Committee of Supply – Head S (Ministry of Manpower)

Workforce for New Economy

4.15 pm

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

COVID-19 precipitated sudden and pervasive changes to how we work, why we work and what we want at work. Our manpower policies must adjust dynamically to such structural changes.

The Singapore workforce and the manpower policy system that supports the workforce are core national assets. Without our world-class workforce, companies would not invest more and there would be no continued creation of good jobs. It is a critical pillar to Singapore's success. Businesses and investors, both local and overseas, watch our manpower policies closely for the same reason.

It requires years of building, innovating and fine-tuning this system. It is inherently complex, balancing sometimes diametrically opposite intentions and expectations.

For example, we need to strengthen our Singaporean Core, but not lose access to talent needed for Singapore to be competitive. We need to create good work opportunities for our locals without starving businesses of the manpower to grow and survive. We must grow our economic pie but not weaken our compact with workers.

I will speak on structural changes from COVID-19 and how we need to respond to survive and thrive in the new world order while navigating difficult policy tensions.

Digital and technological changes driven by COVID-19 have created many jobs, but also destroyed many others. We can no longer take sustained full-time employment for granted. The rapid growth of platforms or marketplace work has created a much bigger group of gig or contract workers and these workers do not have mandated CPF contributions. Workers are likely to not stay in full-time or traditional employment for as long as before.

How can the Ministry continue to safeguard the retirement adequacy of our workers amidst such structural changes?

Workers might not be accumulating CPF savings consistently or there might be disruptions to building up their retirement nest when they do gig or contract work. It is tempting to ask for flexibility in withdrawals to make up for lost income. But this comes at the expense of retirement adequacy.

The complexity deepens with a volatile investment climate. With increasing investment uncertainty, how can the CPF Board still ensure good returns for our workers?

There has also been a pervasive shift towards greater focus on skills rather than jobs. This was precipitated by a global marketplace where skills rather than occupations or academic qualifications reap ever higher economic rent. This trend will only intensify.

There are three implications. First, our foreign manpower system must gradually pivot to accord greater weightage to skills when giving out work passes. This strengthens complementarity with our local workforce.

Second, how do we employ artificial intelligence (AI) in our work pass system to identify skills and bring in foreign manpower that creates better value for Singapore?

Third, for employers, it is more relevant and intuitive to hire based on skills rather than job titles or school qualifications. But the default is still rather traditional, relying on the presumed hiring certainty of job titles. How can the Ministry help businesses to develop a new dimension in hiring and rewarding for skills?

Next, on the "Great Resignation". Since the early part of 2021, the developed world has seen resignation of workers en masse. COVID-19 has stretched on long enough for workers to re-examine their careers, working conditions, reward system and purpose.

This was particularly stark amongst the younger workers. Many were as concerned about their work prospects as they are about wellness. Their definition of success has changed. The perhaps already archaic 5Cs that were once deemed as the Singaporean dream is now overtaken by other non-traditional aggregators of success, such as work-life balance and purposeful careers, aligned to their passions and aspirations.

This has far-reaching consequences for the workforce and workplace.

First, the importance of wellness as a capability within the workplace. Over the years, there are decreasing numbers of jobs that pose physical harm and safety worries as Singapore develops into a service and higher technology economy. However, mental stress hits all of us, regardless of industries.

Globally, companies have introduced well-being programmes in the wake of the pandemic. These programmes help employees with mental health and physical health. The improvements in personal outcomes have a direct impact on productivity and retention.

Wellness goes beyond just providing yoga classes during lunchtime. A well-designed employee wellness framework looks at mental health education, work practices aligned to creating a safe and empowering environment.

We certainly neither envisage legislating wellness within the Workmen Injury Compensation Act, nor is it wise to do so at this point without understanding the issue better.

In Sweden, there is a concept of fika. It roughly means drinking coffee, eating sweet or savoury pastries and chatting with co-workers. There is even a sequence to doing fika. One starts with cinnamon buns and ends with a princess cake.

Many companies have mandatory designated fika time. The Swedes see this as an essential part of managing work stress.

This is not to say that mandating fika or, in our context, "kopi breaks" is that panacea to our workplace issues. There is a bigger cultural and work construct to it and fika is possibly that symbolic reminder of the need for work-life balance. The takeaway is that we can no longer treat employee mental wellness as just another good-to-have if we want to deal with changing workplace demands. Bigger and bolder moves are needed.

Second, the bliss or curse of the hybrid workplace. Some workers like it, others detest it but nearly all can see the value of working from home.

COVID-19 forced most companies to have their workers to work from home but few have well-developed hybrid workplace policies. Thus, work time and place become increasingly and agonisingly blurred. Where it was the flexible work arrangement that workers have been craving for years, it is now a bane, especially for younger workers.

The solution is also not to bring all workers back to the office. Workers have experienced the savings from commuting and employers do save from office rental. What we need is to establish a national common code of practices so that workers and employers have a common understanding on how to make hybrid workplaces work.

According to a 2021 CNBC/SurveyMonkey Workforce Survey, nearly 80% of workers want to work for a company that values diversity, equity and inclusion. This might not fully reflect the situation in Singapore but there is clearly a greater desire amongst younger workers for similar aims. Workers increasingly want their companies to take a position on such matters.

Last year, we made a big stride in signaling our intention to enshrine the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices into law. This is a clear signal that Singapore does not tolerate discrimination in workplaces. This move underpins a whole-of-nation desire for greater inclusivity. Can the Ministry provide us with an update on this move?

While the law provides for minimal standards, we need to push the front end of the charge for greater inclusivity. We need to look into establishing public indices, so that companies can benchmark their progress. This can provide for broader and faster progress on the important issue of inclusivity.

Next, going green is no longer a tagline but a real driver of change in the workforce. The green economy will be a key driver in the global economy. We have the Green Plan 2030 to advance our pursuit of sustainable development. We must now prepare our workers to make the transition into the green economy.

Some jobs in the petrochemical sector might, indeed, be lost. Other opportunities might take their place. Can the Ministry outline its plans to prepare our workers to transition into the green economy?

