Committee of Supply – Head S (Ministry of Manpower)

The Chairman: Head S, Ministry of Manpower, Mr Desmond Choo.

Workforce for New Economic Order

Mr Desmond Choo (Tampines): Chairman, I beg to move, "That the total sum to be allocated for Head S of the Estimates be reduced by $100".

Since the start of the pandemic, the MOM has been charged with protecting the workforce from escalating unemployment and the threat of COVID as workers returned to work.

The results are clear. One hundred and fifty-five thousand jobs were saved or created. Nearly 2% shaved off the potential increase in unemployment rate.

To further judge the Ministry’s progress, it is perhaps instructive to examine much of our post-recovery Budget debate thus far. We had the chance to look at many longer term plans. But this would not likely have happened if our unemployment rates have tanked and not recovered. This stands in stark contrast to many overseas countries which are still deeply mired in COVID-19 cases and in the deepest of recession. Hong Kong's unemployment is at 7%, the US at 6.3% while Singapore is around 3%.

I would like to thank our MOM officers who sacrificed and work day and night to stabilise the threat of COVID-19 in dormitories so that work could proceed safely and services could resume and they also kept our workers employed and the workplaces safe. So many thanks to Minister Josephine Teo and her team of MOM officers. Thank you very much. [Applause.]

Even so, we know that we are not out of the woods and recovery is far from certain. We are always a big cluster or two away from falling off the recessionary cliff. In fact, the aviation, aerospace, hospitality and retail sectors still have years before they can recover. How would the Ministry support workers from these hard-hit sectors, especially if the Jobs Support Scheme is slated to end in September this year?

Much time, and rightly so, were spent debating supporting our lower wage workers in the Budget debate. A key trend in many other countries has been the disproportionate number of lower income workers losing their jobs. How many low-wage workers did we manage to protect during this COVID-19 crisis? If these jobs are lost, then uplifting lower wage workers will only be doubly difficult.

That we are able to moderate unemployment rates and maintain industrial peace even during very difficult times is not a matter of good fortune. The secret weapon we have is our special model of tripartism. Workers and companies are united with the Government to implement difficult cost-cutting measures. This has allowed us to manage costs and save jobs.

I remembered representing the unions in the many prolonged and tense National Wage Council discussions last year. While understandably tense and sometimes heated, we were united in trust. That we would do our best to ensure the Singapore economy will survive and as many workers as possible remain in their jobs.

I hope that while we look at refining manpower policies, we do not forget tripartism, Singapore's bulwark against debilitating economic forces. It has worked during every one of our crises. It has worked during the deepest of the COVID pandemic. We need to continue to safeguard and invest in it.

COVID-19 has surfaced the highly disruptive forces of digitalisation and remote working. These are causing structural employment issues. It goes just beyond workers in Singapore being dislocated but also losing jobs permanently because of the ease of working online.

Our decades-long investment in our training and placement system has allowed us to re-deploy workers quickly. In the Labour Movement, we know the difficulty of retraining and finding worker another job. According to a New York Times article on 27 February 2021, unemployment is traumatic, affecting mental and physical health, and also erodes skillsets. We see that with our very own retrenched workers. A robust placement system is critical not only during this crisis but also to tackle structural dislocations. How would the Ministry continue to evolve our job placement system to deal with structural changes, especially for our PMEs?

The structural forces also beg the question on how shall we evolve our foreign manpower system so that it serves both current and future needs? It has served companies well over the years as they could expand beyond our small local workforce size would allow.

The question going ahead is how to help businesses to operate effectively while at the same time, allowing for the Singaporean Core to grow. These challenges can be difficult to balance. It can be difficult to tighten manpower quota without causing disruption to many companies.

Industries are more complex now and so are their needs for manpower and talent. Many companies are involved in multiple industries and do not neatly fall into the five major sectors in the current system. Companies also need multi-skilled workers doing multiple roles. While we have critical shortages of local workers in some industries, our local workforce might have supply in many other places. And this can happen within the same sector amongst different job roles. This is not surprising considering how our educational and workforce profiles have changed rapidly over recent years. How can the Ministry balance such needs going forward?

COVID-19 has also brought to the spotlight an important part of our workforce – which is the Self-Employed Persons (SEPs). SIRS was instrumental in helping our SEPs tide through a very difficult period. I had shared during the Budget debate on the need to level the playing field between the SEPs and the big platform companies and organisations.

I would like to ask what are the Ministry's plans to strengthen retirement adequacy. This is a tricky trade-off to manage between their take-home income and preparing for the future. How would the Ministry also involve the companies to provide for these SEPs?

Furthermore, many SEPs are not given training and are likely to be stagnant and lose productivity over time. How can we continue to develop and provide training for SEPs so that we can grow this segment of the workforce?

Next, I would like to touch on our foreign domestic workers (FDWs) and how we can care for them. Over the last few weeks, we have heard unfortunate stories of FDWs being abused. NTUC's Centre for Domestic Workers or CDE was set up to help our FDWs. It has disbursed nearly $200,000 to 1,630 of them between 2016 and 2020. It has sheltered and supported more than 1,500 of them. It has a network of 1,000 volunteers and ambassadors who engage with them to identify those who require assistance, educate them about their rights, and about resources.

What are the Ministry's future plans to further care for FDWs to prevent unfortunate abuse cases from happening again? How can organisations such as CDE complement the Ministry’s work? I hope that employment agencies can play greater roles in safeguarding the welfare of our FDWs even after a successful placement.

Sir, in conclusion, as much as our MOM officers have worked extremely hard, I am afraid even more hard work awaits them. Singapore needs MOM to keep its eye focused on implementing our workplace safe management measures right, to implement our employment and workplace safety policies right so that our workers will continue jobs and work safely until Singapore has successfully tackled the COVID-19 pandemic. Sir, I beg to move.

Question proposed.

The Chairman: Mr Patrick Tay.

Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan (Pioneer): Sir, with your permission, I will take both cuts.

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Underemployment in Singapore

Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan: First cut on underemployment. I recently filed a Parliamentary Question and MOM replied that there are at present about 36,000 Professionals, Managers and Executives, or PMEs, earning less than $3,000 per month.

[Deputy Speaker (Mr Christopher de Souza) in the Chair]

If you lower it to $2,600, there are still about 20,000 earning less than $2,600 per month. This figure is worrying as these are supposed to be workers in executive and managerial positions. There is, therefore, a need to examine closer to see if these are actually disguised PMEs, that is, given inflated titles but the job is not, effectively, a PME job.

By the same token, we may have to embark on the Progressive Wage Model for such PMEs to help them in their skill, wage and career progression. Similarly, we may need to, again, review the salary limit of $2,600 in Part IV of the Employment Act, and for MOM to closely monitor non time-based underemployment in Singapore despite its subjectivity.

Review of the Industrial Relations Act

Second cut, review of the Industrial Relations Act. The Industrial Relations Act was amended in 2015 to permit rank-and-file unions to collectively represent executive employees. To avoid conflicts of interest and undermining management effectiveness, executives with senior management functions were excluded from collective representation. These functions are set out in section 17(3) of the Industrial Relations Act.

In the years that have followed, unions which have sought to extend their scope of representation to include executives have met with some difficulties because the exclusions set out in section 17(3) are too broadly worded, thereby giving employers the opportunity to claim that even low- and mid-level executive employees fall within them, whereas the intent behind the law was only to exclude those who are at senior management levels and carrying out functions which genuinely give rise to a conflict of interest if they are represented by a union.

Besides this, there are several other procedural and technical areas which are ambiguous or need greater clarity. I would like to suggest that a tripartite work group be formed to look at reviewing the Industrial Relations Act and addressing these concerns.

SG United Jobs and Skills Package

Mr Liang Eng Hwa (Bukit Panjang): Sir, in reply to my Parliamentary Question last week on the employment market situation, Manpower Minister shared that the overall employment in 2020 declined by 172,000, reflecting the significant impact of COVID-19 on the labour market.

However, it is noteworthy that this sharp reduction in employment is mostly borne by foreign workers. In fact, non-resident employment fell sharply in 2020; contracted by 181,500 or 16% year-on-year decrease. This is more than the drop in total employment.

On the other hand, resident employment, mostly locals, actually grew; albeit just a modest increase of 9,300, as the various Government support measures helped push local hiring.

In a way, having a foreign workforce served as a buffer and helped cushion our resident workers during an economic downturn. In better times, the foreign workforce helps businesses grow so that companies can find the workers to do the jobs that Singaporeans would not want to do. But in a downturn, non-resident employment tends to bear the brunt as companies release their foreign workers and/or the foreign manpower restrictions start to tighten.

This has been a similar experience in previous economic downturns, such as during the Global Financial Crisis. As a result, it has kept our unemployment rate low, even during recessionary years.

The various schemes under the Jobs Growth Incentive, or JGI, have helped to stave off massive local unemployment and also created new job openings and placements. A novel scheme that I particularly like is the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package, which was intended to tackle the anticipated fallout from the pandemic. With the support from the tripartite partners, 76,000 Singaporeans have been placed into various jobs and skills opportunities under the scheme.

In Budget 2021, Deputy Prime Minister Heng listed three key enablers for our economy to emerge stronger, one of which is to develop our people and enabling Singaporeans to have good jobs and job opportunities.

He also referred to SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package as a key pillar to enable Singaporeans to learn and thrive and to seize opportunities in the new growth areas. The Government will commit another $5.2 billion to fund this effort.

With the package now expanded to support emerging stronger initiatives, can the Minister share the details as to how JGI can support the hiring of 200,000 locals this year and the 35,000 traineeships and training opportunities as mentioned in the Budget Statement. How would these hiring and training opportunities support as well as ride on the Emerging Stronger Together effort?

Under the earlier phase of the JGI, 100,000 local jobseekers and 76,000 traineeships were placed. Some of these are short-term in nature. How can JGI and MOM agencies help these Singaporeans transit and access new opportunities, as envisaged in the Emerging Stronger Together plans?

