chairman, with the use of technologies, mobile applications and social media, employment now is quite different from before. Going to work may not necessarily mean that one has to physically travel to an office or workplace and stay there for a prescribed number of hours in order to be seen to be working.

The use of technologies, mobile applications and social media has allowed individuals to offer their products and services and manage their clients or buyers at their own time and according to their own targets.

If employers are not quick enough to leverage technology and offer FWAs for their employees, they risk losing these employees to freelance work, which also allows these employees to fulfil personal or family responsibilities, such as caregiving or raising their families.

On top of that, there is a largely untapped pool of human resource among our stay-at-home mothers and retirees who are able to be a part of our workforce. What they need is a buffer period to transit back to work and learn relevant work skills.

My fellow Members of Parliament, Mr Patrick Tay and Mr Desmond Choo, have spoken about this before and I have proposed a returnship programme. I am happy to learn from the Minister in his speech earlier that this will be supported by the Ministry and I look forward to hearing the details.

How can our Ministry help employers implement progressive work practices or FWAs to help different segments of Singaporeans remain economically active and yet fulfil personal responsibilities, such as caregiving or raising their families?

How can women and economically active retirees who are going back to the workforce be helped through FWAs, where they can ease back into full-time positions over a reasonable period of time and learn relevant new skills, so that they are not left behind?

In addition, how can rank-and-file or blue-collar workers learn relevant skills so that they are employable and can avail themselves of more employment opportunities and not be competing with new technologies at the workplace?

Workplace and Job Redesign for Seniors

Mr Chen Show Mao (Aljunied): Madam, we are living longer. It makes sense to help our older workers stay active in the workplace for longer if they so choose. When we make it possible for older workers to remain active in the workforce as they wish, we help them contribute to their own economic and social well-being. In addition, their fellow workers and society in general also benefit from the full utilisation of their human capital.

Employers can help their older workers become more effective workers in their jobs by redesigning the workplace, work processes and even the job itself.

Last year saw several Government initiatives in the area. WorkPro was enhanced in making grants to help companies implement age management practices and redesign workplaces and processes for older workers. Also last year, a programme was launched to offer an array of courses for companies and individuals on age management at the workplace − a programme administered by the Singapore Institute of Management (UniSIM), in collaboration with MOM and others. In addition, a Job Redesign Toolkit for companies developed by MOM, SNEF and NTUC was launched. These Government initiatives focus on efforts for Job Redesign for Older Workers at the enterprise level and they are welcomed.

Could the Ministry look into making these efforts also at the industry level? This is because while workplaces and processes may be particular to a company, different companies in the same industry share a great deal in common. Perhaps, resources could be pooled by companies in the industry to develop best practices, to modify tools and equipment for use off-the-shelf by older workers throughout the industry. Perhaps, Job Redesign for Older Workers could be identified as a key component of each ITM currently being developed across the economy. Perhaps, Job Redesign for Older Workers can be set out among the suite of initiatives for improving productivity in any given industry. We know productivity is one of the four pillars supporting the growth and competitiveness plans of any given ITM.

Another way to envision Job Redesign for Older Workers as a key component of ITMs may be to think of it as a third horizontal, along with promoting ICT adoption and skills development, which can help to support the ITMs and produce improvements across the economy in the face of an ageing workforce.

Welfare of Conservancy Workers

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Mr Png Eng Huat (Hougang): An article on Cable News Network (CNN) caught my attention a few weeks ago. It tells the story about a hotel in a hikers' paradise in West Scotland. The foreign workers there were promised specific jobs with decent salaries. But when they arrived, job scopes were limitless, working hours were endless and pay was meagre. The boss demanded additional payments from these workers to sponsor their visa, threatened to cancel their work permit if they do not cooperate, and warned them about arrest and deportation. The workers were treated like slaves. The owner of the hotel is now serving time for labour trafficking for a group of men from Bangladesh.

Modern slavery is happening everywhere, possibly exacerbated by globalisation. You can see modern slaves working in the heart of our estates. These foreign cleaners work late into the night, seven days a week with no rest day and low wages. They even work when they were injured or sick. They have to work non-stop because they are living in bondage. A bondage with exorbitant agency fees and illegal kickbacks that they have to pay.

There are about 12,000 cleaning companies engaging about 58,000 cleaners, both local and foreign, as of 31 September 2016. A $3,000 kickback per foreign worker will translate into some serious money even if just 10% of the cleaning workforce were subject to the abuse. The mathematics and the easy money are just too tempting for some people to pass up. Foreign workers are reluctant to come forth with their story for fear of losing their livelihood. Many of them sold their possessions and borrowed heavily to come here to make a living. They have huge debts to pay and, at the same time, hungry mouths to feed back home. Coming out against their employers will mean losing their jobs and everything, a risk they can ill-afford to take. The master of the modern slave trade knows this fear very well, and they milk these workers to the maximum.

Local cleaners are also not spared. I have seen cases of local cleaners working without payslips or contracts. For some, their payslips comprise unexplained or unjustified deductions. Some are given payslips with no CPF contributions stated and they do not know why. Some are not sure about their basic employment benefits, but they dare not confront their employers for fear of losing of their jobs. Some of these local cleaners are elderly and illiterate and their next job may be hard to come by. It is hard to imagine that despite all the education, publicity and threat of prosecution, such practices still persist. Would the Ministry share its results and efforts to effectively tackle such blatant disregard for the law and basic workers' rights?

Collectively, the Town Councils in Singapore hire a substantial number of cleaners. I told my General Manager to inform the cleaning contractors in Hougang I do not want such practices to surface in the estate. I am helped by warm-hearted residents who will not stand for any abuse of cleaners in their neighbourhood as well.

Mdm Chairman, every Member in this Chamber must not turn a blind eye to modern slavery. The cleanliness of our estate cannot come at the expense of the misery of the cleaners. It is time for us to clean up the cleaning industry for a change.

Improving Workfare Income Supplement (WIS)

Assoc Prof Daniel Goh Pei Siong: Madam, I would like to repeat a long-held call for an increase in the percentage of the cash component for Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) payouts from the current 40% to 60%.

During last year's Budget, changes were made to WIS in order to "provide a more direct and timely reward for work effort and ensure that WIS continues to provide a meaningful level of support for eligible workers." There were four main changes, including a higher qualifying income ceiling, slightly higher payouts, monthly payments instead of quarterly and increased contributions to CPF, MediSave and the Special Account.

The Government, however, stopped short of increasing the cash component of WIS from the current 40%. The last time this figure was revised was in 2013. While the four changes made to enhance the scheme were welcome and necessary, would increasing the cash component not provide a far more direct reward for work effort? Increasing the cash component would allow workers to benefit immediately from the fruits of their labour and be a source of motivation to strive harder to improve their quality of life. This way, they could get promoted and improve their earnings, which is a more effective and encouraging way to help low-income workers build up retirement savings.

The Chairman: Mr Zainal Sapari, please take your two cuts together.

Progressive Wage Model and WIS

Mr Zainal Sapari (Pasir Ris-Punggol): Mdm Chairman, the Progressive Wage Model (PWM) and WIS are very good initiatives to help our workers in the low-wage sectors. However, this year, I believe it is time for us to review the PWM to ensure that it remains relevant.

NTUC will be working with our tripartite partners in the various sectoral committees for annual increments and annual bonuses to be incorporated as part of PWM, in particular, the Security and Landscape sectors. This is to improve the employment benefits and job security to attract younger workers. It also protects them from the wage fluctuations or resetting that is very common for workers in these sectors.

NTUC would like to seek the Government's support in this endeavour, the same way it had given its support to the revision for the cleaning PWM. Additionally, can future reviews of WIS eligibility take into consideration the review done on PWM and maybe, in particular, to consider increasing the salary eligibility criterion. In doing so, I believe we would be going one step closer to ensuring fairer equity for these workers so that they may enjoy the fruits of Singapore's economic growth.

Special Relief Fund for Injury

Madam, I would also like to propose for the Government to consider reviewing the criterion for the existing Singapore Labour Foundation (SLF) Special Relief Fund (SRF) to provide immediate relief to low-wage workers suffering from workplace injury. SRF was set up by SLF in response to the 1978 Spyros accident to provide financial assistance to industrial accident victims and their families while they awaited Workmen's Compensation.

Currently, SRF is co-administered by MOM and SLF, with MOM screening the applications and SLF disbursing payments based on MOM's recommendations. NTUC would like to propose for the administration of the funds to be reviewed to reflect the core purpose of the fund and to benefit low-wage workers by raising the income eligibility criterion. In addition, as U Care Centre was set up to better serve low-wage workers, perhaps MOM could consider letting U Care Centre to be the fund administrator.