The proliferation of remote working has shrunk the global workplace into one global connected office. Physical presence at the workplace is not tied to productivity. During the deepest of COVID-19, many companies have started sourcing services from overseas for work that used to be done here in Singapore. Remote working has allowed them to capitalise on global talent pools while saving costs and even rental costs of office spaces.

While this means that the workforce is now presented with global opportunities, the converse is also true. Our workforce now faces greater competition, competing for jobs with counterparts from across the globe.

How will the Ministry continue to ensure that the Singaporean workforce remains a strong value proposition for their businesses, especially that of multinational companies (MNCs)?

Building a robust and dynamic workforce and policy system is a multi-year effort. There can be short-term adjustment issues.

For example, implementing an increase in minimum qualifying salaries for work passes can, indeed, result in some work pass holders getting a bump in wages. But adjustment to dependency ratios and the longer run signals will help locals get better wages and a higher quality foreign workforce. Therefore, we must be careful not to avoid longer-range changes because of shorter-term pains.

As we debate the cuts, we must be mindful of the strategic imperatives in building a great workforce and the inherent policy tensions. With this, Mr Chairman, I beg to move.

Question proposed.

Foreign Workforce Complementarity

Mr Liang Eng Hwa (Bukit Panjang): Sir, the joint NTUC and SNEF PME Taskforce recommended a points system for Employment Pass (EP) applications which factors in whether the employer has been hiring and developing local workers and the diversity of nationalities within the company. The Minister for Finance also mentioned in his Budget Statement speech that beyond qualifying salary, MOM will assess EP applications on the basis of complementarity and the diversity of our foreign workforce.

Can I ask: what is MOM's assessment of whether a points system will be useful in improving the complementarity of the local and foreign workforces?

If, indeed, we are going on this approach, can the Minister share details on the basis of determining complementarity and how the system will be administered? Is this approach of assessing applications expected to lead to a higher total number of EPs issued and whether could it also lead to a situation where an employer who can find a local hire but choose to hire an EP instead, because the company is able to meet the complementarity and diversity criteria? Would it go against the spirit of this proposal?

Foreign Workforce

Mr Yip Hon Weng (Yio Chu Kang): Mr Chairman, businesses continue to face a challenging operating environment. Operational costs are going up with the upcoming increase in GST, carbon tax and foreign worker levies. Border restrictions have led to some foreign talent leaving the country and not returning.

There is an urgent need to review our strategies concerning the hiring and retention of foreign talent.

The competition for talent at the high-end is global. In 2021, 69% of companies globally reported talent shortages. By 2030, the global talent crunch is estimated to reach 85 million people.

This translates into a potential loss of trillions of dollars in economic opportunity for companies. For Singapore, the loss is estimated to go up to $143 billion. Knowledge-intensive industries, like financial services, technology, media and telecommunications and manufacturing are expected to take the hardest hit.

We need a framework that gives more certainty to companies for manpower planning. But the bigger question is, how do we overcome our talent crunch, be very selective and attract the cream of the crop to come here?

As we are also extensively upskilling local workers to reduce the skills gap, we should only aim to attract the best from overseas to complement the local workforce.

How do we determine what is the best, compared to the mediocre? How can we attract the next Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk to contribute their expertise to Singapore? What will it take to build the next Amazon, Facebook or Tesla here? What are our strategies to do so, as we come out of COVID-19?

Amongst talent hiring strategies shared by industry experts, many of them have to do with the hiring process itself and human resource management.

Will the Human Resources (HR) Industry Manpower Plan take this into consideration and help our HR practitioners to develop better hiring and talent management practices?

4.30 pm

Definition of Complementarity

Mr Cheng Hsing Yao (Nominated Member): Chairman, Sir, some have said that certain economic or social sectors are over-reliant on foreign workers, for example, in retail, F&B, construction and healthcare amongst others. This implies that at least some companies or organisations in these sectors are unwilling to change, slow to adopt technologies and redesign jobs to make them attractive to Singaporeans. When I look at these sectors, I see potential for process and production redesigned to increase productivity.

However, the delivery of their products and services also encompasses a particular type of work, the type which requires dexterity and eye–hand–leg coordination. This type of work is difficult to be replaced or designed in a way, not until mobile robotics are advanced and economical enough to be widely deployed.

Most of these jobs may not qualify as complementary because they can, theoretically, be done by Singaporeans. Meanwhile, we may not have enough Singaporeans interested in such jobs, especially when other economic sectors are also competing for Singaporeans to join them. We also demand more from these sectors. For example, we want better service at retail and F&B shops, more BTO flats, more MRT lines and stations closer to homes and more help to care for our young, our old and the sick.

I understand the objective of tightening access to foreign labour is to drive companies and operators to improve productivity. However, there may be scope for a more differentiated approach. I would like to suggest we work with the various industries to quantify, from bottom-up, how much improvement in productivity can really be achieved. So, we roughly know what is an achievable target, what is a stretch target, within a certain timeframe.

Can MOM consider a deeper dive into the nature of the work of various economic or social sectors that we are trying to drive higher productivity and differentiate them into two categories? One, jobs that can be significantly reduced through job redesign and use of technology. Two, the dexterous and eye–hand–leg coordination type of jobs that cannot be easily replaced by automation or process redesign. Following that, a set of differentiated and more targeted policies can be applied.

Singaporean Core

Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan (Pioneer): To safeguard our Singaporean Core and curb discriminatory hiring, we must ensure that our Singaporean Professionals, Managers and Executives (PMEs) have access to a level playing field for jobs while, at the same time, balance companies' manpower needs in the immediate and longer term. I am glad to note the upward revision of the Employment Pass (EP) and S Pass qualifying salaries announced during the Budget Statement 2022. However, this alone is inadequate. I am glad that we are looking at introducing workplace fairness legislation to weed out all forms of discrimination, including nationality discrimination.

Today, the eligibility criteria for EP focuses largely on the applicant's educational qualifications and salary. I look forward to MOM taking into consideration the NTUC-SNEF PME Taskforce's recommendation to further enhance the EP application process and include a points system which factors in, first, sectoral input; second, whether the employer has been hiring and developing local workers; and third, the diversity of nationalities within the companies, including seeking inputs from the tripartite partners, which is NTUC.