Re-skilling and the Promise of Re-employment

Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim (Sengkang): Chairman, currently, WSG offers a Professional Conversion Programme, or PCP, that seeks to enable mid-career PMETs to undergo skills conversion into new occupations or sectors; as well as SkillsFuture credits for all Singaporeans to prepare themselves for potential career transitions. SkillsFuture and the PCP received a further boost under the Jobs Growth Incentive announced in August 2020 where the Government committed to co-pay a quarter – half for those aged over 40 – of the salaries.

In a world where changing technology, continued globalisation and environmental considerations mean that job displacement and structural unemployment are liable to become more pervasive, co-funded PCPs of this nature will take on an increasing importance in helping our economy evolve into the competitive landscape of the future.

Yet, while we have some anecdotal evidence of the programmes' benefits – a resident employer I know shares, for example, of a number of successful placements. We have less systematic evidence that there is proactive re-employment of recentlydisplaced workers. Currently, the JGI is applicable for up to one year for hires commencing in September 2020 onwards.

This sort of certainty for both employer and employee is critical. From the employer's perspective, it is effectively co-insurance for a risky hire since the potential employee's ability to adapt and perform in a new role is largely unknown.

From the employee's perspective, it is insurance of a different kind. The promise of a job, even if it is only guaranteed for a year, is a solid incentive to be willing to undergo uncertain and often painful re-training.

Given the inherent complementarities between the PCP and JGI, I wonder whether co-funding support can be made more permanent. I would even go as far as to venture that the PCP be had not just with co-funding but to suggest that the programme become a natural extension of a more holistic unemployment insurance programme, which commences from the point of redundancy.

The Workers' Party had previously suggested the contours of such a redundancy insurance system, which I will not repeat here. However, I am making the case to further incorporate unemployment insurance, given how it is a natural complement to the PCP and JGI programme.

Such an extended programme is not unprecedented elsewhere. Sweden's Job Security Councils, for instance, receive not just standard unemployment benefits, but also financial compensation to assist in the job transition. The system seeks to provide security for a job, just not necessarily the job that you are originally trained for. Denmark's Flexisecurity encourages low-cost, flexible hiring and firing, but displaced workers receive unemployment support alongside re-training and re-education programmes. And Germany recently re-fashioned its National Unemployment Agency to become more of a job matching entity that issues not only career advice but also vouchers to finance re-training costs.

The underlying principle behind these efforts is clear. There is a natural end-to-end complementarity between unemployment insurance on one hand, and retraining and reintegration into the workforce on another. Of course, they are perennial concerns that have to do with cost, but redundancy insurance can be made a self-financing system heavily supported by workers' own contributions and, perhaps, by some Government top-up with a recurring revenue.

Singapore already has most of the elements of an end-to-end job safety net in place, including the functional equivalent of unemployment insurance, which was widely deployed over the course of the COVID-19 crisis via a number of relief schemes and support grants. All that is lacking is a willingness to institutionalise this approach and ensure that the system is cohesive so that Singaporeans unfortunate enough to be displaced from the jobs that they are previously prepared for, also receive the support and guidance they need in a tough labour market.

The Chairman: Mr Yip Hon Weng, if you would like to take your two cuts together.

SG United Traineeships

Mr Yip Hon Weng (Yio Chu Kang): Chairman, I will take my two cuts together. Recent statistics indicate that fewer graduates have found permanent full-time jobs in 2020. There was also a spike in part-time employment during the COVID-19. This is to be expected, given the economic situation, and it is encouraging that graduates are able to find some form of employment to stay productive and earn an income.

However, long-term underemployment would make it challenging for them to move on to better prospects, even when the economy improves. This is especially so if the part-time work they have taken on does not develop skills that are transferrable.

Graduates from the lower income families and those who take loans to finance their studies are harder hit. They may have to settle for any source of income that comes their way. This includes informal jobs, like ride-hailing and food delivery. This is unlike some of their peers who may have the privilege to be more particular with choosing their first job and spending their free time taking up courses to hone their skills.

Can the Ministry share more about the progress of the SG United Traineeship programme, now that we are more than a year into it? How useful is it for fresh graduates? How many have secured permanent employment from it? Are there plans to expand the programme and create more vacancies across a wider variety of sectors and job roles? Is the Ministry reaching out to graduates who are working part-time jobs, especially in the informal sectors, to see how to provide targeted help to them? I notice that the focus of media reports seems to be on helping graduates from the local public Universities. What about graduates from the Polytechnics, ITEs and private Universities? What is their employment situation and how are they benefiting from the traineeships?

Senior Employability

Next, on senior employability. Seniors are very important to our workforce. Mature workers have plenty to offer. They have knowledge, skills and experience accumulated from decades of practical experience in the workforce. Thanks to the Government's push for education and literacy in the earlier years, many mature workers are well-educated and possess the necessary prerequisites and qualifications to take up or transit to jobs that their younger peers qualify for. But with the labour market still tight, the challenge of landing a full-time job has been heightened. This is particularly so for the older workers, who are disadvantaged by unfair stereotypes that employers have of them.

There are various grants to support employers to re-design their workplace practices, processes and jobs for senior workers. Tripartite partners have also worked with Institutes of Higher Learning to develop a training programme specific to the management of older workers in Singapore. And Workforce Singapore, or WSG, introduced customised support for sectors with a higher concentration of older workers. Can the Minister share about the progress of these efforts? What is the take-up among employers and how effective have they been in dispelling the myths about senior workers?

Some seniors prefer to work fewer hours because of health reasons, or to pursue other personal interests. They built up their retirement funds and they do not need a full pay-check. And there are also other individuals who could benefit from reduced work hours, such as care-givers and those who desire more time for other obligations. They could benefit from job-sharing. In this way, we can retain more talent, including mature workers, in the workforce.

Will the Ministry look into expanding the Job Sharing Initiative? Can the Ministry share more about plans to leverage on senior employment and the mature workforce for the benefit of our economy? Thank you.

Dignified Employment for Elderly

Ms Ng Ling Ling (Ang Mo Kio): Mr Chairman, Sir, as an ageing society, the Government has cast an aspiring vision for Singaporeans to age with purpose and grace. For most Singaporeans, this will, hopefully, be in the form of a good retirement with sufficient savings and restful time to enjoy the company of grandchildren and catching up on hobbies.

However, this is not necessarily the case for some segments of our lower skilled elderly who may need to continue to hold on to employment in order to sustain independent living. I believe that providing dignified employment for elderly who are able and need to continue working will be a growing challenge in our ageing society with high cost of living.

6.30 pm

I am concerned that a segment of our elderly may be left behind because of our fast transforming economy, especially with the rapid digitalisation of work processes by employers to increase productivity.

I have a 70-year-old resident who came to seek employment assistance. The resident was an experienced former security officer who was asked to retire even though she desired to continue working. As her children were not doing well financially, she did not want to be a burden to them. She wanted an administrative or customer service role which she felt she would be adequately able to carry out. Nonetheless, she said that no employers would consider her, given her age. Throughout my conversation with her, I could feel her dejected emotions because of the multiple rejections that she has been receiving. Despite her goals to be independent and self-sufficient at her age, it did seem that she might have to end up seeking some form of financial assistance in the interim while continuing her uphill job search journey.

I know that the 2021 Budget has an increase in Senior Worker Early Adopter Grant and Part-Time Re-employment Grant. But both are applied directly to employers. Also, the SGUnited Skills Programme caters mainly for mid-career jobseekers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the SGUnited Traineeship targets mainly fresh graduates from the Institutes of Higher Learning. My concern is how elderly like the resident I mentioned, will be able to navigate skills training, job matching and job support amidst these schemes.

I would like to ask what more can the Government do to partner employer with the enhanced grants to widen the job range for this segment of vulnerable elderly and how can community agencies be roped in to partner employers in facilitating job matching for those who want to keep dignified employment.

Enhancing CPF Returns

Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis (Sengkang): Chairman, CPF has been able to maintain its interest rates at 2.5% for Ordinary Accounts and 4% for Special MediSave and Retirement Accounts. The interest helps our CPF members to grow closer to their time and goals, which is to meet or exceed the minimum retirement sum. Now, even though 2.5% or 4% compounded over a long period of time can lead to significant interest income. I would like to ask if there can be a choice for CPF members, especially with a long-term time horizon.

For example, the 20- to 30-year-olds today with 30 or 40 more active working years to devote a portion of their CPF to earn higher returns. For example, MINDEF already has a Saver Premium Fund where investors have an option to choose between dynamic balance and stable according to the investment needs. Is there a possibility for CPF members to have similar options where they can opt a portion of their CPF savings for a dynamic portfolio, such as to co-invest with the Government's investment vehicles to enjoy the higher returns.

Up to 50% of the net returns from the reserve do flow back through the NIRC framework. Could there be a more direct means by which members will be able to earn high investment returns through co-investing in the Government's investment vehicles, especially given the long time horizon for CPF monies held for our members' retirement.

There is already a CPF Investment Scheme in place with a list of specified investment products included under the CPFIS. Should we look further when you really have the highest quality fund managers in the Government's investment vehicles and does it not make sense to allow Singaporeans to directly benefit from the Government's prudent and astute investment capabilities?

Workers' Capabilities and Job Transfer

Mr Abdul Samad (Nominated Member): Chairman, this pandemic has seen many workers either had to take pay cuts or even lose their jobs, including the executives and management. For the fortunate ones, they were able to move from one job to a similar, if not better job, in a shorter time compared to others. This was made easier with the collective efforts of various agencies including NTUC's Job Security Council to help secure jobs for our fellow Singaporeans.

For some, who are unable to find employment opportunities, they had to take on alternative temporary jobs to tide them over such as driving private hire vehicles or working as food delivery persons. As such I would like to inquire the Ministry on the programmes such as Professional Conversion Programme (PCP) and Capability Transfer Programme have been effective in mitigating the employment challenges faced by Singaporeans during this pandemic?