Improving Workplace Health and Safety

Mr Melvin Yong Yik Chye (Tanjong Pagar): Mdm Chairman, every worker should return home safe and sound every day. Sixty-six lives were lost at the workplace last year. We must do more to improve our workplace safety and health standards. Let me recommend a 3Cs approach.

The first "C" is better coordination. Currently, there are many workgroups formed to tackle workplace safety and health at the sectoral level, the functional level and even workgroups targeting at the cause of injuries. To enable smooth implementation of initiatives at the working level, can there be better coordination among and across different workgroups?

Last year, the Ministry issued a guide to encourage companies to report "near misses". A "near miss" is often seen as a narrow escape, a stroke of luck. But the benefits of a systematic recording of "near misses" may help to prevent a recurrence, identify any weaknesses in operational procedures and, when reviewed over a period of time, may allow us to detect patterns which could potentially prevent future fatalities, especially in high-risk industries. Can the Ministry do more to encourage "near miss" reporting?

That said, I must also caution that it would be counter intuitive to penalise companies and workers who report "near misses". Instead, more guidance should be provided to these companies to prevent future possible accidents. Can the Ministry organise industry-specific forums or create platforms to allow companies to share "near misses"? Can the Ministry also consider incentivising and rewarding companies with good "Design for Safety" concept and implementation?

The second "C" is the need for greater commitment. Be it top management, ground supervisors or workers, we all have a part to play in ensuring workplace safety. There is a need for greater commitment and ownership across all levels to collectively help raise workplace safety and health standards.

I would like to recommend making bizSAFE accreditation compulsory for all companies. For a start, we can consider the 1-2-3 approach. Companies should obtain their bizSAFE level one within the first year of operation, acquire bizSAFE level two in the next two years and reach bizSAFE level three in the following three years. As SMEs may find it challenging to get accredited, I hope that the Ministry will consider bringing back the Risk Management Assistance Funding (RMAF) to assist these companies. Will the Government also consider awarding contracts only to bizSAFE-accredited companies for major infrastructure projects?

The third "C" is to adopt a more targeted coaching to raise awareness of safe workplace practices. While there is a need to raise standards across the board, we should also focus more attention on the top three − the top three industries with the most fatalities; and the three most common incident types. Can the Ministry consider implementing a mentoring scheme between bizSAFE-accredited company and other non-accredited companies within the same industry? A targeted approach would be more relevant as it addresses specific risks inherent to the industry and the sharing of experiences and best practices among similar industry players would certainly be more useful.

Let me move on to workers who are injured in the course of their work. Today, only a fraction of employers proactively help their injured employees during and after the rehabilitation process. Some workers may find it hard to return to their original jobs while others may even lose their jobs. Can the Ministry establish a scheme to better help injured workers get back to work?

This scheme should include a structured case management system to help our workers with injury management, rehabilitation, job redesign, job placement and even work injury compensation.

Mdm Chairman, all workers should be entitled to enjoy workplace safety and health. Do we want to build a genuine culture of care for our workers' well-being or do we want to adopt a strategy of punitive measures to force employers to comply with safety regulations? Do we prefer to see the light or feel the heat?

The Chairman: Minister of State Sam Tan.

The Minister of State for Manpower (Mr Sam Tan Chin Siong): Madam, with your permission, may I display some slides on the LED screen?

The Chairman: Yes, please. [Some slides were shown to hon Members.]

Mr Sam Tan Chin Siong: Thank you. Madam, I will speak on how MOM intends to drive inclusive growth and foster progressive workplaces that are age-friendly, family-friendly, safe and healthy. We will do more for our older workers, low-wage workers and workers with caregiving responsibilities.

First, let me talk about older workers. Madam, in January this year, we passed the Retirement and Re-employment (Amendment) Bill. The re-employment age will be raised to 67 from 1 July this year to allow our growing pool of older workers to contribute to the workforce for as long as they can.

To encourage employers to voluntarily re-employ older workers not covered by the new re-employment age, the Government has extended the Additional Special Employment Credit to incentivise employers to do so.

In addition, it is equally important to ensure that workplaces are age-friendly to meet the needs of our older workers and also help them to stay productive. Employers must play their part in this aspect.

Mr Chen Show Mao asked about the progress of workplace and job redesign for our older workers. In 2013, we introduced WorkPro to support companies to develop age-friendly workplaces and make jobs for our older workers easier, safer and smarter. WorkPro was enhanced in July last year with more generous funding.

A company can now receive funding of up to $300,000, up from $150,000, to redesign jobs for older workers under the WorkPro Job Redesign scheme. Besides increased funding, companies from all industries can also tap on the Job Redesign toolkit and clinics to improve their knowledge about job redesign.

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More employers have since taken up the WorkPro Job Redesign Grant. Over the last seven months, 103 companies have tapped on this grant. More than 1,800 older workers aged 50 and above stand to benefit from the enhanced WorkPro.

Take Sheraton Towers Hotel as an example. The hotel obtained WorkPro funding to replace the standard tables in their restaurant with a multi-purpose table called Livecookingtable that can be used as a cooker, warmer or even cooler.

Mr Au Tiang Kok is one of the older workers who have benefited from this change. In his job, Mr Au is responsible for the setting up and clearing of buffet trays at the restaurant. These buffet trays with burners weighed around 30 kilogrammes each. It was a very heavy and laborious job for Mr Au. With the Livecookingtable, the restaurant now uses a different type of buffet trays without burners. These new trays are lighter to carry, and Mr Au is no longer at risk of getting burnt by the open flame.

I am heartened to know that 67-year-old Mr Au is happy with this job redesign and he intends to continue working to contribute meaningfully for as long as he can. Mr Au's story tells us that the commitment of management is important. I am, therefore, glad that the HR Director, Mr Francis Tan, believes strongly in job redesign and makes use of technology to improve older workers' productivity. I would like to take this opportunity to encourage more employers to learn from Sheraton Towers Hotel to tap on the WorkPro Grant and enhance the productivity of their older workers.

During the Budget Debate, Mr Heng Chee How spoke passionately about the need for older workers to continue to adapt and grow while companies transform and grow. I agree fully with Mr Heng that older workers must continually upskill, reskill and deepskill to enhance their employability. Skills upgrading is the best safeguard for workers during this period of economic and job transformation. Older workers should also take advantage of the various Government training schemes available, such as SkillsFuture, to enhance their employability.

Madam, I will now touch on the low-wage workers. Over the last five years, incomes of full-time employed Singapore Citizens at the 20th percentile grew by 3.2% per annum in real terms. This has kept pace with the 3.1% annualised growth in real median incomes of our employed citizens over the same period. This progress is, indeed, encouraging. To continue our efforts to uplift our low-wage workers, we adopt a three-pronged approach.

First, through sustainable wage increases. Currently, companies' entitlement to foreign workers is based on the dependency ratio ceiling. For example, a dependency ratio ceiling of 60% in the manufacturing sector means that the employer can hire up to 1.5 foreign workers for every one full-time equivalent local worker hired. A local worker who earns a monthly salary of $1,000 or above is considered a full-time equivalent. We review this salary threshold regularly to stay in line with rising income trends. If not, it means that we are gradually loosening our foreign worker controls simply due to rising nominal wages.

So, given the rising income levels, my Ministry has decided to adopt a new salary threshold of $1,200. This will be done in two steps: first, to $1,100 from 1 July this year and, next, to $1,200 from 1 July next year. We expect that low-wage workers' wages will adjust in line with the new threshold.

We last reviewed the threshold in 2013, that was about four years ago. The 10th percentile income then was already $1,200 and had risen to $1,300 in 2015. So, if we do not update the salary threshold now, it will mean having to make an even larger increase in future.

Another way to support wage increases is through PWM, which is mandatory in the cleaning, security and landscaping sectors. The PWMs have helped more than 70,000 resident workers in these sectors grow their wages. Before the introduction of the cleaning PWM, median gross wages for full-time resident cleaners grew by 2% per annum from 2009 to 2012. After the announcement of the cleaning PWM, median gross wages for full-time resident cleaners grew by 12% per annum from 2012 to 2015.

So, I thank Mr Zainal Sapari for his suggestions on incorporating annual increments and annual bonuses in the security and landscape PWMs. I support this proposal. As Mr Zainal has pointed out, we have already done this for the cleaning sector. The cleaning sector sets out annual adjustments to the PWM wage levels from this year up to 2022.

The Tripartite Cluster for Cleaners also encourages cleaning companies to provide increments to better performing workers. This will raise their salaries to be above the PWM wage levels and still within the recommended salary range of their job rungs. All resident cleaners will also receive an annual bonus equivalent to two weeks of basic monthly wages from 2020 onwards.

The security and landscape sectors only implemented PWMs recently in 2016. We need to give them time to evolve, progress and improve. However, I still want to take this opportunity to encourage the tripartite committees in these sectors to learn from the cleaning sector and enhance their PWM commitments over time.