In the same vein, I hope MOM can provide an update on the effectiveness of the Fair Consideration Framework; the work of TAFEP and the drive to weed out the triple weak companies; and refinements of the various tripartite standards and guidelines so that we can build upon all these various initiatives and policy measures and further strengthen our Singaporean Core.

The Chairman: Ms Sylvia Lim. Not here. Mr Patrick Tay.

Review of CPF Wage Ceiling

Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan: The last time when CPF contribution wage ceiling was raised from $5,000 to $6,000 was six years ago on 1 January 2016. With rising wages, especially of our PMEs and the Government's commitment during the last round of review to realign the salary ceiling to cover wages up to the 80th percentile of resident incomes, I wish to ask the Minister if MOM will consider a review of this contribution wage ceiling to ensure it keeps pace with income growth over the years? This will allow CPF savings to be tagged to real wage growth, and it is also one way to improve retirement adequacy for Singaporean workers, especially the PMEs.

Use of CPF Funds for Housing

Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song (Aljunied): Sir, many residents have approached me for help to appeal to CPF to allow more flexible use of their CPF for housing. Some elderly residents have insufficient cash to complete the purchase of their 2-room Flexi flats because their CPF Ordinary Account (OA) monies are automatically transferred to the retirement account upon turning 55.

As home loans are not available for Flexi flats, the purchase of a $100,000 flat is often a strain on their cash flow. Can I request that CPF Retirement Account (RA) funds which originated from their OA be allowed to be used for the purchase of 2-room Flexi flats by default as long as the CPF member's RA balance is above the Basic Retirement Sum (BRS).

There should be a simple and clearly stated application process for this. For those whose RA funds for below the BRS. I hold CPF can exercise greater flexibility so that elderly residents are not denied a Flexi flat despite large balances in their CPF funds.

For the payment of the resale levy, can CPF consider allowing applicants who have sufficient funds in their RA or SA to take out an advance from one of these accounts which must be returned with interest within a few years. The applicant could be required to show income documents to prove that they are able to return them amount drawn. This could smoothen the cash flow problem that might be preventing them from completing the purchase of their home, while ensuring they do not prematurely exhaust their retirement funds. It will not just elderly flat buyers but also divorcees who have to sell the matrimonial flat and have only half the proceeds to buy a new flat.

Enhancing CPF Returns

Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis (Sengkang): Chairman, while CPF has maintained its interest rates at a point where it preserves purchasing power and guards against long-run inflation, the longer time horizons that retirement presents mean that expected increases in longevity and higher retirement income needs should give additional motivation to empower CPF members to enhance their returns when able. And it is, indeed, true that, generally, long-term investments with some risk should provide higher expected returns than the CPF interest rates.

We know that 75% of CPF Investment Scheme (CPFIS) OA members have earned some form of profits as of FY2020, but only 645,000 members are part of the CPFIS. This is a mere 16% of the over four million total CPF members as of 2021. There could be many who may wish to see their CPF returns do better than the interest rates offered by CPF but are not confident enough or knowledgeable in the financial markets to buy into the CPFIS.

Moreover, while the world has been moving toward ETFs as an investment product, the available number of ETFs available under the CPFIS is a grand total of six. Many of the global ETFs such as those listed in the US, have total expense ratios which are lower than ETFs and Unit Trusts here in Singapore. As a start, can more passively managed ETFs be made available for Singaporeans?

I note from my cut last year, then-Minister for Manpower shared that the Ministry had still been studying if a CPF Lifetime Retirement Investment Scheme (LRIS) can be introduced to help such members who have the risk appetite and investment horizon but not enough investment knowledge. However, the Ministry is updating planning assumptions to strike the right balance between risk and return. I would like to seek an update if the Ministry has finished work on this front, as it has been close to six years since August 2016 when the plans were first announced. Is there a more concrete timetable that can be shared?

Finally, I would like to make an observation that GIC's 20-year returns have been consistently above the 2.5% interest rate offered to CPF-OA. Should the average Singaporean get access to the diversified investment portfolio of GIC, CPF members could reach retirement adequacy in a way that minimises the risk of short-term market volatility and protect their purchasing power against not just local inflation, but global inflation as well.

The Chairman: Prof Hoon Hian Teck. Not here. Ms He Ting Ru. Not here. Mr Dennis Tan.

Fossil Fuel Industry

Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong (Hougang): Extending from my Budget debate speech earlier this week, I wish to highlight the need for a Just Transition for the manpower currently within the petrochemicals industry, otherwise known as the energy and chemicals industry. While Singapore is accelerating the green transition, we must not forget that there are around 27,000 people working in the sector, a majority in their 30s and 40s. With an increasing resistance to working within this space, we may be losing sight of the forest for the trees as we do require petrochemicals, albeit at a reduced level, as we transition to a green economy and society.

This does also mean that many in the sector may be at risk of losing their jobs in the near to medium-term. Those who remain in the fossil fuel industry may find some of their jobs fundamentally changed to fit the greening economy. Many workers in the field should be looking to make mid-career switches into the green economy. But how can we integrate a Just Transition in this sector then, so that no one is left behind?

This requires buy-in not just from the Government, but from companies which are invested in the green transition. Shell announced in November 2021 that it is halving its crude processing capacity at its Singapore hub and reducing fuel exports as it transits from fossil fuels to cut emissions and meet global low-carbon energy needs. How will such industrial developments in our petrochemical industry affect existing employment?

For a start, I hope that both the employers and the Government will work to ensure that as many existing workers as possible can be retrained and converted to new positions under new green ventures within the organisations.

Next, at this point in time, our aggregate level of green skills level may not be sufficient. LinkedIn published its first-ever report on the state of the green economy in a Global Green Skills Report on 22 February, which noted that Singapore ranks 24th out of the top 25 countries in terms of relative green skill intensity, lower than the global average.

Therefore, it is not enough to emphasise on skills and competencies to incorporate into Singapore's education curriculum. Our workers in the industry must develop the ability to think at a systems level, to have grit and resilience in order to transit and compete in the global green economy and ready with global talent.