Can the Ministry share to date how many of those PME jobseekers has secured job opportunities through PCP, like the Place and Train, Attach and Train, Job Redesign and Reskilling? What were the bottlenecks that stop an individual and/or employers from recruiting the displaced workers through programmes such as PCP? How many of those who went through such programs have resulted in taking on higher value added jobs or new job areas?

In addition, how can such programmes be effectively marketed for better outreach so that we can entice self-employed workers such as private hire drivers or those working in a gig economy to join the permanent workforce for better job security?

Can the Ministry also share how many of our local workforce have gone through and benefited from the Capability Transfer Programme? Are there good examples on the effectiveness of these programmes in terms of skills transfer and capability through our local workforce?

What is the Ministry projection for such programmes and how we can create interest and encourage more local workforce to seize such opportunities at the earliest possible time?

Workforce for Tomorrow's Economy

Mr Yip Hon Weng (Yio Chu Kang): Mr Chairman, the PMET jobs which we used to do from the comfort of our offices and now in our homes, are at risk of being outsourced. Even before this, companies around the world are delegating small-scale projects to cheaper labour in developing countries, such as design, coding and customer services. Amidst the pandemic, technology has made it more easy to do remote work. On the other hand, Singaporean talents would also have more opportunities to work remotely for foreign markets. How will the Ministry help Singaporeans to leverage on these opportunities? How will the Ministry minimise the outflow of jobs as a result of remote work?

Certain essential services usually carried out by foreign workers had to be suspended or reduced in frequency during the circuit breaker period. It is therefore prudent to push for skills development amongst the blue-collar sectors in Singapore. Some of these jobs in construction, landscaping and cleaning are considered skilled labour in other developed economies like Japan and Norway. It is heartening to observe that some young Singaporeans are embracing opportunities in the cleaning and waste management sectors. But such industries are still plagued with stigma and looked upon unfavourably.

How do we transform these sectors, along with mindsets, to ensure we always have a reliable pool of local talents to count on for these essential services?

Reallocation of Workers due to COVID-19

Prof Hoon Hian Teck (Nominated Member): A feature of the COVID-19 economic health shock is that it is uneven across sectors. While firms in a contact-intensive sectors suffers a contraction in output and will lay off workers in the absence of policy measures like the Job Support Scheme (JSS), some other firms such as those offering products via an electronic platform do well.

The issue to be raised here concerns the nature of help that might be offered to facilitate reallocation of workers out of the contact-intensive sector such as aviation/aerospace and tourism related activity into other sectors should restrictions on international travel make it unlikely for normal business to resume soon. More broadly, how do we prepare workers to minimise the scarring effects of a prolonged slump? It is useful to think about three groups of workers. Those currently employed in the contact-intensive sector, those employed in the rest of the economy and new graduates who are entering the workforce.

First, workers who are currently employed in the contact-intensive sector. The JSS keeps these workers on the firms' payroll because the ultimate recovery of the affected sector avoids the need to incur investment costs to retrain a new group of workers with the necessary industry specific skills. Workers in the aviation/aerospace industry will no doubt use the lull period to undergo training to deepen their skills. Perhaps new developments in artificial intelligence and the technology embodied in Industry 4.0 can be mastered to position the industry to ride the wave of opportunities when more normal international travel resumes.

Firms employing workers in the tourism related industry working in tandem with their trade association and chambers can potentially take advantage of a home market effect to cater to demand from residents who are unable to travel overseas for their family holidays due to the pandemic. They can also encourage their workers to build upon common digital platforms to reach overseas customers.

Second, workers were employed in the rest of the economy. The JSS provides support to achieve the stabilisation function of the Government, avoiding a cyclical rise in unemployment, while the Jobs Growth Incentive, the JGI package, seeks to create new hires in the potential growth sectors through a hiring subsidy. The JGI is a very important policy measure as it helps to create a good supply of new job vacancies in growing sectors of the economy. In the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), it has been observed that even though the measured rate of unemployment in the advanced economies decline, the employment to working-age population ratio had actually fallen below pre-GFC levels. So the unemployment rate was low, but the employment to working age population was actually low as well. What is the explanation?

That is because even after several years subsequent to the Global Financial Crisis, there was an inadequate supply of good jobs offering good pay so that discouraged workers withdrew from the labour force. Pursuing structural transformation as a major pillar of Budget 2021, even while help is extended to save jobs in the contact-intensive sector has a virtue of enabling the Singapore economy to create a good supply of new job vacancies when the economy returns to its potential trend growth path.

Third, new graduates entering the workforce during COVID-19. Holding a job confers benefits that go beyond the pay. It provides also non-monetary rewards, non-pecuniary benefits of a job. In contrast, being unemployed produces not only personal costs, but also has important social costs. Family members are also badly affected when a breadwinner loses a job.

The JGI could go some way towards encouraging firms in the growing sectors to hire recent graduates. The SGUnited Traineeship programme is also valuable in helping to link graduates from the Institutes of Higher Learning to potential employers. During a buoyant market, a graduate holding an undergraduate degree might defer post graduate training. Let me declare here that I am an academic at one of the Autonomous Universities. In the current labour market conditions, the opportunity cost of doing a full-time postgraduate degree is lower, lower than during the pre-pandemic era. The Government might consider sharing in the cost of postgraduate education with firms in the potential growth sectors who might be willing to make contractual arrangements to partially fund the workers to acquire advanced skills. After obtaining the postgraduate degree, the worker is then employed by the sponsoring firm.

To sum up, the COVID-19 shock might turn out to be prolonged in this climate. It is vital to minimise the scarring effect on a resident Workforce.

The Chairman: Deputy leader, would you like to move a Motion for exempted business for the Committee of Supply?

The Deputy Leader of the House (Mr Zaqy Mohamad): Sir, may I seek your consent to move that the Chairman do leave the Chair? This is to enable me to move a Motion to take the proceedings on the business of Supply today beyond 7.30 pm.

The Chairman: I give my consent.

Resolved, That the Chairman do leave the Chair. – [Mr Zaqy Mohamad].

Thereupon Mr Deputy Speaker left the Chair of the Committee and took the Chair of the House.

Debate in Committee of Supply resumed.

Head S (cont.) –

Workforce for the Green Plan

Mr Sharael Taha (Pasir Ris-Punggol): Thank you, Mr Chairman. We aspire to be a greener nation and successful transformation necessitates getting everyone on this journey. It is inevitable that certain industries face decline while other industries such as those supporting the Green Plan will see an increase in demand.

For example, with no internal combustion engines by 2040, there will not be any petrol stations then. What about the impact of disruptive technologies like driverless vehicles and drone deliveries? Bridging between the contracting and emerging industries will be challenging and it would be erroneous to assume that everyone can make the transition smoothly. We need to balance and manage this workforce transition, especially when most of the jobs that will be lost are lower wage roles.

I urge the Ministry to consider updating our industry transformation roadmap (ITM) to include workforce transition strategies for low-wage workers, seniors and persons with disabilities. Our ITM and green plan should purposely feature this group of workers so that the industries can proactively redesign jobs to ensure inclusive growth in the post-pandemic economy.

Support for SMEs and SME Workers

Ms Yeo Wan Ling (Pasir Ris-Punggol): Mr Chairman, our 270,000 SMEs in Singapore represent 99% of all companies in Singapore and are arguably the heart of our Singapore economy. In turn, our hardworking and loyal SME workers are the beating hearts of our SMEs. As the world adjusts to the new landscape that COVID-19 has brought about, SMEs and our SME workers, more than ever, need to pivot, upgrade and keep relevant with the changes to keep afloat and to come out of COVID-19 stronger and better.

At the heart of the pivot, the unions believe that two things must happen: (a) the uplifting and upgrading of our workers to be a dynamic and adaptive workforce to drive the much needed pivot that many SMEs need now; and (b) the building of an even stronger Singapore Core that will allow our SMEs to weather this and other future economic storms.

Corlison, or better known by their Pearly White line, is a progressive SME in the Labour Movement family. More than 88% of Corlison's workforce are Singaporeans and employees above 40 years old are sent on training to acquire new skills at least once every three years. As part of preparing for the new economy, Corlison's staff attend courses in Google AdWords and analytics training to enable them to receive competitive wages and grow to be even more future proof. Corlison has weathered the COVID-19 well and continues to grow market share both here in Singapore and overseas. They have built a strong Singapore Core through redesigning jobs, upgrading work processes and upskilling their workers.

SMEs like Corlison must not be an exception. What will the Minister for Manpower do to assist SMEs in job redesigning and to uplift our workers so that they remain relevant and an important pillar for SMEs to be able to pivot?

Secondly, keeping in mind that many SMEs depend on foreign workers as part of balancing out their limited resources, with the narrowing of the Dependency Ratio Ceiling and SMEs concerned about the viability of their businesses, how does the Minister plan to assist and support SMEs to create a more balanced Singapore Core?

Protection of Freelancers

Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan (Pioneer): Picking a leaf from our recent experience with the Self-Employed Person Income Relief Scheme (SIRS) and the growth trajectory of freelance workers or what many call the "gig economy" workers, the Labour Movement hopes more can become union members and enjoy the plethora of offerings 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 to review the Trade Unions Act to allow freelancers to be union members without compromising or contravening traditional collective bargaining and representation.

By the same token, can we also explore ways where our freelancers can be better represented and protected of their fundamental rights as workers through amending existing employment laws such as the Industrial Relations (IR) Act or introducing new legislation to accord them better protection than just what the Small Claims Tribunal and Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM) can do at the moment.

Own-account Workers' Welfare

Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis: Mr Chairman, based on the MOM's latest 2020 labour statistics, own-account workers, defined as persons who operate their own business or trade without employing any workers – this includes taxi drivers, property agents, tour guides, freelance artists – account for 9.7% of the total workforce, or 228,000 workers, up from 8.8% in 2019.