I also encourage employers and unions in other sectors to adopt the PWM concept, which brings together wages, skills and productivity to create meaningful career ladders for their workers.

Our second prong to help low-wage workers is to step up our best sourcing efforts. I am pleased to announce the release of the updated Tripartite Advisory on Best Sourcing Practices today. It will provide new guidance on supporting progressive remuneration and benefits for outsourced workers, as well as fair contracting practices.

MOM has worked closely with the Ministry of Finance (MOF) to ensure that all Government agencies support the updated Advisory. Today, the Government procures cleaning and security services from accredited cleaning businesses and well-graded security agencies. These accreditation and grading frameworks take into account the progressive employment practices of these companies.

MOM is working with MOF, the Singapore Police Force, the National Environment Agency and the National Parks Board (NParks) to review further measures against contractors that fail to safeguard basic employment rights of outsourced workers working under Government contracts. More details will be announced at a later stage.

When Government agencies outsource many activities, Government contracts still make up only a small fraction of the total market for outsourced services. So, I want to urge tripartite committees, like the one chaired by Mr Zainal Sapari for the cleaning sector, to reach out to more private sector buyers to adopt best sourcing. My Ministry stands ready to work with the Labour Movement and employers to increase adoption of the Tripartite Advisory on Best Sourcing Practices.

Mr Png Eng Huat asked about our efforts to protect foreign and local conservancy workers from unfair treatment and abuse. I would like to assure the Member that all cleaners who are employees are covered by EA. If they feel that they are unfairly treated, they should approach MOM or their unions for assistance or, at the minimum, they can approach the MWCs, CDE, NGOs and voluntary welfare organisations for assistance.

Third, we will continue to supplement the incomes and retirement savings of low-wage workers through WIS. Assoc Prof Daniel Goh proposed several changes to the WIS scheme. I would like to inform the House that recent enhancements to the WIS had already addressed most of his points. They were announced at last year's Budget and implemented since January this year. Just allow me to recap them.

First, we have raised the WIS income cap so that workers earning up to $2,000 are now able to receive WIS.

Second, we have increased the WIS payouts. Workers can now receive higher WIS payouts of up to $3,600 per year.

Third, we will make more frequent WIS payouts, from quarterly to monthly, starting from March 2017, that is, this month. This provides a more direct and timely reward for work effort.

Aside from helping them meet their immediate needs, WIS payouts are intended to help low-wage workers meet their basic retirement needs. This is why WIS payouts comprise 40% cash and 60% CPF. Raising the cash component and reducing the CPF component, as suggested by Assoc Prof Daniel Goh, will mean workers will have less to set aside for retirement, and may not be able to meet the basic needs in old age. We think that this may not be a wise approach. Notwithstanding this, the Government already provides other grants and transfers, such as the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Vouchers, Service and Conservancy Charges (S&CC) rebates, WIS and so on, to top up low-wage workers' salaries. So, taking all these together, this is already quite a substantial increase in the low-wage workers' income. While the cash component of WIS remains at 40% but, in actual terms, low-wage workers receive more cash with all the other social transfers from the Government.

More than 460,000 low-wage workers will benefit from this round of WIS enhancements. We will periodically review the WIS scheme to ensure that it continues to support the bottom 20% to 30% of our workers.

Madam, I will now turn to our efforts to make workplaces inclusive for workers with caregiving responsibilities. More employers are now adopting FWAs, such as flexi-time, flexi-place and flexi-load. In 2016, about two in three, or 67%, of the employees worked in firms that offered formal FWAs. This is up from just half, or 56%, in 2011. More than eight in 10 employees or, to be precise, 82% worked in firms that offer ad-hoc FWAs. This is up from seven in 10 in 2011.

Dr Intan, Ms Thanaletchimi and Mr Desmond Choo asked about our efforts in promoting FWAs, especially for people with caregiving responsibilities.

Madam, our efforts need to be targeted in order to be effective. So, we looked at the employment rate of local women who continue to shoulder many caregiving responsibilities. We are already among the top in terms of full-time employment of females aged between 25 and 64, compared to all the other Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. Conversely, Singapore's part-time employment is lower than that of most OECD countries.

While we are doing reasonably well, there is still room to improve the employment of our female residents, especially in the area of part-time employment. We can do this through flexi-load options, such as "job sharing". Such options are important because they give caregivers an option to reduce or adjust their workload so that they can better manage their multiple responsibilities.

Today, nearly all PMETs are on full-time employment, but they can still benefit from job sharing, which offers more choices to both PMETs and employers.

Job sharing may come with some hand-over and coordination issues, but employers should think of ways to overcome them and make necessary adjustments and arrangements to promote greater job sharing in their companies.

Madam, allow me now to turn to my last subject ─ Workplace Safety and Health (WSH). Our workplace fatality rate stayed at 1.9 per 100,000 employed persons for the past two years. In 2016, as pointed out by Mr Melvin Yong, 66 workers lost their lives at work. Among them, 42 fatalities occurred in the first half of the year.

Through concerted efforts by our industry partners and also our stepped-up enforcement and engagement, the number of fatalities dropped to 24 in the second half of last year. This improvement continued into the first two months of 2017 with two fatalities, as compared to 10 fatalities in the same period last year. However, to us, every fatality is still one tragedy that can be prevented. And every life lost is still one too many. So, we should remain vigilant and do more to make our workplaces safer and healthier for our workers.

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Mr Melvin Yong also asked what more can we do to reduce the number of workplace fatalities. Our efforts are both targeted and broad-based. The construction sector remained the top contributor with 24 fatalities in 2016. While it has improved from 2015, there are still three areas of concern that we will step up our actions and focus on. One is vehicular-related accidents within worksites; two, accidents involving formwork; and three, lack of proper supervision, coordination and communication of work activities resulting in accidents. We will enhance the WSH Construction Regulations to address these concerns.

To raise overall WSH performance, we need everyone to take greater WSH ownership. Many progressive companies in Singapore already pay close attention to WSH. In fact, nearly half of them discussed WSH issues regularly at their management meetings. We should encourage more to do so, and we will consider laying out in the WSH Act clear roles for corporate officers in maintaining an effective WSH management system in their companies.

MOM investigators will also probe deeper into the role of companies' senior management in ensuring compliance. MOM will take actions not only on the company but also hold the senior management responsible and accountable if their actions breach the WSH Act.

I would like to assure Mr Melvin Yong and Mr Zainal Sapari that we will continue to help workers who are injured at work. First, we should ensure that the injured workers, particularly the low-wage workers, receive additional financial support when needed.

Mr Zainal Sapari had proposed to review the criteria and administration for the Singapore Labour Foundation Special Relief Fund (SRF) to benefit more low-wage workers who are victims of industrial accidents. Today, other than SRF, local injured workers can also obtain financial assistance under ComCare. Nonetheless, we will work with our tripartite partners, including Mr Zainal Sapari, to review the usage and administration of SRF to provide injured workers with the assistance they require.

At the same time, we should also help our injured workers return to work quickly. Today, over 80% of injured workers are already able to return to work, and we want to do more to help them recover faster and also to return to work earlier. This will also benefit employers who are able to retain their experienced employees and save on rehiring and retraining new employees.

Mr Melvin Yong asked how we are helping injured workers return to work. I am happy to share with him and this House that we will be introducing a Return to Work (RTW) programme this year. This programme provides early intervention to help injured workers and their companies through personalised case management, a point mentioned by Mr Melvin Yong. RTW coordinators will facilitate injured workers to return to their workplaces early. This includes helping employers to make adjustments to their workplaces and jobs to facilitate the injured worker's rehabilitation and return to work. The tripartite partners will also be working together to implement the RTW programme later this year. We will share more details when it is worked out.

In conclusion, Madam, I have just outlined the key efforts of my Ministry to push for more inclusive growth and progressive workplaces for our workers. However, it must be a national effort with the tripartite partners, employers and workers all playing their part together so that we will be able to grow our workplaces to make them inclusive and progressive.

The Chairman: Mr Chen Show Mao.

Employment Protection in the Gig Economy

Mr Chen Show Mao: Madam, many calls have been made in this House over the past year for the proper protection of freelancers who operate in the rising gig economy. I wish to echo their concerns and reiterate the importance.

Currently, employment-related laws in Singapore, such as the EA, the CPF Act and WICA, outline the rights and responsibilities of employees and employers, including contributions towards housing, retirement and medical benefits. Unlike an employee, a freelancer performing work under a contract for service currently falls outside the scope of many provisions of our employment-related laws.

Last month, Minister Lim Swee Say told the House that his Ministry is looking into results of a new survey commissioned to enable the Government to better understand the profiles of freelancers in Singapore. This initiative is welcomed. I hope it will lead to the Government looking into extending to freelancers more of the protection currently afforded employees under our employment-related laws. Perhaps, also to consider risk-pooling mechanisms yielding protection for freelancers in the event of work injury.