I, therefore, ask the Minister for Manpower to give more specifics on transitioning our workers in the fossil fuel industry towards jobs within the green economy. How will Career Conversion Programmes being offered by Workforce Singapore (WSG) be augmented to reskill existing workers or train new hires in the sustainability sector? Will more Continuing Education and Training (CET) courses be jointly developed by NEA together with industry and partner stakeholders and offered by Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs), such as Polytechnics and ITEs? How will they plan to reach the individuals working within the industry to ensure that they are ready for the transition? How will the Ministry collaborate with the companies within this sector to provide the necessary information for their employees in this green transition?

I, therefore, ask the Minister to give an update on how MOM intends to keep a domestic talent pipeline for the petrochemical segments where petrochemicals are still envisioned to be used in the green future.

The Chairman: Miss Cheng Li Hui. Not here. Ms Hazel Poa.

Gig and Lower-income Workers

Ms Hazel Poa (Non-Constituency Member): Mr Chairman, CPF is our main social safety net. It can be used for housing, healthcare education and retirement income. Self-employed persons do not have the benefit of employer CPF contributions. Their housing and retirement adequacy are areas of concern.

About a third of the 228,000 self-employed persons (SEPs) work for platform companies that assigned delivery or transportation work to them. The UK Supreme Court decided to classify them as workers, a category between employees and self-employed, with some benefits like paid leave and pensions.

These gig or platform workers often engage in physically strenuous work with low entry barriers and they also tend to earn less. The median monthly income of resident employees in 2018 was $4,000 for permanent employees, but only $1,322 for gig workers. Furthermore, delivery or transportation jobs have a high chance of being replaced by machines with advancements in technology in the not-too-distant future. Researchers in Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) warned of platform workers being caught in a poverty trap.

The Advisory Committee on Platform Workers was set up six months ago, to look into better protection for platform workers. Can MOM provide an update on the progress of the committee and when we can expect the committee to make public its recommendations?

4.45 pm

In addition, I would like to seek further information from MOM: what is the latest number of platform workers? What is their median age? How many are unable to meet the basic retirement sum (BRS) now? For those who are unable to meet the BRS, what is their average CPF savings? How many are making CPF contributions voluntarily? How many have recently completed or are currently attending SkillsFuture courses to upgrade their skills?

I would also like to provide two suggestions.

The lack of CPF savings is a major concern. To encourage platform workers to make voluntary CPF contributions, can MOM consider a special scheme to allow them to voluntarily contribute CPF and withdraw their voluntary contributions on demand?

The income of gig workers is not stable. Due to this volatility, it is important to keep cash on hand. Gig workers are understandably hesitant about making voluntary CPF contributions over fears that when they need that money, they cannot access it. If, however, they have the flexibility to withdraw these contributions when needed, they would be incentivised to contribute CPF to benefit from the higher interest rates offered by CPFB, as salaried employees do.

My second suggestion is on training. According to Grab, and I quote, "Around 70% of our partners have expressed interest in attending training and skills development programmes to improve in their current role, while two-thirds of our partners hope to leverage skills gained to transit into other career fields."

Do platform companies have to pay SDF for their platform workers? If not, can MOM consider making platform companies contribute SDF and use these funds to give extra training support to platform workers? In Mandarin, please.

(In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] CPF is our main social safety net. It can be used for housing, healthcare, education and retirement. CPF inadequacy among platform workers is one area of concern.

These gig workers or platform workers often engage in manual labour and usually have lower income. In addition, delivery and transport jobs may be replaced by machines in the near future.

In this regard, I have two suggestions.

In order to encourage platform workers to make voluntary CPF contributions, will MOM consider a special scheme that allows them to withdraw their voluntary CPF contributions at any time?

The income of platform workers is unstable. If they have the flexibility to withdraw their CPF in times of need, they may have less concerns. Meanwhile, they will also enjoy higher CPF interest, like other employees.

My second suggestion is for MOM to consider requiring platform companies to contribute to the SDF, so as to provide additional training support to platform workers.

Flexible Work Arrangements (FWAs) and a Four-day Work Week

Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis: Chairman, last year, I spoke in this House about the importance of FWAs and called upon the Government to lead the adoption of FWAs. In the past two years, COVID-19 has drastically changed the way we work, but as we start to get back on track to living with COVID-19, there is considerable anxiousness and concern that the gains we have made on FWAs could be lost.

The Public Service Division (PSD) has introduced FWAs, but I read with grave concern the Government's stance that hybrid work is not an entitlement, and that the requirements of the job take precedence. I am concerned that the signalling from PSD may roll back such efforts in the private sector as well.

Research shows that FWAs bring various economic benefits, including increased productivity and innovation, better employee morale, as well as attracting more talent. For employees, this can also bring improved work-life balance and mental health.

In response to my Parliamentary Question in February, Minister Chan Chun Sing noted that some 60% of the Civil Service is in frontline functions, such as schools or the uniformed services agencies, which are not suited to be performed from home on a sustained basis. However, where operationally feasible, Public Service agencies can exercise flexibility and discuss FWAs with these officers.

To me, the starting point has to be that FWAs are an obligation on the part of employers, and, thereafter, discussions can be made on how these can be tailored to individual job circumstances.

A related point on FWAs is the idea of a four-day work week. I shared in a speech last year the benefits that this could bring. Since then, the UK has also announced a four-day work week pilot. As shared by the director of the four-day work week campaign in the UK, similar programmes are set to start in the US and Ireland, with more planned for Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Many companies and governments have already started to implement FWAs and four-day work weeks. For example, the Victorian state government has made flexible work available by default to all employees since 2021, focusing on service delivery outcomes, as well as employee support and well-being. Finland's Working Hours Act, first passed in 1996, was updated to give employees flexibility to shorten or extend their workday by up to four hours. Closer to home, local banks, such as UOB and DBS, have also instituted permanent FWAs.

I ask that the Government demonstrate a commitment to this new way of work and maintaining the attractiveness of Singapore as a place to work. I hope the Government will take decisive steps to increase the adoption of FWAs, through legislating a baseline level of flexible work, conducting four-day work week pilots and allowing the Public Service a leadership role to implement more FWAs.