While some own-account workers are truly independent, such as working proprietors, there are many who offer services as part of a wider organisation, such as taxi drivers, private hire car drivers and food delivery riders.

The COVID-19 pandemic has arguably pushed more workers into the so-called gig economy. Such a rise can also be attributed to the advent of aggregated apps such as Grab and Deliveroo, which have provided platforms for people to seek assignments in exchange for monetary incentives.

We have to recognise that this is a sizable population of the workforce that is not protected by employment laws and regulations. These own-account workers are not deemed as employees of companies and the companies are also not obliged to provide CPF, medical insurance and other employee benefits for these people. Moreover, the own-account worker's income is subject to incentive structures which companies can have the power to change at any point in time, without notice, and often do not require consent.

Many of these workers end up stuck in the cycle of insecure work, reducing their opportunities for career advancement and, as access to credit is restricted, exposing them to greater risk of financial shocks.

For many of these own-account workers, especially in the ride hailing and delivery industries, they exhibit many employee-like characteristics such as working exclusively for one company and/or having fixed working arrangements and key performance indicators (KPIs) which are tied to that of the company.

On 19 February, the UK supreme court has upheld a ruling that Uber's drivers should be classified as workers rather than independent contractors. California's Proposition 22 ballot measure, passed by the voters in the November elections, could also serve as a third way of classifying such gig economy workers. It allows companies to offer private hire drivers partial benefits such as a minimum base pay that is higher than the minimum wage and healthcare subsidies for some drivers, depending on the number of hours that they work.

I would like to ask if more could be done to protect the interest and provide a safety net for this group of workers, such as mandatory insurance and minimum levels of benefits and protection for them.

Progressive Wage Model and Foreign Worker Policy

Mr Edward Chia Bing Hui (Holland-Bukit Timah): Mr Chairman, Sir, Singapore's economy is built around a strong Singaporean Core and supplemented with migrant workers in specific industries and jobs.

Let me first discuss the Progressive Wage Model (PWM), which is critically important for all Singaporeans. As a business owner, I support the PWM. A standalone minimum wage is too general and does not address sustainability and progression issues. In contract, PWM factually is a progressive and sustainable model where wages are paid in tandem with the necessary skills and productivity required for a specific sector.

Employers are showing that they do care about our lower wage workers and their livelihood. As such, I strongly urge the Government and the Labour Movement to further hasten the implemention of PWM in more sectors. We need to have advanced conversations with industry partners to prepare employers so being ahead of the curve is necessary.

Today, the PWM is implemented by sectors, which is a vertical approach. We also need a horizontal approach to include smaller enterprises. Smaller businesses do not have economies of scale and do need a longer runway to prepare and scale up to pay their workers and concurrently remain viable.

A good example are our hawkers. As we celebrate our successful inscription onto the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural of Humanity and appreciate our hawkerpreneurs, we must recognise that they cannot offer the same salaries and benefits as other food operators such as restaurants.

I spoke to Mr Lennon Peh, a hawkerprenuer in Bukit Panjang who sells mee rebus and mee siam. He shared that his largest operating cost today is manpower cost, ahead of ingredients and rent. He is also facing higher cost of cleaning and dishwashing and finds it difficult to make up cost by selling his mee rebus and mee siam at a higher price. In his own words, "a hawker centre is meant to provide affordable food to Singaporeans and I will cause disappointment to customers if I increase prices."

There are clear challenges in passing on costs. In addition, we need to consider that any cost increase to adjacent verticals will affect another sector. For instance, the introduction of cleaning PWM could have increased the cost of dishwashing and cleaning, thereby increasing their operating structure. Hence, a targeted approach for smaller enterprises is necessary to keep their business sustainable for themselves and workers, and cost affordable for consumers.

As we progress economically, I urge the Government to work together with the industry players to go into more details, to carefully and sensibly curate and develop bespoke PWM strategies to support all Singaporean business.

Now, allow me to focus on our foreign workforce. MOM has two main levers for managing our jobs and employment and they are the foreign worker levy and Dependency Ratio Ceiling (DRC). Our foreign manpower policy has worked well for Singapore to strike a balance in providing jobs and opportunities for Singaporeans and concurrently supporting the economy with adequate manpower to continue businesses, thereby, economic growth.

Having said that, we must continue to finetune our foreign manpower policy to ensure relevance and calibrate it to meet changing socio-economic conditions. Manpower is essential for businesses to grow. And as they grow, more good jobs will be provided for Singaporeans. As a business owner myself and through conversations with other business owners, the severe challenge of our current policy is the inability to first find the necessary local manpower to grow the business.

Noting the above business owners' concerns, I would like to call on the Government to apply the foreign worker levy lever instead of the DRC lever to a very select group of enterprises that are restarting and/or pivoting their existing businesses.

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In my maiden speech, I suggested that we need a different approach for firms re-starting and pivoting after the challenges of 2020. Manpower resources are necessary for these businesses to pivot, and the adjustment of levy is a temporary measure to assist them to have interim stability of their manpower base to transit. Perhaps, adopting a pilot approach with a few identified companies could yield greater insights and allow us to test such options first.

Next, I would like to propose applying and calibrating DRC in accordance with sub-sector nuances and differentiations, in particular, the services sector. The services sector forms a large part of our economy and a differentiated quota would be more targeted and beneficial. Each sub-sector has different job demand among Singaporeans, and businesses in each sector have various abilities to adopt automation to reduce manpower needs.

For example, different players in the foreign worker-dependent industries, like the food and beverage, and cleaning and maintenance, have different base resources and allure as employment choice. Hence, we need to be more surgical in applying DRC in each sub-sector, ensuring that there will be no net increase to the foreign worker population in Singapore based on current DRCs.

I believe that our relentless focus to accelerate the PWM adoption plus this fine-tuning of our foreign worker policies will be important levers to prepare us for a better future.

Work Passes for Foreigners

Mr Leon Perera (Aljunied): Mr Chairman, in October 2020, I called for a mix of fixed-term and non-fixed term work passes for foreigners, to attract investments in next-generation industries and stave off job displacements. Such a mix could be offered to investors for specific projects, especially in highly desirable future-ready industries where Singapore has competitive advantages. The mix could be tweaked, depending on the degree of international competition for that investment. I reiterate this call today.

For fixed-term foreign work passes, the foreign worker would be hired for a fixed term of, say, five years, for example, and this time would be used to train up Singaporeans with equivalent skills. After the fixed term, hopefully, there will be enough Singaporeans with the relevant skills to replace that foreign worker. This shares similarities with the Temporary Skills Shortage Visa in Australia where, if appropriately skilled Australian workers cannot be found, employers can bring in skilled workers for a fixed period.

Furthermore, the Employment Pass scheme aims to train Singaporean citizens and upgrade their skills, fixed-term work passes meet precisely the same. I acknowledge that the current work pass scheme such as the employment pass and newly-launched Tech.Pass aimed to attract skilled workers redressing skill shortages.

However, more can be done to train up a Singaporean Core in next-generation industries and incentivises employers to hire Singaporeans. For example, while the Tech.Pass is targeted at the movers and shakers of the tech world, fixed-term work passes target or broader spectrum of skilled workers across disruptive industries.

For fixed-term work passes, firms should have action plans for capability transfers to equivalent locals as well as mentorship schemes if feasible. Training can be tied to existing schemes in workplaces or academic institutions. Extensions to fixed-term work passes can be considered in the case of very extreme extenuating circumstances.

Targeted Framework for Work Passes

Miss Cheng Li Hui (Tampines): Mr Chairman, there are some jobs that Singaporeans are just not interested in. In my engagements with residents, I know that some would shun jobs in the marine, off-shore, maritime and manufacturing sectors.

Some parents would even hope that their children working as safety supervisors, engineers and technicians could change to safer occupations or office jobs.

In November 2020, there were reportedly 6,370 jobs are on offer in the manufacturing sector, with one in 10 from the hard-hit marine and offshore sub-sector. Within the sector, electronics, precision engineering and food manufacturing had the greatest number of available openings. We can do all what we can to persuade, to promote these jobs but Singaporeans are just not interested in taking up jobs in these sectors.

The foreign worker quota for S Pass workers in the construction, marine shipyard and process sectors will be cut. The cuts to the S Pass sub-Dependency Ratio Ceiling, or DRC, is in two phases.

The first tightens the sub-DRC for S Pass workers from 20% to 18% on 1 January 2021. The second step will cut this further to 15% on 1 January 2023. If these sectors are not able to attract sufficient Singaporean workers despite job redesign, improved wages, then their business operations would hit a standstill. Where there is justification given by these employers, can the MOM consider giving more latitude for the issuance of S Pass and Employment Pass so that the business can keep on going?

Verifying Qualifications of Pass Holders

Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong (Hougang): Mr Chairman, while the Workers' Party welcomes the recent tightening of work pass requirements, there remains a need to review other aspects of these requirements.

One aspect is the issue of unaccredited certifications, which has been in the news again of late. Holders of certificates from degree mills and unaccredited schools have perplexed Singaporeans in previous incidents and may uncertain the belief that all our work pass holders can do the job they claim to be able to do on paper.

To be clear, such academic qualifications may not be forged and we have a system in place to deter forged qualifications. However, these unaccredited qualifications are viewed with scepticism by our citizens and the various degree mills that offer academic degrees and diplomas for a fee with little to no real coursework, give little confidence.

While MOM has indicated its risk-based approach in dealing with such matters and employers do have a primary responsibility to ensure the authenticity and quality of the academic qualifications submitted, this approach should improve so that the trust necessary for Singaporeans to accept truly talented foreign PMETs in Singapore can be improved. Therefore, I urge MOM to consider mandatory Educational Credential Assessments, or ECAs, for all Employment Pass and S Pass job applicants that need University degrees and diplomas. The cost to be borne by the applicant.