Madam, let us embrace the rise of the gig economy and protect our freelance workers who work in it.

Support for Freelance Workers

Mr Ang Hin Kee (Ang Mo Kio): Freelancing work is becoming an attractive option either on a full-time, part-time or project basis. Freelancers make up about close to 10% of the workforce. Aided by the emergence of the "sharing economy" platforms, this work has become more feasible for many.

While freelancers do have some flexibility of time, they face concerns, such as an unstable income stream, inadequate savings for retirement and, sometimes, lack of protection when disputes between them and the service buyer occur.

I look forward to the results of the survey by MOM which will reveal changes and trends in the freelancing landscape. It was also announced earlier that the Ministry is forming a task force to address the concerns faced by freelancers. This, I believe, will help us tackle the issues surrounding freelancers in a targeted manner.

I have myself seen how the Minister for Manpower act on his concerns or the needs of low-wage workers, PMEs, foreign workers, including conservancy workers. He has put in place laws to be enforced, jobs that are redesigned, contracts that are best sourced, and machinery put in place to help the work of, for example, conservancy workers.

So, the cases highlighted earlier by Mr Png Eng Huat about modern slaves in the conservancy work is a very serious one. Because if there are such cases, they should be highlighted to MOM to be investigated and action taken against those employers. I hope those cases will be surfaced to MOM and action taken.

I would also like to ask the Manpower Minister how his team will go about gathering views of the freelancer communities and aggregators to identify their freelancing concerns. Will there be focus group and feedback channels? What are the Minister's own concerns pertaining to the challenges facing freelancers?

Gig Economy and Social Policy

Mr Alex Yam (Marsiling-Yew Tee): Madam, being your own boss – there is a certain attraction in the gig economy. You control the time you spend, when you want to work, what you want to work on. But this attractiveness may only be skin-deep.

Deputy Prime Minister Tharman himself was so concerned about the gig economy that he has said that the issue warrants a closer look. And he said at the McKinsey Innovation Forum recently that, "We have got to avoid a continuing drift-risk being passed from companies to workers, who actually cannot take much risk − the risk of instability in wages and the risk of not being prepared for retirement because of a lack of social security contributions."

Even as our economy evolves, young Singaporeans should think carefully and not be lulled into thinking that freelancing in the gig economy will help secure their future. In the gig economy, people may end up like rolling stones. They do not gather any moss − the opportunity to learn new skills will be absent as they are engaged in their prevailing skillset. Job security is also sometimes non-existent and benefits non-existent as well.

Being your own boss, only by name, still means having to take full responsibility. One key element of the employer and employee relationship in Singapore is CPF. Housing, healthcare, education, retirement, all key pillars of our social policy link back to the CPF and to employment. While it may seem advantageous to be your own boss, employers also see great benefits, too, and we may see a race to the bottom and a shattering of our key social policy ideals.

Madam, on a related note, I would like to revisit a question that I posed to the then-Minister for Manpower in 2012. I had then asked if the Ministry would investigate if benefits due to younger Singaporeans on temporary employment, freelance work or what we call perma-temps, as well as now in the gig economy, are being curtailed as they are not fully covered under employment-related laws. The Minister had replied then that feedback from the industry and unions would be sought. I welcome, therefore, the most recent survey and the details that the Ministry will be able to provide.

This year's MOM focus is also about greater retirement adequacy and progressive work practices. So, the gig workers, freelancers and contract workers should not be allowed to fall through the cracks, as the gig economy continues to develop.

A disruptive economy is to be welcomed, but one that disrupts the very core of social policies in our country and Singaporeans must be one that we approach cautiously and carefully.

Portable Insurance Plans

Mr Ong Teng Koon (Marsiling-Yew Tee): Madam, judging by the number of Members who have spoken on the topic, the gig economy and a much more fluid workforce seem to be key areas of concern. This also reflects the discussions I have had on the ground. It is not just the much talked about millennial generation seeking a better work-life balance, there are many trends and larger forces at work pushing our economy in that direction. And we, as a House, need to ensure that our workers are adequately prepared for this eventuality to thrive in this new economy.

One particular area of concern is the portability of medical insurance benefits. Currently, the plans are company-centric. You are covered by the policy as long as you work for the company. From my own experience, once you stop working for the company, you are not covered anymore, even though you might want to pay up for it, and paying more in premium terms. In the old days, when people tended to stay in one job for many years, this might not be such a big deal. But if you accept that people are going to be moving around in the new gig economy or entering into alternative work arrangements which fall short of full-time employment, then this limitation becomes a matter of concern. It means, for example, that if you develop a condition in your current job, it will be considered a pre-existing condition. When you sign up for an insurance policy in your new job, chances are that you might not be able to get it. You cannot get it at all because of your pre-existing condition; so, you cease to be covered.

The crucial point is that for many reasons, people change employment, moving from one job to another, becoming self-employed, retiring or being laid off. All these scenarios will cause the worker to give up his current employer-paid insurance scheme. In the long run, experts believe that the solution will lie towards a move to a more individual-centric insurance system, instead of a company-centric one. An interim solution would be to encourage the portability of company medical insurance benefits. I am heartened to see that we are already moving in that direction. The Ministry is offering companies higher tax deductions to employers who pay into their employees' portable medical insurance benefits. But at the moment, these are voluntary and seem to focus on the very basic insurance. I believe we can do more.

In order to ensure that there is no additional cost to the employer, I would like to propose that the Ministry provide an option for the employee to continue to keep his existing benefits with his existing company under his own expense. So, there is a set of benefits. If the employee were to buy himself under an individual policy, he pays $1,000. If the company buys it under the company group insurance policy, and with risk-pooling, the cost might be $800. So, as long as the employee is employed by the company, the company pays for him. But once he leaves his job, he should be given the option of paying $1,000 at his own expense to continue with his existing benefits. The company is not disadvantaged in any way. The insurance provider continues to provide the insurance without any lapse, and there is no need for new underwriting because the employee would have been under continuous coverage.

I hope that the Ministry can consider this proposal. I would be grateful if the Ministry can share if it has any plans, as part of a broader move towards a future-ready benefits system.

The Chairman: Ms Foo Mee Har, please take your two cuts together.

Gig Economy Workers

Ms Foo Mee Har (West Coast): Mdm Chairman, I have long been a strong advocate of flexi-work. In the new economy, the "gig economy" is gaining momentum and the attention of policymakers. Gig workers are those who perform contract-based, on-demand work. The McKinsey Global Institute reported that this segment of independent workers is growing fast, at 30% a year.

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Many reports on "gig workers" have focused on job insecurity and significant social safety risks to a rapidly growing segment of workers, as we just heard from my colleagues. But, with the right set of policy interventions, I believe it can also be the formula for higher workforce participation because of the benefits this FWA brings to both employers and employees. The gig economy may offer women with caregiving responsibilities and older workers who need more flexible work schedules the balance they are looking for.

If we expect the gig economy to prevail in Singapore' future, then the Government must take urgent action to rethink labour laws in order to accord freelance, self-employed individuals an appropriate level of support and rights. I offer the Minister four suggestions. First, establish CPF contribution obligations for parties entering into a contract for service. Second, organise a marketplace that enables gig workers to access pooled medical coverage, also a marketplace that enables efficient job matching, where workers and employers rate each other. Third, provide a special track in SkillsFuture for gig workers, so that they, too, can stay relevant and future-proof their skills. Fourth, quite importantly, prevent tax leakages arising from informal work arrangements and the creation of an underground economy.

With the right set of policy measures, we can make this unstoppable trend of gig economy work for Singapore.

Retirement Adequacy

Chairman, the slew of enhancements made in 2015 to CPF has made it more attractive and flexible. I am encouraged by the improved outreach efforts by CPF Board to increase members' awareness and understanding so they can receive the full benefits of the CPF scheme at different stages of their lives. Enhancements include newly designed statements with bold graphics to aid comprehension, so they look very nice in multi-media outreach programmes and CPF Mobile Service Centres. I hope these have helped members better optimise their savings and those of their family members. So, I would like to ask the Minister to share the recent trends the CPF board has observed, including how enquiries and transaction patterns of CPF accounts have changed, the topping up of members' accounts or those of unemployed family members, and how members choose between the various CPF LIFE Plans, that is, Basic, Full and Enhanced retirement sums.

Twenty-four billion dollars have already been invested in the CPF Investment Scheme (CPFIS), yet it is deemed to be "unfit for purpose". Eighty-four percent of CPFIS investors did not realise higher returns from their investments than they would have received had they left it in their CPF Ordinary Account, risk-free, whilst a substantial number actually suffered losses. Can the Minister give us an update on how CPFIS will be revamped to make it serve members better? What is the design and timeline for the launch of LRIS so that members can benefit from a simpler investment option?