Our Workforce of the Future

Ms Janet Ang (Nominated Member): Mr Chairman, Dylan D'Souza was a COVID-19 graduate. Not being able to secure a long-term job, Dylan decided to take up the SGUnited Skills Programme at NUS-ISS in December 2020. After the six-month full-time Train and Place Programme, during which he was attached to AXA, Dylan successfully contracted to continue at AXA as a data specialist.

Mr Chairman, the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package has supported thousands of Singaporeans like Dylan in several hundreds of companies during the pandemic. It was a big deal for the industry.

Meanwhile, as the economy recovers, human resources are the great challenge ahead. I have time to only touch briefly on three points and I hope you will not buzz me.

One: Singapore being open to global talent is not an option. There are two truths: one, there are simply not enough Singaporeans to do all the jobs that are needed to be done; and two, in fact, our ability to attract the best global talents to work here and complement our local workforce has been a Singapore competitive advantage.

I did speak in Parliament about holding our businesses accountable to Fair Practices in the Workplace (FPW).

I hear from the Singapore Human Resource Institute that companies, especially the MNCs, are committed and some have set up a HR compliance unit to ensure FPWs. Ideally, fair practices in the workplace should not just be about compliance but an intentional commitment by employers to renew their social compact with their Singapore employees, a key stakeholder.

As for us, the Singapore workers, let us continue to work hard to create value in our roles, to get reskilled to stay relevant, embrace change, think, innovate and adapt and, most of all, act with integrity, responsibility and respect. We ought to be the difference why companies invest in Singapore.

My second point: FWAs to attract, retain, diversify and include. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in work from home becoming the norm. As we shift gears to live with COVID-19, it is a great opportunity for companies to rethink the workplace of the future for their workforce. I think that is not just simply about working from home, but having the choice of flexi-work arrangements. With flexibility, I believe that more women, more persons with disability and more seniors can choose to work.

My third point: will AI take away jobs? I would like to suggest that if robots or AI can replace work that humans used to do, humans would be more than happy to have those tasks automated away. We have seen many examples from our lived experience. AI systems should augment work and, in fact, that is actually urgently needed so that the work that needs the human touch, the service quality, the intuition or compassion will have enough people to do them.

However, trust and understanding are critical and we need as much communication and education in this space, as we need innovation.

Can the Minister give us an update on the progress of the tripartite guidelines being written into law? Can the Minister update us if MOM will be advocating and, therefore, supporting companies to move forward with FWAs?

Can the Minister also update if the Public Service will take the lead and how will the Public Service take the lead to build AI systems to solve part of the manpower challenge?

Let me close with the story of Bin Rong, a lighting technician, whose role was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. He applied for the NUS-ISS Professional Conversion Programme in Full Stack Development and was matched with Works Application Company Limited. This training enabled Bin Rong to successfully transition into a new profession as a software engineer.

As Singaporeans, we should be proud and heartened to know that our Singapore Budget supports Singaporeans like Dylan and Bin Long, one person at a time.

The Chairman: I did not buzz you, but please try to keep your speeches shorter next time, Ms Ang. Thank you.

Ms Janet Ang: Yes, Sir.

The Chairman: Mr Liang Eng Hwa.

SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package

Mr Liang Eng Hwa: Sir, credit to the hardworking team of the MOM family, past and present, we have made great progress in improving the employability, employment and well-being of our workers in the last decade.

However, one segment of workers where their employability and employment continue to face steep challenges is that of the mid-career jobseekers, those in their 40s and 50s. They are most vulnerable to disruptions and restructuring at the workplace. It is a more uphill task for anyone in the middle of their careers to reskill for new jobs. Hence, we need to intensify support and encourage continuous learning.

But, of course, there are some who face age discrimination, biasness by their employers and that, we will address it through TAFEP as well as workplace fairness legislation.

We already have a range of support measures to help mid-career workers. So, can I ask the Minister for an update on the outcomes of these schemes so far?

I welcome another new scheme that was announced by the Finance Minister, namely, the SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways Programme – Company Attachment. Securing attachments to companies for these mid-career jobseekers can be a good way to help overcome the skills or experience mismatch issues. Can the Minister share the details how this scheme would work and does he anticipate any difficulties?

Also, can I ask the Minister to share the details on the SkillsFuture Career Transition Programme which would be enhanced to achieve better outcomes?

Local Workforce

Mr Yip Hon Weng: Mr Chairman, I am glad to hear that the Jobs Growth Incentive (JGI) has been extended to September 2022. To a certain extent, it has helped to encourage employers to retain local staff and expand local hiring.

But this will be a mere stop-gap measure when the JGI ends, if there is no mindset change towards employing seniors. What other measures are we taking to improve the employment of seniors? Can we set specific targets with regard to senior employment rate in the growth industries?

Some of Britain's biggest companies recognise the importance and value of senior workers and had, on their own accord, set targets and plans to increase the number of over-50s they employ by 2022. The American Association of Retired Persons has an Employment Pledge Programme to recognise companies that are committed to hiring persons aged 50 and above.

We must do more to identify the companies that are age-diverse, and work on expanding this group.

On the new SkillsFuture Career Transition Programme, which will replace the SGUnited Skills Programme and the SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways Programme, can the Ministry elaborate on which industries will it focus on and how long will the training be for?

Extend SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package

Miss Rachel Ong (West Coast): Chairman, mid-career workers were some of the most affected groups due to the pandemic season. Many experienced loss of jobs and great challenges in being hired over younger workers, despite their wealth of working experience. Some of these mid-career workers are women returning to the workforce after choosing to dedicate their time to the formative years of their children's lives. For these, the pandemic made their re-entry into the workforce more challenging.

WSG's SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways Programme introduced in 2020 provides many benefits for the mid-career worker. Apart from learning skills with income supplementation, the attachments and traineeships allow for immersive real-world practice that sets in context their new knowledge. This is particularly valuable for women returning to work in adjusting to the workplace environment that would have changed in their years away from the workforce.

However, one key challenge that many of the mid-career individuals face in embarking on this journey is the exploration phase and eventually deciding on the alternative career pathway to choose. We understand from Executive Career Coaching workshops for PMEs that one of the most important attributes to equip our mid-career workers with is in confidence – confidence for the next phase of their lives.