Such ECAs would only be accepted from a panel or Government appointed established independent consultants. The ECA report will be sent to the relevant agencies, the prospective employer and the applicant. This is not a novel idea since our medical and legal professionals have a list of recognised institutions that have only recently become narrower to uphold the standards of professions. I urge the Minister to look into this.

Expansion of Coverage of the Foreign Employee Dormitories Act

Mr Mohd Fahmi Aliman (Marine Parade): Chairman, COVID-19 has had a major impact on the way of life for many of us including that of our foreign workers. During the pandemic, NTUC's Migrant Worker' Centre worked hand-in-hand with our stakeholders on the ground to contain the outbreak in the migrant worker dormitories. This experience had brought to light the problems faced by our migrant workers in their dormitories, and underscored the immediate need for us to improve their living conditions. This includes the need to review how foreign worker dormitories are regulated, and if these regulations should be reviewed.

Currently, the Foreign Employee Dormitories Act, or FEDA, ensures that the accommodations of our foreign workers are regulated and must comply with a list of requirements to ensure the health and safety of their residents. However, FEDA only applies to larger dormitories that accommodate 1,000 or more workers.

In view of the challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, I would like to ask MOM if there are any plans to further regulate the living conditions of foreign workers in dormitories that house lesser than 1,000 workers, such as increasing the scope of FEDA to smaller dormitories.

Domitories

Miss Cheng Li Hui: Chairman, SMEs in Singapore are among one of the worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially those whose workers are housed in dormitories. With new standards for migrant worker dormitories to enhance workers' well-being, dormitory operators said it would see at least 50% higher cost to implement in existing dormitories.

Under new MOM specifications, dormitories will have no more than 10 beds per room, with only single-deck beds and 1 metre spacing between them. Each room now holds 12 to 16 beds.

I am fully supportive of giving our foreign workers better living conditions. We value them and we must treat them humanely and give them proper housing.

JTC used to run these dormitories before they were privatised and taken over by commercial operators. In the 1970s, to attract labour for the industrial estate, flats were constructed by JTC, which was responsible for developing and managing Singapore's industrial estates and their related facilities, was providing low-cost accommodation for workers. Will JTC help SMEs by coming back into this role of managing some dormitories? This can offer some competition with the privately-run dorm so that there could be healthy competition helpful for SMEs.

Management of Foreign Workforce

Ms Hazel Poa (Non-Constituency Member): Mr Chairman, it was disappointing to note that despite the pandemic exposing our vulnerabilities arising from our over-reliance on foreign labour, the Budget did not present new measures to fundamentally move our economy away from that over-reliance, apart from a tightening of the S Pass quota for the manufacturing sector.

It would have been a golden opportunity to commence the needed restructuring, at a time when the size of our foreign workforce is down significantly, due to the pandemic, when businesses are looking for new ways to rebuild economic activities, a time for a "Reset", as Institute of Policy Studies, or IPS, calls it.

With only minor tweaks to our work pass and work permit requirements, it is to be expected that the presence of foreign workforce in our economy will remain as large as ever.

Despite our objection to the continued over-reliance on foreign workforce, that is a matter of disagreement over what is the best policy for Singapore, and does not translate into disrespect for the foreign nationals working in Singapore. The contribution of foreign workforce to Singapore's development has been significant and they deserve to be protected as well, just like our local workforce.

Our laws, such as the Fair Consideration Framework (FCF), the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act, and the Foreign Employee Dormitories Act, are meant to prevent discriminatory practices and protect both local and foreign employees.

According to the MOM, a rising number of employers have been penalised for illegally underpaying foreign employees. The severity of the COVID-19 pandemic's spread in dormitories has also exposed the harsh conditions many foreign workers live in, and exposed many inadequacies in the way we manage their welfare. Also, instances of discriminatory hiring practices and violations of the FCF have been highlighted by the public.

Given our large and growing foreign workforce, does the MOM have sufficient manpower and resources dedicated towards enforcing the relevant laws and regulations? Is it able to assure Singaporeans that its resources have been put to good use, and that its enforcement has been effective?

Moving forward, how will MOM manage the balance between local and foreign workforce to ensure they complement one another, not replace? With reference to the recent discovery of work pass holders declaring qualifications from an Indian University selling fake degrees in their applications, how will MOM ensure the integrity of its list of accepted Universities and qualifications for work pass applicants?

What is the plan to prevent a recurrence of severe outbreak of contagious diseases in foreign workers' dormitories? Can the Minister update us on the improved standards for new dormitories and is the Ministry working on this in conjunction with NGOs? How much has been spent on rehousing foreign workers during this pandemic?

To protect our foreign domestic workers from abuse, will the Minister consider adding an item in the six-monthly medical examination report asking doctors to indicate if they noticed any signs of abuse?

The Chairman: Miss Rachel Ong, if you would like to take your two cuts together.

Regulation of Living Conditions in Factory-converted Dormitories

Miss Rachel Ong (West Coast): Thank you, Chairman. I would like to take my two cuts together. I would like to extend my appreciation for our FAST and ACE teams in MOM who have worked tirelessly to care for our migrant workers.

I wish to encourage our team with a story. At the peak of the pandemic, this volunteer asked a migrant worker who had been quarantined, if he had updated his family about his situation. He said no, he did not want his family to worry about him and added "because I'm in Singapore, I know I would definitely come out of this alive." To our MOM and MOH teams, thank you.

At the same time, the pandemic has revealed gaps in the living conditions of many of our migrant workers. There is more we must do for our migrant workers, not just in the interest of public health, but because it is the right thing to do for our fellow men.

My first cut relates to the regulation of living conditions in the Factory Converted Dormitories known as FCDs. These dormitories are regulated by the Foreign Employee Dormitory Act, or FEDA, which cares for the health and safety of our migrant workers. However, FEDA presently covers only dormitories that house 1,000 workers and above. Extending FEDA regulations to the smaller FCDs will impact over a 100,000 more workers.

I would like to highlight two areas for FCDs with cooking spaces to be regulated in. First, hygiene. A visit to some kitchens in FCDs will reveal the presence of stray animals that roam freely as well as unclean food preparation and disposal areas.

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I would like to highlight two areas for FCDs with cooking spaces to be regulated in, first, hygiene. A visit to some kitchens in FCDs will reveal the presence of stray animals that roam freely as well as unclean food preparation and disposal areas. These kitchen spaces must be regulated to meet basic hygiene standards. The second area for consideration is the persons-to-stove ratio. Each day, migrant workers return from work in large numbers because of the long wait to cook. Some go to bed hungry as they would rather rest. A sensible ratio of pax-to-stove will allow for better access for food preparation. For many, being able to prepare their own food is not just a matter of saving money but a small piece of comfort from home they taste at the end of a long day.

I would like to ask MOM about the approach to improve and regulate living conditions in the FCDs moving forward.

Safe Food Access for Migrant Workers

My second cut is on ensuring safe food access for our migrant workers.

Many workers stay in dormitories without cooking facilities and purchase food from caterers at their own cost, ranging from $120 to $150 a month. These meal packages include breakfast, lunch and dinner. Caterers deliver their lunch together with breakfast in the morning, some as early as 5 am, which means that lunch is prepared way in advance. The earliest preparation time we understand is at 5 pm the day before. Thus, our workers eat their lunch long after NEA's recommended time of four hours after food preparation.

At the worksite, lunch packages are often left in open spaces or under the hot sun because of the lack of food storage areas. When it rains or when stray animals get to them, the food is inedible and they go hungry. Other times, they have hard, cold rice and sour vegetables to eat. Such treatment of our migrant workers cannot and must not be tolerated in Singapore. For one, could we have employers provide lunch at the worksite? It is important that any increase in costs is not passed on to the already low-wage migrant workers.

As suggested by some industry caterers, would it be possible for a part of the workers' levy to go into the provision of safe and nutritious lunch for the worker? Access to safe food is a human right, not a privilege. I would like to ask the Ministry how might we better protect our migrant workers' rights to safe and nutritious meals without passing on further costs to them.

Underpayment of Foreign Workers

Mr Pritam Singh (Aljunied): Chairman, the underpayment of foreign workers and Pass holders is not just a travesty against foreign workers; it sabotages Singaporean workers by undercutting their wage competitiveness. Unscrupulous employers take advantage of the significantly imbalanced negotiating position of foreign workers and coerce them to return a portion of their salaries in cash. Foreign workers are usually in debt by way of agency fees owed back home or to middleman employment agents, many of whom are outside Singapore's jurisdictional reach. The foreign workers in question would unsurprisingly be more concerned about their prospects for continued employment or employability in Singapore. In such a scenario, the disadvantages of reporting an errant employer to MOM can far outweigh the advantages.

The Minister for Manpower, arising from Parliamentary Questions filed by Workers' Party Member of Parliament Mr Faisal Manap and Progress Singapore Party Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Leong Mun Wai, recently confirmed that about 190 employers were found underpaying their foreign employees every year between 2015 and 2019. That total corresponds to close to 1,000 employers over a five-year period. The total number of foreign workers who were underpaid was not disclosed, nor were any details of restitution made to these workers disclosed as well. Can the Minister make these details known?

The Minister also shared that the number of errant employers caught was the result of improved detection capabilities and education efforts to encourage foreign employees to report salary irregularities. Minister committed that the Ministry would continue to take strong surveillance and enforcement action.

Under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act, it is an offence if employers do not pay their foreign employees their contractually stipulated salaries or inflate their foreign employees' salaries with no intention of paying them the amount declared to MOM. Sir, I believe it is time to come down harder on errant employers who denied their foreign workers and Pass holders a fair wage and, in doing so, also lower the employment opportunities of Singaporeans who are qualified to do the same jobs.