Broaden CPF Education Scheme

Ms Kuik Shiao-Yin (Nominated Member): Many of our 30- to 40-something-year-old working professionals already take seriously the call to upskill or be left behind. This is particularly true of those who are founders and entrepreneurs running small to medium-sized private sector or people sector organisations. I speak as one myself.

Many of us founders hit our skill ceilings as our organisations scale from small to medium to large and, at each inflection point, many of us quickly realise that the only way to survive is to get exposed to worldclass level training and mentorship to keep our organisations resilient and relevant.

I ask working professionals and organisation founders online for examples of what courses some of them would definitely go for, if they could use their CPF to do so. Some answers included the Cambridge Advanced Leadership programme that costs about $30,000, Organisational Development in the US and UK that costs $13,000, Intensive Language and Cultural Immersions in Lebanon and Beijing, costly tech conferences in Silicon Valley and so on.

For some for them, the problem that gets in the way of going for such learning courses is simply liquidity. A white-collar working professional, especially 30- to 40-something-year-old founders and entrepreneurs heading their own small to medium organisations, can face surprising crunches in both personal and organisational resources. Some may find themselves caught between having to provide financial support for ageing parents and young children, while having to put in significant personal resources to support their own organisations during a long economic crunch. So, paying for their own personal learning is sometimes a struggle and put off as the last priority.

So, there are cases of potential founders at a crucial peak of their leadership development period who put off going for training not because they do not think it is important or urgent, but they simply cannot spare liquidity for the moment. Many of them are definitely not looking for a handout from the Government, but they would like access to more liquidity, especially from their own resources.

I understand that the CPF Education Scheme was originally designed around members of lower-income families who want to further their education but did not have the liquidity to do so. So, many of the controls written into it currently are designed around those intentions. I understand that this is why the scheme currently only supports loans for full-time, subsidised diploma courses or degree courses conducted locally at approved educational institutions.

Can the Minister consider broadening the loan scheme, so that it can enable working professionals to have another liquidity option to tap on if they want to pursue a short but costly cutting-edge modular international course or conference? This will be really helpful for professionals in the people sector organisations, social enterprises and SMEs which do have less resources to tap on than professionals working for large public sector or private sector organisations who are better able to tap on their companies' sponsored learning.

I am well aware that there is a legitimate worry about the jeopardising of retirement funds. But I believe controls similar to those existing ones in the schemes, such as a cap on the amount of withdrawal or duration of return of funds can be factored in. So, I believe that this will help Singaporeans who wish to pursue the call to go out to learn from the best in the world on how to innovate and internationalise and quite willing to use their own money to do so.

The Chairman: Minister Lim Swee Say.

Mr Lim Swee Say: Madam, I thank Members, Ms Foo Mee Har and Ms Kuik Shiao-Yin, for their views and suggestions regarding CPF.

Over the years, our CPF system has served Singaporeans well in supporting the retirement, housing and healthcare needs of Singaporeans. Retirement adequacy has been improving. In 2013, about six in 10 active members turning 55 met the Basic Retirement Sum. We expect this proportion to increase to seven in 10 for members turning 55 years old in 2020.

With wage growth and higher labour force participation rate, especially among older workers, we can expect CPF balances to keep improving in the years ahead. To help CPF members to save more for their retirement, we made several enhancements last year. We raised the CPF salary ceiling from $5,000 to $6,000. About one million CPF members benefited. A member who is 40 years old earning $6,000 a month will save $370 more a month. And with interest, it will grow to $149,000 by the age of 65. If a person continues working from 40 to 65 years old earning about $6,000 a month, it will add another $149,000 into his CPF account by the age of 65.

We are also helping older workers to save more. About 570,000 workers aged 50 and above benefited from the increase in our CPF contribution rates. Another one million CPF members aged 55 and above, benefited from an additional extra interest of 1% on their first $30,000 savings in CPF.

For an older worker earning the median salary of $3,400 from age 50 to 65, the increase in CPF contribution and additional extra interest of 1% will add $14,000 to his retirement savings by the time he turns 65. Last year, we have also made it easier for members to transfer CPF savings to their spouses' account. This is an area that Ms Foo Mee Har is always concerned about.

They need to set aside only the Basic Retirement Sum (BRS) instead of the Full Retirement Sum (FRS). About 2,700 members did some transfer and this is 70% more than the year before. So, the number of members who did transfer to their spouses has increased. And about one-third of the increase was due to enhancements in our rules. In fact, one in five of the spouses who received transfers now have at least BRS.

We also saw more cash top-ups last year to their own accounts or for their family members. Forty-nine thousand members received cash top-ups of $860 million. This is 27% more recipients than 2015. More members are now doing cash top-ups, either for themselves or for their family members. Beyond BRS and FRS, we introduced the Enhanced Retirement Sum (ERS) last year.

About 9,000 members exercised this new option. And those with ERS at age 55 will receive $1,900 per month for life when they reach the withdrawal age of 65. Last but not least, CPF members also now have the option of deferring the starting age of their CPF LIFE payouts up to the age of 70. They do not have to start at 64, even though the payouts' eligibility age is 64. If they want to, they can defer to the age of 70.

Last year, about 900 CPF LIFE members did that and about 70% are still working. Half of them would have received payouts of more than $500 per month and they will all receive higher payouts by starting later. Mr William Wong turned 65 years old just last week. Under CPF LIFE, he would have received about $500 a month for life but Mr Wong chooses to defer his payout for as long as he is healthy and working. So, if he defers till 70 years old, his payout would increase to $680, instead of $500; an increase of about $180 per month, for life.

On the whole, these recent CPF changes help both the younger and the older members to save more for their retirement. I hope more members will make good use of these options to meet their own needs better.

Ms Kuik Shiao-Yin asked whether we could allow members to use their CPF savings for overseas training courses because, as she put it, some of these training courses are just too expensive. But in fact, it is for the same reason, why we are hesitating.

Madam, CPF can only be used to support basic tertiary education at local approved institutions. With a longer lifespan, we are doing more to safeguard member's retirement adequacy. We need to be careful about expanding the use of CPF for other expenses. Therefore, we have no plans to open up the CPF Education Scheme for overseas programmes. But let me emphasise that, in fact, I do agree with Ms Kuik that upgrading is very important. It is not that we are not supportive of upgrading but skills upgrading or professional upgrading is not one of the main purposes of CPF. Upgrading is important but CPF savings is a wrong channel; not the right one. I will explain why later.

Madam, this year, we will introduce two more enhancements. First, a review of CPFIS. The CPF Advisory Panel observed that CPFIS is not designed for members who lack the time and knowledge to manage their own investments. There is nothing wrong with the idea of the CPFIS investment scheme. But you must be in the right profile of investors. If you have the time, the knowledge, CPFIS is the right scheme for you. But if you have no time and knowledge, then CPFIS may not be the best scheme for you. In fact, it could be better off for those who have no time and knowledge to leave their CPF money to earn the risk-free CPF interest rates.

To better serve the interest of CPF members, we are working on three areas of improvement to CPFIS. First, the introduction of a self-assessment tool to help members to determine for themselves whether CPFIS is suitable for them. In other words, we will provide a self-assessment tool for the CPF members to assess themselves. At the end of the test or assessment, if they still decide to proceed to invest through CPFIS, even though the self-assessment tool helps them to discover that they may not be of the right profile to use the scheme, it is still their decision. What we want to do is to help him, at least, to understand whether he is suitable.

Second, the lowering of the cap on sales charge. This is to discourage financial intermediaries from proactively selling products to CPF members because investment churning could actually erode investment returns.

Third, we are going to review the types of asset classes offered under CPFIS to see if they are appropriate for growing retirement savings. This is to encourage members to invest for the long term and provide members with a diversified portfolio. We will announce these changes after we have finalised them later this year.

For CPF members who prefer a simpler investment option, they can look forward to CPF LRIS that we are working on. As recommended by the CPF Advisory Panel, LRIS will have low fees, simple investment choices, investments that are passively managed and mechanisms to encourage long-term investment.

When we put together these schemes, CPF members will have three ways to grow their CPF savings in future: risk-free CPF interest rates, CPFIS and LRIS.

Madam, we will also introduce an additional option for CPF LIFE plan, as recommended by the CPF Advisory Panel. This is to allow members the option of starting their CPF LIFE payout, with a lower initial payout which can then be escalating at 2% a year. With this new option, from January next year, January 2018, CPF members will have three options: Standard and Basic Plans and now the Escalating Plan. Those who are already on Standard and Basic Plans, they will have one year to switch into this new option if they want to. CPF Board will provide further details later this year.

Mr Ong Teng Koon asked if we should make company medical plans portable for individuals with pre-existing illnesses who have left the company. Madam, I think we should leave this to the market to decide because it would have impact on the premiums for all members on the scheme, not just those with pre-existing illnesses. So, MOM will have no intention to intervene in the market. We will leave it to the insurance market to decide.