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Often, one is unsure of his or her employability in the market, especially if they have only been in one particular role for an extended time. As such, helping mid-career PMEs understand their transferable skills from past experiences, interests, what energises them will allow them to identify their transferable skills and understand the value they bring to their next role.

This also accords a more holistic assessment of the individual and builds their confidence for the job search.

One career coachee, a tech support specialist for 23 years in the same company, was informed in November 2020 that his company was closing their operations and that he would be retrenched by the following April. He was turning 50 that year and was the sole breadwinner for his wife and two school-going children. He was very concerned about his employability at the age of 50 and expected not to be employed for a long time after retrenchment.

Through the career coaching he received, he was able to discover his skills and recognise areas he could contribute to the current job market and built his LinkedIn profile accordingly. He was headhunted shortly via LinkedIn as an Automation Engineer and was able to start work immediately after retrenchment. His story has encouraged many.

I believe that if we were to invest more time helping our workers discover transferable skills and strengths they have for the current job market prior to the start of their mid-career pathway programme, they will see greater opportunities for selecting a pathway programme that they can flourish in.

I would like to ask the Government how this programme looks like beyond March 2022 under the new scheme SkillsFuture Transition Programme and what specific updates there would be in the enhanced pre-training and post-training support, especially for the mature worker segment.

Business Transformation

Mr Sharael Taha (Pasir Ris-Punggol): Chairman, in the Budget, $100 million has been set aside to support NTUC to scale up the Company Training Committees (CTCs) and introduce new grants to support company transformation plans. What is the resource to support this and how will NTUC work with CTC to render the transformation support?

Medical Leave for Contract Workers

Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song: Over the years, the length of service an employee must serve before qualifying for paid sick leave has been reviewed in Parliament. In 2008, the minimum qualifying period was reduced from six to three months, with the entitlement adjusted on a pro-rated basis. This was in response to an increase in short-term employment contracts.

Since these legislative amendments, short-term employment contracts have become even more commonplace. In 2021, 8.4% of the workforce was on fixed-term contracts, up from 7.7% in 2009. The percentage of workers on contracts of less than one year has also seen an upward trend. Many workers find themselves transferred to new employers without even changing their jobs. This happens when their previous employer loses a cleaning or building maintenance contract and they are transferred to the new contractor. When this happens, they are treated as a new employee requiring them to forgo paid sick leave for the first three months of the new contract.

I wish to propose that legislation be amended to allow workers who complete one month of service to be entitled to two days of paid sick leave, eight days of hospitalisation leave. This could increase to four days and 10 days, respectively, after the completion of two months of service.

Concurrently, to protect the interests of employers, tax reliefs and public recognition could be extended to employers who implement these more progressive paid sick leave arrangements. This also complements the Government's stance of encouraging workers to isolate themselves and seek medical attention if they feel unwell.

Increase Annual Leave Entitlement

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang (Nee Soon): Some say Singapore is the most fatigued country in the world. Working hard is important, but one cannot work hard without enough rest. Our minimum annual leave entitlement of seven days is not sufficient for many.

Many other countries provide a higher minimum entitlement, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Laos, Qatar, Iran, Japan, South Korea and lots more. Many not only have a higher number of minimum days of annual leave, but also provide a higher number of paid public holidays.

It is hard to see how raising the minimum entitlement will affect employability. Forty-seven percent of employees already get more than 14 days of annual leave. For many businesses which understand the importance of rest, nothing will change.

Lower-income workers whose jobs are labour-intensive, are likely the ones with the minimum entitlement. It is ironic that those who need the most rest have the least rest and also have no access to FWAs.

We work hard to increase the salaries of lower-income workers. We should also work hard to increase the time they have to rest.

The Chairman: Ms He Ting Ru. Not here. Mr Melvin Yong.

Workplace Safety and Health

Mr Melvin Yong Yik Chye (Radin Mas): Mr Chairman, 2021 saw 37 tragic workplace fatalities, a steep rise, compared to 30 fatalities in 2020. Every death at the workplace is avoidable and we must do all we can to stop them from happening.

What is the Ministry's plan to improve workplace safety for 2022 and beyond? As we move to relax broader safe management measures (SMMs), when can we lift cohorting rules at the worksite, so that workers at construction sites can cross zones and resume helping one another during high-risk work activities?

According to MOM's data, smaller construction firms – most of them sub-contractors – have a higher workplace fatality rate than bigger contractors. This begets the question – why are the good safety practices not being filtered down to the sub-contractors?

I propose that we hold developers and main contractors jointly liable for poor WSH practices of sub-contractors working on their sites.

Sir, the Return-to-Work Programme was launched in 2017 to help injured employees return to work after an accident.

Can the Ministry provide an update on how many workers have participated in the programme since its launch, and what is the success rate of placing the injured worker back to his workplace? Are there any lessons that we can learn from the programme in the past five years and does the Ministry have any plans to enhance the programme moving forward?

Sir, the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic has also placed a heavy toll on our workers' mental health, and I am glad that the Government has worked closely with the Labour Movement and has taken steps in the right direction to improve the mental resilience of our workforce.

However, there remain concerns on whether we are doing enough. For example, we need to pay more attention to the mental health of our lower-wage workers, who often find themselves on the stressful frontlines of our whole-of-nation response to the pandemic.

What are the Ministry's plans to improve the physical and mental well-being of our frontline workers, in particular, those in the lower-wage segments?

Lastly, research suggests that peer support systems are beneficial for the mental health of employees. Today, every company has a Safe Management Officer (SMO). Let us upskill all SMOs to become Work-Life Ambassadors, so that every company will have a representative to look after the work-life harmony of their workers and implement proper peer support systems customised to the individual companies.

Sick Leave

Ms Mariam Jaafar (Sembawang): Sir, COVID‐19-era protocols give new ideas for the future of work, from work from home to the dispensation of the need for a medical certificate (MC) when self‐isolating after a positive COVID-19 test. Will the Minister consider changes to the Employment Act to dispense of the need to produce an MC for paid sick leave of up to, say, three to five days out of the 14 days entitlement, being for COVID‐19?