Compared to the numbers from 2010 to 2014 where 60 errant employers each year were found to have illegally deducted the salaries of their foreign workers, the numbers are clearly on the increase. One direct way to resolve this matter would be to raise the deterrent effect of the enforcement regime by increasing the penalties for underpayment of foreign workers and Pass holders under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act.

A second approach could be to tweak the law to require an errant employer, in addition to criminal penalties, to pay the foreign worker a penalty amounting to six months of the foreign workers' wage for each instance of intentional underpayment to circumvent MOM regulations. This amount would represent a punitive element that seeks to activate a behavioural effect to nudge foreign workers to proactively report employers who do not pay their declared wages, as required by MOM.

The Chairman: Mr Louis Ng, if you would like to take your two cuts together.

Addressing Migrant Worker Agent Fees

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang (Nee Soon): Sir, migrant workers help to build our nation. I thank them for helping to make Singapore the shining red dot we are today.

Many of them invest a significant amount of money to come to Singapore. They have to pay agent fees to even secure a job here. This means when they first step foot on Singapore soil, they are already thousands of dollars in debt.

It is not enough to say that these fees were not paid in Singapore. These agent fees affect how effective our labour laws are. It results in a huge power imbalance.

When migrant workers are saddled with huge debts, they are less likely to speak up against errant employers who flout Singapore’s labour laws. Agent fees paid overseas undermine our labour laws.

Will MOM look into this problem and study the possibility of establishing direct recruitment channels through its licensed Overseas Testing Centres to cut out the middlemen? Will MOM also increase penalties for companies who are found to collect such kickbacks?

Increase Coverage of Foreign Employee Dormitories Act

Next, this COVID-19 pandemic has shown that we need to do more for our migrant workers and I am glad we are.

Currently, the Foreign Employees Dormitories Act (FEDA) covers only licensed dormitories housing more than a thousand workers.

In 2017, I spoke up about the need to ensure that accommodation for migrant workers that fall outside FEDA are of equivalent standards to the larger dormitories. Surely, a dormitory housing 999 workers is no different from a dormitory housing more than a thousand workers.

MOM responded that FEDA imposes additional conditions on larger dormitories because of higher concentration risks there. MOM also said that smaller accommodation types are still required to comply with comprehensive guidelines.

COVID-19 has shown that we need to relook how we regulate risks in dormitories. More importantly, this is not just the issue of managing risk but of ensuring that every migrant worker helping to build our homes also has a decent home to return to at the end of the work day.

I hope that MOM will increase the coverage of FEDA.

Job Advertisements for Migrant Workers

Mr Leon Perera: Mr Chairman, migrant workers currently pay hefty agency fees to secure a job in Singapore.

In 2019 migrant worker NGO TWC2 found that, for the first-timers, the average agency fee paid, especially for Bangladeshi workers, was $7,606 and the median was $7,750. For repeat workers, the average was $4,733 and the median was $4,000. When migrant workers lose their jobs, they fall into heavy debt because they are unable to pay off the loans that they have taken for the agency fees. It is perplexing that migrant workers bear the brunt of agency fees when it is common in many industries in countries for the employers to bear such fees.

MOM could consider setting up a standardised Singapore licence in mandatory online job portal for both jobseekers who are already in Singapore as well as overseas jobseekers who want to work as migrant workers in Singapore. Employers with quota in Singapore licence employment, agents should be the only ones allowed to advertise vacancies on the portal. This cuts out unlicensed job brokers. Under such a scheme, it would be mandatory for the company and worker to transact the job application and acceptance through the portal. Mr Alex Au of TWC2 and others have called for such a reform.

Singapore licensed and regulated employment agents could still engage in bulk recruitment for specific end employers in Singapore, provided all recruitment goes through the portal for the sake of transparency to the worker, MOM and all stakeholders. Such a portal may also be useful to enable the authorities and the workers themselves to track compliance with insurance requirements.

Entry of Approved Foreign Workers

Ms Sylvia Lim (Aljunied): Sir, additional processes have been put in place for employers of foreign workers seeking entry or re-entry into Singapore. After getting MOM approval for the workers, there is now an additional requirement for employers to apply for slots for their entry into Singapore on specific dates. It was explained that there is a need to stagger the entry of foreign workers to reduce the risk of imported COVID-19 cases. I believe employers understand the rationale, especially since Singapore has had a major headache dealing with outbreaks of COVID-19 in foreign worker dormitories.

The issue with the implementation is the uncertainty it creates for employers. Employers are advised by MOM to apply for workers to endorse a specific date, only to receive replies that the slots are full and to re-apply on a specific later date, with the cycle repeating itself. For employers working on construction projects, not knowing when approved workers can enter Singapore, renders them unable to plan when work can resume. Some are working on key infrastructural projects which promise enormous social benefits, such as new MRT lines. Other employers might be waiting for new domestic workers to assist in desperate family circumstances.

Can the Ministry clarify how many daily slots are available for entry of foreign workers into Singapore and how these are allocated?

Expansion of the Progressive Wage Model

Mr Mohd Fahmi Aliman (Marine Parade): Chairman, the workers in both the pest management and strata management sectors perform integral and important services. Our pest management workers safeguard public health by providing essential services, such as preventing the spread of dengue and rodent and pest infestations, while workers in the strata management sector perform the important and demanding task of managing estates and providing all with a conducive and safe environment for us to work and play.

Some work has been done to acknowledge the essential work done in these sectors. The pest management sector was subsumed under the Environmental Services Industry Transformation Map in the hopes of transforming and uplifting the sector to provide good and sustainable jobs to Singaporeans. In addition, the Facilities Management Skills Framework was launched in September of last year to provide the industry with information on the occupations, skills and competencies, and the possible career pathways available. The development of an FMC Accreditation is also underway which will encourage higher management competencies and skillsets for workers in this industry.

While this is encouraging, I would like to ask MOM what plans they have for these two sectors in the near future and to consider the implementation of the Progressive Wage Model so that more workers benefit from a clear career progression pathway, coupled with the relevant skills, improved productivity and commensurate wages.

Progressive Wage Model for Lift and Escalator Sector

Mr Pritam Singh: Sir, the Progressive Wage Model for the lift and escalator sector was approved by the Government in 2018 after a tri-sector committee comprising of union representatives, the Government and lift companies made its recommendations.

Arising from this agreement to raise the wages of Singaporeans and PRs in the lift and escalator sector, a move that all Singaporeans should support, it is inevitable that some maintenance costs for lifts and escalators will rise.

The lift and escalator industry is one with relatively high barriers to entry and it is dominated by a handful of major players.

Some years ago, arising from a number of high profile accidents in the Town Council setting, many Town Councils moved to, as far as possible, tag the maintenance of their lifts to their original equipment manufacturers. This was also done in anticipation of a smoother rollout of HDB Lift Enhancement Initiatives.

Currently, Town Councils are in discussions with various lift companies that seek to increase the maintenance costs of lifts in HDB estates arising from the implementation of the Progressive Wage Model in the lift and escalator sector. In tandem, lift companies are also increasing the fixed schedule of rates for their lift parts. The latter move should not have any direct connection with the rollout of the Progressive Wage Model in this sector as the costs of spare parts generally rise in tandem with inflation, accounting for a reasonable 3% to 4% increase in costs for Town Councils.

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In my discussion with lift companies as an elected Member of Parliament of Aljunied/Hougang Town Council, the starting position of some lift companies has been to throw in a steep increase in maintenance cost. One major lift company started with a more than 40% jump in lift maintenance fees, positing that costs would likely rise by 40% on account of the implementation of the Progressive Wage Model in this sector. When this company was questioned what percentage of this increase would go to workers, considering it maintained thousands of lifts across various Town Councils and should benefit from significant economies of scale to accommodate a mandated rise in wages through the PWM, company representatives demurred and argued that a rise in excess of 40% was just an opening position and that this amount was subject to negotiation.

Sir, I recognise that such discussions with lift companies are commercial arrangements. The argument from some, when a minimum wage like the Progressive Wage Model is applied, is that costs will rise and the burden will have to borne by consumers. But it would appear that some vendors could take advantage of the Progressive Wage Model to profiteer under the pretext of increased costs. In view of the design of the Progressive Wage Model, and the extended conversations that take place between union representatives, the Government and the companies, I would like to know how the tripartite partners ensure that the prospects of profiteering by unscrupulous vendors is kept in check under the guise of rising wages for workers. This is especially in sectors like the lift and escalator sector where a number of the major players dominate and have a large footprint in that sector.

Sir, I filed this cut before Senior Minister of State Koh Poh Koon delivered his speech last Wednesday, where he recommended the setup of a committee to guard against companies profiteering from the rollout of the Progressive Wage Model. To this end, what role do Government bodies like the BCA, for example, play to ensure that the interest of Singaporean HDB dwellers and other consumers are protected from unjustified hikes in the guise of adherence to the Progressive Wage Model, in this case, in the lift and escalator sector? Thank you.

The Chairman: Mr Gerald Giam.

Progressive Wage Model

Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song (Aljunied): The Progressive Wage Model currently covers three industry sectors – cleaning, security and landscaping. It will cover the lift and escalator maintenance sector by 2022, and there are now discussions to implement PWM in six more sectors. Based on MOM labour force data, apart from the aforementioned sectors, there are still more than 80,000 Singapore citizens and Permanent Residents aged 50 and over, working in other sectors earning a gross income of less than $1,000 a month. These include 27,300 in transportation and storage, 10,900 in public administration and education, 8,000 in manufacturing, 7,400 in health and social services, and, if we include those earning less than $1,500 per month, the numbers more than doubled.

Can the Minister share whether MOM has plans to roll out PWM in these sectors and, if so, what are the broad timelines for doing? The NTUC wants to look at a vocational PWM for lower wage occupations, like clerks, general machine operators and electricians. How does MOM plan to implement PWM for these vocations, given they cut across multiple sectors? What levers will MOM use to impose wage, training and career progression requirements in the absence of licencing conditions?