Madam, with these planned and pending enhancements, we would have strengthened our CPF system into what we call the "1, 2, 3" of CPF. Three basic needs: healthcare, housing, retirement. Education is not one of them. Three contributors: employer, employee and CPF Board. Three ways to grow your savings: CPF risk-free interest, CPFIS and LRIS. When you turn 55, three options for the retirement sum: Basic, Full and Enhanced. And when you reach the age of 65, three options for CPF LIFE payout: Basic, Standard and Escalating.

Madam, to help the public understand these enhancements better and make more informed choices as they plan for their retirement, we have stepped up our communications and outreach efforts to CPF members. We revamped the Yearly Statement of Accounts last year and adopted a pictorial format. We also provided customised tips for each member. We are glad that the members find the new format easier to understand. CPF Board will also continue to reach out to members in the community through CPF retirement planning roadshows and mobile service centres as well as through mainstream and social media.

Last year, CPF Board piloted a CPF Retirement Planning Service for members who are reaching 55, in other words, at the age of 54. We invited 1,200 members to test out this service and 95% of them said they would recommend this service to their friends. These one-on-one sessions help members to understand better the CPF schemes and the options available to them. As members have found this service useful, therefore, we will extend the CPF Retirement Planning Service to all CPF members turning age 54 this year. An estimate of about 20,000 of them will be invited.

In conclusion, the Government has and will continue to strengthen our CPF system to help members improve their retirement adequacy. We hope that members will make good use of the options available to better meet their retirement needs, as well as those of their loved ones.

Madam, I will now go on to the topic of the gig economy. Madam, there is no official definition of the gig economy worldwide. However, OECD and several international studies commonly refer to workers in the economy as workers on the "Platform Economy". These are online labour-sharing or capital-sharing platforms.

These online platforms serve as intermediaries to match or connect service buyers with workers who take up short-term or piecemeal jobs. So, there is matching of supply to demand.

From the economic angle, such online platforms create opportunities for businesses, workers and customers. They allow businesses to tap on workers who are available "on-demand" to serve customers more flexibly and responsively so as to reduce costs and increase revenues. They also allow individuals to market their skills, provide their services to earn an income, and they can do so under a more flexible working arrangement.

From the employment angle, my Ministry is monitoring closely their potential impact on the long-term well-being of the workers. Common questions and concerns raised, including those raised by Mr Alex Yam, Ms Foo Mee Har, Mr Chen Show Mao and Ms Jessica Tan are: how different is gig work from traditional employment? Are gig workers adequately protected under our labour laws? Will they save enough for their housing, medical and retirement?

Madam, first of all, I want to point out that not all gig workers are gig freelancers. Gig workers can be employees or freelancers. For example, if a private car driver joins a transport company with an employment contract and takes on jobs offered via app, he is in the gig economy but he is still an employee protected by labour laws because he is on an employment contract with the car rental company, even if he is on a short-term employment contract with the car rental company. There is no difference from other workers who are employed under what we call "contract of service".

But if he provides a service in return for a fee, without entering into any employer-employee relationship with any party and, at the same time, he is not overly constrained by the conditions imposed by the platform owner or service buyer, then this is no different from any freelancer that we know today under what we call the "contract for service". If you are a gig worker providing a service under a "contract for service", you are a gig freelancer, but under a "contract of service", then you are a gig employee.

For the gig freelancers under "contracts for service", they are known as own-account workers in our labour force surveys and they are considered as self-employed persons by CPF and the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore. In short, "gig workers" can be gig employees or gig freelancers depending on his work arrangement.

Madam, reliable and internationally comparable data on gig workers are currently not available. To understand better the freelancer landscape arising from the rise in the gig economy in Singapore, we supplemented our annual comprehensive labour force survey with a more detailed survey on freelancing last year. I shall now share some interesting findings with this House.

First, the total number of primary freelancers remains flat at about 167,000 in 2016. These are workers who freelance as their main job. This is within the range of 8% to 10% of employed residents in the past 10 years based on our previous surveys.

Second, if we add the secondary freelancers, then the total number of freelancers in Singapore would be about 200,000. The secondary freelancers are those who freelance part-time alongside other jobs. They have a primary job and freelancing is their secondary job. These would include students, housewives or retirees who take on side jobs for additional income.

Thirdly, about 81% of freelancers do freelancing as a preferred choice. They are in freelancing because they prefer to be freelancers. Sixty-seven percentage points of the 81% are primary freelancers and 14 percentage points are secondary freelancers. The main reasons for choosing to freelance: more freedom, earning extra income, spending more time with their family. The remaining 19% freelanced, even though it was not their preferred choice. Sixteen percent of them are in primary, 2% in secondary. This group, that is, 16%, about 32,700 were doing primary freelancing but it is not their preferred choice. This is the group that I am most concerned about. Under Adapt and Grow, we hope we will be able to reach out to as many of them as possible and help them move into full-time employment because freelancing is not their preferred choice.

Fourth, the top freelancing occupations are still the traditional occupations. The top three are taxi drivers, real estate agents and working proprietors, such as provision shop owners and other business owners with no employees.

The other major freelancing occupations with more than 10,000 freelancers are insurance agents, private hire car drivers, hawker/stallholders and private tutors.

Fifth, freelancers who use Internet platforms, also known as online intermediaries, to find work in the gig economy are still a minority. The largest group is private hire car drivers: the Uber and Grab drivers. About 10,500 of them.

The rest are largely small. Among those with more than 1,000, we have professional services, including consultants, accountants and bookkeepers; creative services: graphic designers, interior designers and product designers; media and communications: producers, editors and photographers. Finally, delivery services like Foodpanda and Honestbee.

All these add up to another 10,000. So, 10,000 in the private hire car, plus 10,000 from the rest of the groups, and if we put them all together, that would be about 20,000 gig workers we have today.

Many of us may have the impression that there are actually many more gig freelancers out there than the number reported in this survey of 20,000. I wish to point out that these 20,000 are those who freelance regularly, both part-time or full-time, but it does not capture those who freelance occasionally or once in a while.

Also, traditional freelancers who do not actively make use of online intermediaries to find work are not considered as gig workers. Even though they may have an online presence to market themselves, they are still not considered as gig workers, for example, sport coaches and music instructors.

Our future annual surveys will enable us to track if the number is growing and in which occupations.

Finally, we also asked our freelancers about their concerns. Their top concern is whether they can find sufficient customers. As freelancers, customers are very important to them. They also have concerns over the lack of income security, for example, arising from work injuries, when attending training or going for skills upgrading. Some of them are also concerned about timely and complete payment from their clients.

Last but not least, they are also concerned about their savings for housing and retirement. Madam, while these concerns may not be new to freelancers, yet we are taking them seriously. This is because the number of freelancers may grow in our future economy in tandem with the growth of the platform economy.

3.30 pm

Mr Ang Hin Kee has asked how MOM will gather views of relevant stakeholders and safeguard the interests of freelancers. Ms Foo Mee Har has also offered her four suggestions in terms of how we can take care of the well-being of the freelancers better. I thank both of them. In consultation with our tripartite partners, we will form a tripartite workgroup to study these issues, address the concerns of the freelancers and come up with workable solutions for the well-being of the freelancing workforce in our future economy.

Mr Patrick Tay asked about reviewing the Trade Union Act to allow freelancers to become NTUC union members. The Trade Union Act, together with IRA and the Trade Disputes Act, regulate industrial relations between employers and employees. Hence, this set of legislation is not applicable to freelancers. This is not an employer-employee relationship. But this does not mean that freelancers today cannot join NTUC as members for NTUC to champion their interests.

A good example is that many taxi drivers are freelancers with no employer and are today NTUC-U Associate members. So, we support NTUC in reaching out to more freelancers in more occupations, including the gig freelancers, and will be happy to work with NTUC and SNEF to pursue this issue further through the tripartite workgroup on freelancing.

Madam, facilitated by technology, we can expect the gig economy to keep growing. There is potential upside, there is potential downside, too. So, our challenge is to maximise the upside and minimise the downside.

The first survey is a good starting point for us to get better insights into the freelancer landscape in Singapore. We will continue to monitor the developments and, together with our tripartite partners, we will find practical solutions to address the issues faced by the freelancers.

The Chairman: We have a bit of time for clarifications. Mr Patrick Tay.

Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan: I just have a couple of questions for the Minister on the newly-announced Attach-and-Train programme. Just several questions.

Firstly, will there be an employment relationship between those on attachment and the company? That is one. Second, if there are any training courses or programmes which the person on attachment is going through, or will be required to go through, will that training or course be fully paid or fully subsidised? Third, the Minister mentioned earlier that the target group of this scheme are PMETs. So, are we also opening it to all workers of all ages as well as including the rank-and-file workers? Fourth, will the company then be obliged to hire these workers after the attachment? Fifth, as we roll out this scheme, I hope employers as well as MOM will watch over these people on attachment because I am just concerned that they are not treated fairly and are being used as cheap labour.