Review of the Employment Act

Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan: The last round of Employment Act amendments was effective from 1 April 2019. In the past few years, fuelled by the COVID-19 pandemic and technological transformations, there have been accelerated changes and developments in our workforce, at work and in the workplaces. We had to issue a series of tripartite advisories to keep pace with the curveballs and demands of the new landscape, fuelled by the pandemic and technological developments.

Considering these developments, I think it is appropriate to review the Employment Act or related labour legislation again to better address the plethora of issues arising from gig work, workplace fairness, whistle-blowing, treatment of sick leave and MCs, grievance handling, workplace harassment and discrimination, hours of work and overtime work, hybrid work, leave classification and contractual termination of workers without giving of termination reasons.

Own Account Workers' Welfare and Protection

Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis: There is an increase in gig economy workers in recent years, but many are in a precarious position. This is something that the Government has taken note of.

Prime Minister Lee had spoken in his National Day Rally last year on how most gig workers earn only a modest income and they lack protections, such as work injury compensation and, of course, employer CPF contributions.

However, there have been arguments made on how, if changes are implemented, markets may be distorted resulting in consumers bearing the costs. This may be a false premise, however, as to the extent that the cost burden falls on more relatively better-off consumers who regularly utilise services provided by gig workers, such as food delivery and private hire transport, this could be beneficial from a societal point of view. After all, the benefits to gig workers discussed should outweigh the costs to relatively better-off consumers of a marginal increase in the price of food delivered to their door by a cyclist on a wet rainy day.

Since the UK Supreme Court ruling that Uber drivers should be treated as workers in February 2021, other jurisdictions have moved strongly on gig worker protections. The EU has proposed a test on how digital platforms manage gig workers. Malaysia is also looking into a need for gig worker regulations.

Hence, I would like to ask the Ministry if legislation will be introduced to protect the rights of gig workers and provide them with at least the minimum levels of benefits and protection and safety nets, such as insurance and work injury compensation.

Further, with effect from 1 September 2022, all companies which hire foreign workers will be required to pay all their local employees at least the local qualifying salary (LQS). While not named a minimum wage per se, this provides for local workers with, at least, the ability to earn a minimum of $1,400 per month. Gig economy workers today have no control over their earnings and are subject to the ever-tightening incentive schemes in order to barely make ends meet. Could efforts be done to ensure that they earn at least a fair wage, with reference to locals working part-time earning at least $9 per hour, as per the LQS?

The Chairman: Mr Abdul Samad. I thought I saw him. Is he around? No? Dr Shahira Abdullah.

Protection of Gig Workers

Dr Shahira Abdullah (Nominated Member): Chairman, I am heartened that at this Budget, the Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) will be expanded to help more workers. However, the payments depend on gig workers making MediSave contributions.

Considering that gig work income may be unpredictable, unstable and, sometimes, insufficient to support their household, they may be discouraged to contribute to MediSave due to more urgent, current needs.

Therefore, would the Ministry consider relaxing the MediSave requirements on a case-by-case basis to allow the gig workers who are struggling during this period of heightened inflation to benefit from WIS?

In future, though, with no mandatory contributions to CPF, there is a likelihood that their retirement preparations are affected. Moving forward, would the Ministry consider mandating or incentivising the gig workers and platform companies to make CPF and MediSave contributions?

The Progressive Wage Model (PWM) will also not cover these workers. Career progression with accompanying wage increases will be difficult. I am also concerned about the gig workers if accidents occur. They may have to pay for their own medical bills while being out of work.

Several platforms provide benefits and protection, in the form of sponsoring skills training courses and providing insurance, though not all. How can we assist the gig workers pivot to new careers? Will the Ministry consider including them in WICA so that the gig workers will have mandatory protection while doing their jobs?

Update on Advisory Committee on Platform Workers

Ms Yeo Wan Ling (Pasir Ris-Punggol): Since the beginning of the pandemic two years ago, concerns over the long-term viability of freelancing in our gig economy have been a major topic of discussion in our society. Our increased reliance on multiple segments of this economy, from ride-hailing to food delivery, has shone a spotlight on the plight of this particular group of platform workers – workers who are engaged with major platform companies to provide transport and delivery services.

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While there are platform workers who take on this job as a secondary source of income to supplement an already decent wage and quality of living, our main concern is for those whose sole source of income is from platform work. These workers resemble employees in a company, yet, due to their present status, are not afforded the protections and perks that employees enjoy. Under today's classifications, work injuries, which our delivery riders are more at risk of, will not be compensated on a national standardised level.

Employers' CPF contributions, which contribute to a significant portion to meeting requirement and housing needs, are also not provided. Furthermore, with limited prospects for wage progression and advancement, the present situation has led to deep concerns being raised over the lack of basic protection for our platform workers.

The matter at hand has been widely discussed in Parliament, and our Labour Movement has recognised these concerns, having taken steps to set up the National Delivery Champions Association in December 2020 and the National Private Hire Vehicles Association in May 2016. The Labour Movement, indeed, has been pushing for greater protection and representation and welfare benefits that platform workers should be entitled to.

While these efforts have been looked to to push the agenda forward, the Ministry has the ability to engender significant improvements in the prospects and livelihoods of these platform workers. It is with this in mind that we seek clarification on the findings and recommendations the Advisory Committee has to better protect the rights of these workers. In particular, we recognise the importance of having significant and sufficient CPF savings to meet basic needs. We seek clarification on how CPF will be shared between the platform and the workers.

Importance of Job Statistics

Mr Leong Mun Wai (Non-Constituency Member): Chairman, importance of job statistics. On 7 February 2022, MOM's rebuke of prominent blogger Leong Sze Hian's intuitive post last Christmas on job statistics highlighted the issue of job security for Singaporeans once again. Do foreign PMETs complement Singaporeans, or do they threaten to take over jobs from Singaporeans? The reality is: it is probably more of a threat. So, policy intervention is needed to rebalance the job market. This reality, however, is not obvious from MOM's job statistics. The basic problem lies in MOM's reluctance to present the employment data in individual categories of original citizens at the start of the statistical period, new Citizens and Permanent Residents (PRs). Instead, it has lumped all the figures into one category as locals. So, we do not have a clear picture of how policies have affected each category of people.