Finally, Deputy Prime Minister Heng said that the Government's aspiration is for every sector of the economy to have some form of progressive wages. Moving forward, how will the Government roll out the PWM differently so that it can be implemented at a quicker pace and made universal? For example, which processes and requirements will be streamlined or removed to ensure a faster rollout?

The Chairman: Mr Louis Ng.

Expand Progressive Wage Model

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang: Sir, about 32,000 full-time workers in Singapore currently take home less than $1,300. We must do more to help our lower wage workers and I am glad we are.

We have been expanding the PWM to more sectors. I thank the Government for its latest move in expanding the PWM to the waste management sector. I also welcome the recent announcements that PWM will be rolled out to the food services, retail, strata management, pest management, and solar technology sectors. Workers within these sectors will welcome this news. But timing is also important for them. Can we roll out the implementation of PWMs within a shorter timeframe? With the expansion to these sectors, can MOM share whether all the 32,000 workers currently taking home less than $1,300 will be covered?

The Chairman: Mr Melvin Yong. If you would like to take both your cuts, please do.

Workplace Safety and Health

Mr Melvin Yong Yik Chye (Radin Mas): Thank you, Mr Chairman. February 2021 – 11 lives were lost at our workplaces in just 28 days. This is alarming, if we compare this to the 30 workplace fatalities for the whole of 2020. Sir, all these accidents could have and should have been prevented.

According to MOM’s data, smaller construction firms with less than 50 employees, have a higher fatality rate than larger firms. While main contractors have the resources to put in place comprehensive safety measures, these sub-contractors often do not.

Many sub-contractors face manpower shortage during this period. Burdened further by the necessary safe management measures, sub-contractors often engage their own sub-contractors. I am told that there can be up to four layers of sub-contractors at one major worksite. This can sometimes lead to a situation where the eventual worker performing a high-risk task may not be qualified or trained to do so.

Sir, Sub-contracting is not inherently dangerous, as companies may need to engage a specialist to perform a part of the project. But developers and main contractors cannot lose sight of the one eventually performing the work underneath these layers of sub-contracting. How many main contractors have been prosecuted for WSH lapses by their sub-contractors? We last reviewed the penalties under the WSH Act in 2017. Is it time for us to review the penalties again? We should also mandate developers to include a safety component in their tender specifications, budget and evaluation so that good safety measures will be a key consideration when awarding projects.

Often, parts of a major project are sub-contracted to freelancers and self-employed. I urge MOM to extend WICA coverage to them, particularly for high-risk sectors, such as marine and construction.

Sir, studies have shown that fatigue is directly correlated to workplace accidents. We must, therefore, ensure that our workers are well-rested so that they can concentrate on performing their work safely. I hope MOM can set clear guidelines on rest time for workers, especially at high-risk work sites.

Also, there are only so many worksite safety inspections that MOM can do. For WSH, workplace safety, to truly be pervasive, we need a dedicated WSH representative in every company. I have spoken numerous times on this and I urge MOM to implement it quickly. We can upskill the Safe Management Officers to perform this role once the pandemic is over. Let us ensure every worker returns home safely every day.

Workplace Mental Health

Mr Chairman, my next cut.

Since the issuance of the Tripartite Advisory on Mental Well-being at Workplaces, many have written to me to say that this is a step in the right direction towards de-stigmatising mental health issues. However, they also expressed hope that more could be done to encourage better adoption of the Tripartite Advisory.

I would like to ask how many companies have since fully adopted the recommendations listed in the Advisory? MOM conducts the Comprehensive Labour Force survey yearly to help shape national manpower polices. Can we include workplace mental health, in particular, the adoption of the Advisory's recommendations in these surveys to help track our efforts in building mental resilience among our workers?

To drive full adoption of the Tripartite Advisory, we need to start in a targeted manner. I propose we focus on the adoption of Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs). According to a study conducted by the National Council of Social Services, less than 5% of employers surveyed offered EAP to their staff. Among the small minority that do, it is common to hear that utilisation rate is low, due possibly to poor awareness.

EAP is important as it provides an avenue for the employee to seek support for any matters that affect their mental health. Companies that offer EAP report happier employees and an increase in productivity. I hope MOM can incentivise companies to provide EAP to their staff, by creating an early-EAP adoption incentive scheme to partially offset the “start-up” costs.

Sir, it is also important that we recognise exemplary companies and individuals who have gone above and beyond their call of duty to help achieve workplace mental well-being among their employees and colleagues. By showcasing the best-in-class and good role models, we can inspire others to follow in their lead.

I am, therefore, happy to announce that the tripartite partners have agreed to recognise exemplary companies and individuals this year with the Mental Well-being at Workplaces Awards, which will be presented at the annual Singapore WSH Awards Ceremony. I would like to thank both MOM and SNEF for their strong support. More details will be announced in due course.

Mr Chairman, workplace mental health issues are real and ever-present. The Labour Movement is committed to protect the mental well-being of all workers, because Every Worker Matters.

The Chairman: Mr Pritam Singh.

Work Injury Compensation Act for All Singaporean Workers

Mr Pritam Singh: Sir, Work Injury Compensation coverage has represented a form of worker protection that long predates even Singapore's independence. It serves as a critical bulwark to protect workers against accidents, providing them important financial relief and some degree of protection in times of uncertainty and distress. Even so, the central role of platform workers or gig economy workers in the economy over the last few years has shown no signs of abating. In a time of heightened retrenchment and lower salary prospects, such work provides an important outlet for many Singaporeans workers.

In this light, concerns abound over the lack of important worker protections for this group of Singaporean workers. Independent contractors under a contract for service also find themselves in a similar predicament. I have come across Singaporeans undertaking delivery work, like couriers, for example, finding themselves without WICA coverage. In the event they injure themselves in the course of their work, while loading their vehicles for example, no prospect of Work Injury Compensation exists for them.

Does MOM have any indication of the number of such workers without WICA coverage, especially those in the low-income bracket? Separately, does MOM have any plan to address the worker protections for such Singaporean workers? This is in light of developments in other jurisdictions, like the UK, where the Supreme Court recently recognised platform workers as employees, lending weight to important questions over the appropriate statutory protections that should be extended to such workers in future.

The Chairman: Mr Sharael Taha.

Workplace Transformation

Mr Sharael Taha: Thank you, Mr Chairman. Sir, in the past 12 months, the pandemic has taught us that for 60% of Singaporeans who are PMETs, our jobs are likely to be able to be done anywhere, and at any part of the globe. Workers are no longer confined to office cubicles, and close physical proximity is no longer a prerequisite for collaborative work.

Employers are now trying to implement HR policies that strike a fair balance between work from home and work from office. For some, work from home has improved their quality of life while, for others, work from home has been very difficult to juggle as the lines between work and home are getting increasingly blurred. What is the balance point that is fair to both employers and employees? For example, for office employees or non-workmen that are on work from home but have OT pay in their working contracts, how do we remunerate such workers that is fair for both employers and employees? How can the Ministry ensure the rights of both employers and employees are protected through encouraging fair work employment practices? How can the Ministry ensure that high productivity is maintained while encouraging and improving good work-life balance for our workforce? We must capitalise on this opportunity and ensure Singapore remains one of the more attractive places to work and, more importantly, retain the talent within Singapore. Fair work practices and a good work life balance will go a long way into ensuring our comparative advantage as we shift towards new working norms.

Work from home has also demonstrated clearly how jobs can be done anywhere in the world. While we have debated extensively on foreign workforce quotas, let it not distract us from the fundamental question: how do we keep our workforce competitive and relevant in the global market, especially when workforce quotas are losing relevance in protecting jobs? How can we prepare, upskill and provide opportunities for our workforce such that we remain relevant in the global economy and not only do jobs in Singapore, but also do jobs for other countries remotely? Can the Ministry or trade associations provide a platform for our remote professional services to be procured globally?

Remote working also requires a different set of skills for both the employer and employee, and an equilibrium of trust must be struck for it to work. Remote working managers must be able to set targets to manage the output of the team and not just manage the team purely based on counting the number of hours clocked. At the same time, employees must also not take advantage of the flexibility afforded to them due to remote working and be more self-directed in managing themselves to ensure that productivity is never compromised.

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Moving forward, even as we focus on investing in upskilling our workforce in terms of hard digital skills, let us concurrently promote the adoption and refinement of the softer skills of remote working to establish a suitably efficient and productive remote work culture environment. We should also consider how MOE can better prepare our children for a future of remote working.

Workplace Bullying and Sexual Harassment

Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan: Sir, the issue of workplace bullying and harassment, including sexual harassment, is an important and sensitive one. We had promulgated the Tripartite Advisory on Managing Workplace Harassment some years ago as well as rolled out outreach efforts and materials when the Protection from Harassment Act was introduced. Perhaps, it is time to review this advisory and strengthen its legal and regulatory weight.

This also comes at a time when we see more Singaporeans undergoing PCPs, work trials, SGUnited programmes and traineeships in companies and businesses. This is over and above the usual student interns and contract staff.

Can we further enhance the protection and safeguard of the current employees as well as these new categories of workers in the workplace who may be subjected to workplace bullying or harassment or, worse still, sexual harassment, and other physical and non-physical abuse, including being made to work overtime and excessive hours without rest.

Women in the Workplace

Ms Yeo Wan Ling: Sir, in my Budget speech, I spoke about women in the workplace and how important it is that workplaces must offer women real, viable choices for their livelihoods, grant them protection in the making of these livelihood decisions and to allow them to fulfil their full potential, be it at home or in the workplace.

As a nation, we must stop thinking of workplaces as a one-size-fits-all for all workers. With the new norm of flexible work arrangements and working from home, the notion of what is a workplace has been given a new breath of life. A workplace can be in the office from 9 am to 6 pm or at home from 3 pm to 12 midnight. Indeed, a workplace can be anywhere and anytime so long as there is Wi-Fi and a virtual background.