Mr Lim Swee Say: Madam, I had earlier explained why we introduced Attach-and-Train. It is because of this timing gap between the hiring and the time needed for conversion. Having said that, we are mindful of the potential downside of the Attach-and-Train programme. This is the reason why we have no intention to roll out Attach-and-Train across all the 50 PCPs. It will be done selectively. I have earlier explained the selection criteria to minimise the danger that the trainees may eventually not be able to find jobs. Hence, we will only be working with sectors where there is a growing demand for such PMETs.

With that in mind, on the first question about whether there will be an employer-employee relationship, the answer is no. These trainees will be selected by the industry body, and then they will go through the training as trainees. So, there is no employment and there is no employer-employee relationship.

Secondly, the training needs to be fully funded between the WSG and SSG plus our training partners. The PCP programme right now is open to PMETs. Whether we need to have a PCP for rank-and-file, I am open to the idea. As I mentioned earlier in my speech, looking ahead to the future economy, we are going to see less distinction between PMETs and rank-and-file. In fact, we do need to upgrade the rank-and-file job as well, to professionalise them. Therefore, as and when there is a demand, I would be happy to launch them.

Now, obligation to hire. We are putting the obligation to hire on the industry partner. For example, in the case of logistics, we are working very closely with the Singapore Logistics Association. They will be the ones helping us to screen the candidates, select the candidates. They will be the ones to help us to find companies among their members to provide the attachment. At the same time, at the end of the training, the responsibility to find placement would likewise rest with our industry partner, supported by WSG and e2i. So, it is a safeguard to make sure that the programmes will not be abused.

Last but not least, about fair treatment. I can assure the House that these partners that we have, they are all reliable partners, responsible partners. When they make arrangements with their industry members, they also take on the responsibility to make sure that these companies taking them on attachment are, likewise, responsible employers.

The Chairman: Please keep your clarifications short. Ms Jessica Tan.

Ms Jessica Tan Soon Neo: I would like to ask the Minister as he did not touch on the point I made with regard to the unequal impact of disruption for men and women, especially as we look at the digital disruption and the impact on jobs and job opportunities, with current employment trends, as well as with women entering the choice of education and entering the workforce at different roles.

Mr Lim Swee Say: Madam, my apologies. I believe the Member is referring to a study by WEF where, on a global basis, they projected that, given the nature of work and the distribution between male and female, it is likely that more of the jobs performed by females can be displaced by technology.

Having said that, I will say that the employment profile between Singapore and the rest of the world is quite different in terms of education level, in terms of our deployment in STEM jobs. If I remember correctly, broadly, the proportion of female university fresh graduates in STEM courses has gone up from 37% to more than 40%. Of course, we will still continue to encourage a more balanced form of engagement.

But at the end of the day, I want to basically express that the impact of technology will be on everyone, whether male or female, young or old. But I took pain in my speech earlier to emphasise that fearing technology is not the way to go because, at the end of the day, all countries, all enterprises, will have no choice but to tap on technology.

I will give Members a simple example. Two companies, assuming they are identical in their business and so on, company A employs 100 workers – male, female, young and old. Company B employs 100 workers. They are in the same business. Annual revenue $100 million. Company A, due to global competition, decides to embrace technology, so they use robots, IT and so on. They improve their productivity by 10%. So, instead of 100 persons, they became more manpower-lean and now need only 90 persons. But because they are more manpower-lean, they would be able, hopefully, to offer products cheaper, better, faster – the point mentioned by Mr Thomas Chua during the Budget Debate. When they are able to compete in a cheaper, better, faster way, their market share will grow. So, instead of $100 million, it may grow to $110 million, $120 million, and take away business from the company that did not respond. As a result, as the company continues to grow over time, even though they are manpower-lean, in fact, their workforce can actually grow, except that the growth in their workforce will be slower than the growth in their business revenue.

Therefore, it is very important that, in Singapore, we do not look at technology as our competitor for jobs. The faster we make use of technology, the better hope we have in terms of not just moving into the future economy, which is driven by innovation and technology, but, more importantly, to use technology to make the job of all workers, for example, low-wage workers and older workers, easier, safer, smarter, so that the future economy can, likewise, be an inclusive economy for our workers, both male and female.

The Chairman: Mr Low Thia Kiang.

Mr Low Thia Khiang: I understand that the Government intends to groom 800 potential leaders in the next three years under the SkillsFuture Leadership Development Initiative (LDI) which was announced in the Budget Statement. I would like to know what industry the Government is targeting at these potential leaders, and how the Government wants to achieve this target of 800 future leaders. Lastly, I would like to know how these potential leaders are identified and groomed.

Mr Lim Swee Say: Mdm Chairman, LDI is a topic of great interest to me personally. But let me also explain upfront that LDI is today a programme driven by MTI. EDB is our overall champion for LDI. But having said so, MOM, in fact, is a strong supporter of LDI. The reason why I said so is because we believe that the development of a strong Singaporean Core should not be measured just in terms of numbers. It is not about whether in any sector, in any company, what percentage are Singaporeans and what percentage are not. That is just a quantitative measurement of the strength of the Singaporean Core.

What is more important is to look at whether we can strengthen the Singaporean Core at all levels, from the entry level all the way to the top. That is the reason why SkillsFuture, led by SSG – in fact, tomorrow, Members can ask Minister Ong Ye Kung to explain even better – under SkillsFuture, we make sure that we have support programmes all the way from internship to Earn and Learn and all the way to the leadership development initiatives. MOM will go all out to support EDB and MTI in the development of LDI.

Earlier, I mentioned that we have formed a committee in what we call the Human Capital Partners (HCPs). The HCPs are our employers who believe in nurturing human capital. In fact, one of the core priorities of HCP is to nurture what we call the "Glocal talents". These are local talents who are good enough to perform regional and global roles. "Local", you add the "g" in front, it becomes "glocal". So, "glocal talents" are our local talents who are good enough and are as good as global talent.

Under HCP, the nurturing of glocal talent will be one of the key thrusts. Who will identify these companies? These companies will identify themselves. In other words, if a company feels that it has enough commitment in doing so, they can step forward and say, "Look, I want to join the HCP community." Now, who will identify the person to be nurtured into the glocal talent? Again, the company. It is not for us to go into the company and say, "Look, you should nurture this person or that person". Earlier, I have shared the example of the applied material case where Ms Yvonne was identified by her company and has proven that she is good enough for the job. She was able to live up to the expectation and, as a result, today, she is a senior manufacturing director, and the product line that she is responsible for, in fact, is one of their so-called product lead throughout applied material globally.

The Chairman: Mr Melvin Yong.

Mr Melvin Yong Yik Chye: Madam, I thank Minister of State Sam Tan for his responses on workplace safety and health. I have two questions.

First, I think workplace accidents are often the result of poor coordination in workplaces, especially in the construction sector. I would like to ask whether the Ministry can do something to enhance worksite coordination.

The second question I have is whether MOM can do more to encourage near-miss reporting at workplaces. I believe the Minister of State missed this point earlier.

Mr Sam Tan Chin Siong: Madam, I thank the Member for raising two very important questions. First, is on the lack of coordination at workplaces, particularly the construction sites, that has led to many worksite injuries and fatalities.

Madam, it is, indeed, true that there is a lack of proper coordination, communication and also supervision in the construction sector. That is why the construction sector continued to be the major contributor with 24 fatalities last year.

3.45 pm

My Ministry will be working with the WSH Council to review the WSH (Construction) Regulations to require construction worksites to hold daily meetings, particularly when they have major hazardous activities to be performed. We would require them to hold meetings at the worksite to pass down the message, communicate with one another so that there will be proper supervision and coordination to reduce worksite accidents.

Madam, the Member also asked about the near-miss reporting. I am sorry that I did not address this point just now because of time constraints. So, now, I would like to take the opportunity to allay his concern. MOM and also the WSH Council have been actively advocating the reporting and also the monitoring of near misses at worksites. If we are able to encourage this as part of the WSH system in every company, every near miss incident reported can prevent the next accident from happening. This is something that we are working very closely on with the WSH Council.

In this respect, MOM has developed a mobile app called Snap@MOM which made it easier for anyone who has a smart phone to report unsafe work conditions or practices to MOM. Just last week, I received some photographs on this platform by a former Member of Parliament who observed some unsafe worksite practices. He sent the pictures to me and, immediately, I got somebody to go to the worksite. As a result, we were able to prevent worksite accidents from happening.