As such, these are exciting times for our women workers who are planning to return to work after a long hiatus because the typical nine-to-six office setting arrangement has never and could never work for them.

At the Labour Movement, we ask that, together with the Government, we (a) encourage our employers to open their minds to a new progressive workplace and work arrangements, and, indeed, make these the norm and mainstay in the Singaporean workforce culture; (b) support companies through financial and advisory means the process of job redesign; and (c) advise our employers on the new HR best practices that support the outcomes of the job redesign and flexible work arrangement exercises. Areas that need to be looked into are work-life harmony arrangements, fair hiring practices and performance evaluation criteria. Comparisons, fair or otherwise, could be made between workers who work from home and workers who choose to work in the office.

Could I have the Ministry update us on what their plans are for these three points?

In my Budget speech, too, I spoken about how FDWs form a vital care-giving structure for working women and that FDW partners at home allow our working women peace of mind in the workplace.

Sir, it is with solemn gravity that I raise the plight of some FDWs in Singapore. I am sure we are not strangers to the case of 24-year-old Piang Ngaih Don (Pee-eng ngay dong). Ms Piang, an FDW from Myanmar, was repeatedly abused to the point of death. To call this a cruelty would have been an understatement, and not to address this cruelty would be an injustice. Imagine sending your daughter, wife or sister away to a foreign land in hopes of a better life, only to find out that she was treated this way. My heart broke.

As a whole, it is important to be consistent as a society. We cannot afford, on one hand, to celebrate the pivotal role FDWs play in the support eco-system and, on the other hand, remain lax on protecting the dignity and even lives of our FDWs.

I would like to seek updates from the Government on their plans to protect our FDWs and the efforts in community engagement to spread awareness on the roles of our FDWs in keeping our female workforce strong and resilient.

Women in the Workforce

Ms Mariam Jaafar (Sembawang): My resident, a new mother, recently quit her job. Because when she asked if a room at her workplace could be converted into a nursing room, she was told, "Why can't you just use the toilet?"

Another resident struggled to find a job after she was retrenched. "Once you are a woman over 40, your value plummets. There is always someone younger," she said.

Understanding and attacking these "moments of truth" could have disproportionate impact on the number of women in our workforce. I ask if the Government could consider more standards on structural workplace benefits, such as nursing rooms, emergency respite care, return-to-work programmes and hiring incentives for women over 40.

International Women's Day is around the corner. I call on the Government to "Choose to Challenge" so that no women will be made to feel the way my residents were made to feel.

The Chairman: Mr Louis Chua, if you would like to take both your cuts together, please do.

Childcare and Parental Care Leave

Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis: Mr Chairman, while eligible working parents of Singapore citizen children are entitled to six days of paid childcare leave a year, this only applies to children below the age of seven. Parents whose youngest child is between seven and 12 are only eligible for two days of extended childcare leave a year, while childcare leave is held constant, regardless of the number of children a couple has.

Given that there is a rising trend of dual-income families, I would like to ask if childcare leave can be extended on a per-child basis and up to the age of 12, as our Primary school-going children would see only a degree of care if they fell ill or simply to allow families to spend more time together.

With an increasingly ageing society, there is also the duty to take care of our parents. Many companies have started to offer eldercare leave as an employee value proposition and I would like to ask if this could be considered as a statutory form of leave.

The workplace has become more pro-family over the years, with more establishments offering various work-life initiatives, such as flexible work arrangements and non-statutory family-friendly paid leave. Flexible work arrangements are important, no doubt, but it is also equally important to give our workers the flexibility to take time off without taking no-pay leave if required to take care of their children or parents.

Mr Chairman, while it can be argued that increasing leave provisions could be difficult against the challenging economic climate today, the challenges of our low fertility rate and ageing population are no less critical. If we wish to uphold the ideal of family support and enable children to play their role as care-givers to elderly parents and for working parents to look after their young children while balancing other demands on their time, then the baseline level of parental care leave probably ought to be legislated to send the right signal to society on this matter.

Flexible Work Arrangements

The second cut. In 2019, about 85% of employers offered some form of formal or ad-hoc flexible work arrangement in the workplace. However, flexible work arrangements come in a spectrum and, clearly, the level of flexibility that was in place pre-COVID-19 is dramatically different from what you have seen in 2020 and today, with work from home being the default work arrangement.

Amongst many companies in Singapore, I note that UOB has already instituted a two-day work from home policy post-COVID-19 while DBS will give its workforce the option to work remotely up to 40% of the time.

Is it now time for the Government to reflect the needs of today's employees and employers and legislate a baseline level of flexible work arrangement?

Annual leave, sick leave, maternity leave and childcare leave are but amongst the various leave provisions currently legislated for under the Employment Act, although the right number is a separate topic for debate. It is not lawful for employers to give a notice of dismissal to a mother during her absence and neither is it conscionable for employers to discriminate against hiring women and mothers.

Now, legislation is no silver bullet, but it is an all-important first step. In the same vein, I do hope that the Government, businesses and society do not view flexible work arrangements as one which has unintended consequences of reduced employability and it is imperative for all of us and the Government to demonstrate leadership on this matter.

Supporting Caregivers

Ms Carrie Tan (Nee Soon): Mr Chairman, our social safety net approach continues to put family as the first line of support. MOH talks about ageing in place. The reality is, these two dovetail into an untenable care load on women when it comes to elderly care. Because when we say "family", most of the time, it is daughters who end up caring for ageing parents.

As much as filial piety is a valued and important virtue in our Asian society, it should not come at the expense of one's old-age financial adequacy. Mothers and daughters who care for children and elderly parents are facing poverty in their old age. As Minister of State Gan Siow Huang previously shared, women lose an average of eight years of career and income, often when their careers can be peaking after their thirties, due to familial care. For women who are in low-wage work, livelihoods can be lost for years, alongside with opportunity cost in CPF savings.

Of course, the profile of those impacted by familial care is not homogeneous and there are also men whose jobs and careers are impacted by care-giving. There are also men who are single fathers sandwiched between eldercare and childcare as their parents age.

So, we need differentiated policies for low-wage care-givers and those from higher income groups.

For low-wage care-givers, I implore MOM and MSF to do a joint study on the recipients of long-term ComCare to examine how many recipients become reliant on financial assistance in their old age due to care-giving obligations in their younger years which kept them from participating in the labour force.

The research will help us to project any trends into the future to better understand the reality of our ageing society on low-wage individuals. We need to take a more data-driven approach towards ensuring better retirement adequacy for the low-wage and sandwiched generation of care-givers and to assess whether a basic income for stay-home care-givers might be a viable and dignified way to distribute social support.

The savings reaped from reducing the need for institutionalised care for seniors, if transferred into basic income for stay-home care-givers, could help to save on long-term ComCare spending.

Through a basic income for care-givers, the narrative for their old-age financial dependency is shifted from "I am old and useless and dependent on welfare to feed me" to a dignified self-perception of "I am valued for the care that I provide and provided". This goes a long way to instill self-worth in those who provide care for better mental health, dignity and self-esteem as they age.

As I previously proposed, a "Carefare Income Supplement" will go a long way to support stay-home care-givers, affirming that they play a valued and important role and are not just "calefare" in our society, excuse the pun. Carefare is a way to ensure dignified ageing for low-wage care-givers.

As for PMEs earning higher incomes who also struggle with juggling familial care and work, I would like to suggest simplifying childcare and eldercare into a general family care leave. This family care leave will ensure that both married people and single people will have leave they can use for any family emergency. Such simplification will also enhance the momentum by corporates to offer more autonomy to employees in how they manage their time, improving workplace satisfaction and also morale.

My hon colleague, Member Ng Ling Ling, spoke about getting AIC involved in the alliance of workplace improvements. To prevent abuse of family care leave, we can require employees to register themselves as primary care-givers to their family members with AIC and allow firms to log leave utilisation on the same platform to qualify, perhaps, for Government incentives. Incentivising firms through corporate tax reliefs for family care utilisation may be one way to encourage more progressive workplace policies, leading to higher job satisfaction for employees and better mental wellbeing, which are both helpful for increasing productivity.

I urge MOM, MOF, MOH and NPTD to consider these solutions together so that there is concerted effort to achieve our shared goal of a society made for families.

The Chairman: Mr Louis Ng, if you would like to take all your three cuts together, please do.

Parent-care Leave for Ageing Population

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang (Nee Soon): Sir, it has been more than nine years since we introduced parent-care leave in the Civil Service. We should legislate the same leave for all other workers.

We need to remember that this is especially important for essential workers who are unable to work from home. We also need to remember we have an ageing population and more and more of us will need time to look after our parents.

We are a family-friendly employer. Now we need to be a familyfriendly Government. We should introduce parent-care leave for all employees.

Legislate the Right to Work from Home

COVID-19 has shown that work from home is possible. Many employers I spoke to said that they are willing to allow employees to work from home if the Government legislates this. I am not asking for employees to be forced to work from home. I understand that it is not possible for some lines of work. Some employees may also not want to. Instead, I am asking for employees who can work at home to be allowed to work from home if they wish to.

We should also allow employers to reject such requests for business related reasons. Will MOM look into legislating the right to work from home?

Disallow Questions on Salary History

Many employees feel they are paid lower than they deserve because their employer mandated them to disclose their salary history. Last year, I shared in this House that a ban on salary history disclosures has helped close the gender wage gap in California. Minister Josephine said that MOM would look at this study.

I am happy to share that new research further supports that earlier study. In June 2020, researchers at Boston University found that salary history bans in the US led to employers increasing wages for all workers, but especially for women and some racial minorities. I quote, “Salary histories appear to account for much of the persistence of residual wage gaps.”

Has the Ministry reviewed these studies and whether the declaration of last drawn salary contributes to the gender wage gap here in Singapore? Will MOM consider banning questions on salary histories?

The Chairman: Deputy Leader, would you like to report progress?