We want to further upgrade this platform by allowing companies to download this app onto their system so that they can integrate this Snap@MOM throughout the whole company, so that every worker will be able to report near miss incidents to their management. The beauty of this upgraded Snap@MOM is that it will not be linked to MOM. All near miss incidents reported will be confined within the company, so that MOM will not go down to investigate. But it is for the company, the management, to take responsibility to investigate to make sure that they do something to right the wrong. So, I hope I have addressed the Member's queries.

The Chairman: Mr Kok Heng Leun.

Mr Kok Heng Leun: I would like to clarify with Minister of State Teo that there is, indeed, a policy change to give migrant workers an option to change employer when their employments are terminated prematurely or due to valid complaints like salary or excessive work hours, and that this option is not dependent on the discretionary consideration of MOM.

Mr Teo Ser Luck: The consideration is upon investigating on their valid claims or non-payment of salaries. Most important is to establish the facts. While we are investigating and trying to find out about the facts of the claim, we do not want the workers to be unproductive. So, there is an arrangement for them, if they so request, to transfer employers. That can be facilitated by MWC to enable them to continue to be productive.

The Chairman: Ms Foo Mee Har.

Ms Foo Mee Har: Madam, I congratulate the Minister for encouraging the retirement adequacy trends shared with the House, and also the CPF "1,2,3" schemes he has nicely coined. I would like to ask the Minister about LRIS. I think one of the things that the Minister mentioned made a lot of sense, that is, low cost. But I would like to ask the Minister to clarify that when he mentioned "passive", I think it has raised concerns among people in the industry because no retirement scheme, if it is an investment, can be passive. At the least, it needs to be able to meet the needs of members at different life stages. So, for younger people, you can take a little bit more risk; nearer to your retirement, you have to make sure you preserve. Of course, the system can do that, but it cannot be passive. If I can ask the Minister to make sure that that is accounted for.

Mr Lim Swee Say: Mdm Chairman, the Member is exactly right in the sense that LRIS is meant for CPF members who have no time and no knowledge. That is the reason why we have to design LRIS such that he or she would be putting his/her money under LRIS passively, as a passive investment. But somebody has to work for his/her money. So, that would be under LRIS. There would be fund managers to manage the fund for him/her. The member himself or herself does not have to make active decisions.

The Chairman: Dr Intan Mokhtar.

Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar: Mdm Chairman, the Minister earlier mentioned about the enhanced work trial for rank-and-file, the blue-collar workers. That is good news. Can I clarify with the Minister whether this scheme is open to any rank-and-file worker looking to switch industries or must he be unemployed for a certain period of time first? Is it across all industries or only specific industries?

Mr Lim Swee Say: Madam, the purpose of the work trial is, as I had mentioned earlier, for the rank-and-file jobseekers who come to us. Our success rate today is seven out of 10. There are still 30% who have not been successful. Our main concern is that among them, there is a small group, the LTU group. The longer they are unemployed, the harder it is for us to bring them back to work. That is the reason why last year, we started this scheme called work trial just to test out the concept. As it turned out, the feedback has been very positive because we have the confidence of jobseekers as well as the confidence of employers. This is the reason we have decided to expand the programme to make it more attractive and, at the same time, make it longer.

The Member asked whether we would expand this programme to the non-LTU workers. I would say that our main purpose is to help workers to get jobs. Therefore, we do allow for that. If the worker is prepared to try out the work, why not? The question of whether this is available to all sectors, it is available to all sectors. Our challenge is more to find employers who are prepared to join the scheme.

The Chairman: Ms Thanaletchimi.

Ms K Thanaletchimi: Madam, I have got three questions. One, is on work trial extension. Basically, I would like to ask the Minister whether he would consider a work trial for our PMETs who want to look at other industries before they switch over permanently. So, it would be worthwhile looking at it.

The second question I have is with regard to PCP. For some of the programmes, the training is beyond 18 months. For instance, nursing is 24 months for someone who is not in the industry at all. Can the wage support or some form of support be given to these people and the industries that are taking them? This will help, especially the Intermediate and Long-Term Care sector, which is taking in nurses who want to switch over from one industry to another? The third question is on HR professionals. I remember MOM stating that there will be a HR framework and to make sure that the HR professionals are up to skill and professionalism. When will this be rolled out?

Mr Lim Swee Say: Madam, on the first point on the work trial for the PMETs, we have not thought of it because we did not think that there would be many PMETs and many employers of PMETs who are prepared to try this out. However, I am open to the idea. So, maybe you can work with the NTUC, the Labour Movement to see whether we can try this, probably under the future job, future skill programme led by Mr Patrick Tay. I am open to the idea. On the second point about the PCP longer than 18 months, we support PCP. So, is the question whether it can be extended beyond 18 months?

Ms K Thanaletchimi: For some sectors like nursing, it takes 24 months to train a person. It would be worthwhile to consider extending this wage support beyond that.

Mr Lim Swee Say: The answer is yes, our arrangement with the various sectors is that we have a standard PCP. We will provide a certain level of wage support, training support, but our partners, it could be MOH or other agencies. IMDA, for example, what they do is that they take our basic PCP, they add something on top called "PCP plus" and "PCP plus, plus". For the Member's suggestion, I think we can take it up with MOH.

Last, but not least, on the HR professionals, I thank the Member for bringing up this point. In fact, we have started moving quite fast. We are going to launch some major initiative by the middle of this year. The reason why I did not touch on this is because, like what Mr Sam Tan said, we ran out of time and no Member raised this issue. So, I can assure the Member that we are making some major move to upgrade the HR community in Singapore. This will include the so-called professional certification of the HR community. Members should expect to hear our announcement by the middle of this year.

The Chairman: Miss Cheryl Chan.

Miss Cheryl Chan Wei Ling (Fengshan): Madam, I have a question for the Minister. A lot of the points that the Minister has raised seem to be more pro-workers. While I understand why something has to be done, I think businesses and employers are also the ones who create jobs to keep the workforce. Can the Minister explain how he would intend to strike a better balance in future in some of the schemes?

Mr Lim Swee Say: Mdm Chairman, I thank Member Cheryl Chan for bringing up this point. I must apologise if I have come across as simply pro-worker. In my conclusion, I did highlight that whatever we do, we have to be pro-worker and pro-business, both at the same time. If one is weak, the other one cannot be strong.

With that in mind, if I can revisit the four keys that I talked about for this year. The first one is about transform and grow. Transform and grow is both pro-worker and pro-business because, as we heard from Minister of State Teo Ser Luck, all the 2,000 companies under LEDS, whatever they have done − automation, mechanisation and so on − is good for their business and, at the same time, good for the workers because by being more manpower-lean, as a result, the workers are more productive, their wages have improved and so on. Therefore, transform and grow is both pro-worker and pro-business.

The second part is Adapt and Grow. Again, Adapt and Grow we believe is both pro-worker and pro-business. Our local workforce growth is slowing down to 1%. More and more companies, like what Mr Thomas Chua mentioned earlier, are not only having problems finding customers, they are also having challenges finding workers. With Adapt and Grow, we believe that we are not just satisfying the employment needs of the workers but, at the same time, also looking after the manpower needs of the employers.

The third aspect is about building an inclusive workforce, at the same time strengthening the complementarity between local and foreign workers. Again, we believe that the mindset of "2/3 plus 1/3" is greater than one that is not only pro-workers but pro-businesses. Many of our companies under HCP are all doing very well.

The reason why they are doing well is because they value manpower. They look at their staff not as human resource but as human capital. I asked one of them what is the difference between human resource and human capital. They said resource normally is for consumption and it will depreciate over time. But capital is what you invest in and it will appreciate over time. Therefore, our third thrust is both pro-workers and pro-businesses.

Lastly, fair and progressive workplaces. We believe this is both pro-workers and pro-businesses as well. If the workers are treated fairly, treated progressively, hopefully, they will become more engaged, more motivated and thereby do better for the business. So, I assure Miss Cheryl Can and all Members in this House that everything we do as tripartite partners would be both pro-worker and pro-business.

The Chairman: Mr Patrick Tay, do you wish to withdraw your amendment?

Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan: In closing, I thank my fellow Parliamentary colleagues who filed their cuts and shared their thoughts, views and suggestions. I believe we have thrown greater light on the challenges we face as a country and the right things we must do to transform and grow and adapt and grow.

4.00 pm

I would like to thank Minister Lim Swee Say and Ministers of State Sam Tan and Teo Ser Luck for their comprehensive responses and the slew of new initiatives, measures, policies and programmes which we can look forward to. I also want to thank the Permanent Secretary, Deputy Secretaries and the MOM team, Workforce Singapore, CPF Board as well as SLF for their hard work behind the scenes. Thank you very much. With that, Madam, I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

The sum of $1,706,720,800 for Head S ordered to stand part of the Main Estimates.

The sum of $20,899,800 for Head S ordered to stand part of the Development Estimates.