We have previously pointed out that while the Government has insisted that the 380,000 PME jobs created for locals between 2005 and 2020 have benefited Singaporeans, that is highly unlikely. This is because more than 635,000 new Citizens and PRs were added to the "locals" statistics during the same period. And most of the 380,000-job increase would have been because of that. In other words, the composition of the "locals" statistics in 2005 and those in 2020 are different, and most of the job increase is not a real increase. Hence, not enough jobs are created for the 250,000 fresh Singaporean University graduates who joined the job market from 2005 to 2020. We can estimate that there is a shortage of 100,000 to 150,000 PME jobs for Singaporeans in the last 20 years, not counting those who were demoted due to discrimination.

If it truly wants the foreigners to complement the Singaporean Core, then MOM must ensure that the Singaporean jobs are not being threatened. MOM should spend its time tackling this problem, rather than wasting time and resources trying to rebut Leong Sze Hian.

Support for Platform Workers

Mr Sharael Taha: Chairman, many of us have come across platform workers who are unable to save enough to purchase their own flats, or platform workers who are unwell or isolated and could not earn their daily wages. During this pandemic, platform workers who contracted COVID-19 were able to seek assistance from the Courage Fund. Beyond these one-off assistance schemes, our platform workers need more help to meet their retirement and housing needs and a baseline level of coverage for work injuries. Will MOM be able to provide an update on the discussions of the Advisory Committee on Platform Workers? How do we ensure that the platform operators are responsible for the well-being of their associates?

The Chairman: Mr Leon Perera, if you would like to take your two cuts together, please do.

Migrant Worker Movements

Mr Leon Perera (Aljunied): Yes, Chairman. First cut on easing movement restrictions on migrant workers in dormitories.

Sir, migrant workers have experienced movement restrictions for almost two years. While the December update allows up to 3,000 workers out daily, workers are often not able to go out on workdays. What is the Ministry's roadmap to ease restrictions? Can the Government explain specific criteria needed for the next round of easing, be it caseload, ICU usage and so on? The vaccination rate among dorm residents is 98% and that ought to be a consideration in easing movement restrictions.

Sir, the restrictions are taking their toll on the mental health of migrant workers and pose social risks. Experienced workers might prefer to go home, worsening the manpower shortage and making our economy haemorrhage experienced, more productive workers. We are suffering reputational damage in international news. Al Jazeera quoted one worker as saying: "I feel very sad about the difference in the lives between me and the rest of the people."

Chairman, there are practical reasons to ease restrictions, but it is also the decent thing to do.

Migrant Worker Retention and Productivity

Mr Chairman, Sir, there are economic benefits to retaining migrant workers in our economy who are familiar with Singapore and to increase their productivity, which would mean we need to employ fewer.

Currently, a Work Permit holder (WPH) can only transfer to a new job with employers' consent. An exception is the Retention Scheme, which gives eligible workers 30 days to match with a new employer. I support the thrust of this scheme, which is similar to what Workers' Party Members have called for. But it does not go far enough, as it does not apply to all WPHs. I call for it to be extended to all WPHs.

In addition, if their existing employer cancels their work permit through no fault of the worker, the worker should be allowed to stay in Singapore for 30 days to enable him to find a new employer, regardless of whether his employer consents. The worker will be responsible for his own food and lodging during this time. He can elect between joining the Retention Scheme, if eligible, or relying on this window.

An article by non-governmental organisation TWC2 states that many workers had their Work Permits cancelled and were repatriated because their employers had no work but did not allow them to transfer jobs, even though other companies needed workers, worsening the manpower shortage. The 30-day transfer window addresses this. This proposal will not encourage turnover of workers because it only applies if the employer unilaterally decides to cancel a Work Permit.

Second, to grow productivity and incentivise work pass holders to stay with employers, I propose allowing employers to bond them for up to two years in exchange for sponsoring formal training. The length of the bond period can depend on the number of training hours, provided that the duration of training and fees meet certain requirements. ITE could partner BCA, which already runs training courses, to develop appropriate courses to increase our migrant worker productivity.

Sir, upskilling is important in reducing the number of semi-skilled foreign workers needed and, hence, our dependence on foreign labour.

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

Breastfeeding Breaks for Working Mothers

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang: Working mothers who breastfeed need support at work. A survey by Singapore's Breastfeeding Mothers' Support Group found that the top reason for stopping breastfeeding was the challenges of expressing milk at work. For those still breastfeeding, they reported difficulty in finding time to express their milk at work. Sadly, the majority of working mothers surveyed could not express milk as much as they had wanted during work.

Laws that guarantee breastfeeding breaks are not new or uncommon. A 2020 study of 97 countries found that 82% of countries had laws for paid and unpaid breastfeeding breaks. Singapore is in the minority of 18% of countries studied that do not legislate breastfeeding breaks. Countries, such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan, India, China, the Philippines, Thailand and South Korea, provide breastfeeding breaks at work or reduction of work hours daily. Will MOM support working mothers who breastfeed by legislating to guarantee breastfeeding breaks at work?

Provide Parent-care Leave to Everyone

Next, I miss my father very much and I regret not spending enough time with him. I especially regret that I did not take him for his many medical appointments in the year before he passed on.

Spend time with those you love. One of these days, you will either say "I wish I had" or "I'm glad I did".

We all need time to spend with our loved ones, especially when they are not feeling well. With an ageing population, many of us will need more time to look after our parents. The Government clearly agrees with this and introduced parent-care leave in the Civil Service more than a decade ago. It really was time we legislate the same leave for all other workers.

Again, let us not use FWAs to justify not having parent-care leave. If this reason is true, then why do civil servants with FWAs also have parent-care leave? If it is important for civil servants to have both FWAs and parent-care leave, then why not others? We are a family-friendly employer. Now, we need to be a family-friendly Government. We should introduce parent-care leave for all workers.

The Chairman: Mr Sharael Taha.

Mr Sharael Taha: Thank you, Chairman. Can I take my three cuts together?

The Chairman: That depends on whether Mr Abdul Samad is in the House.

Mr Sharael Taha: Alright. So, I will take just my first cut first.

The Chairman: Yes.

Legislating TAFEP Guidelines

Mr Sharael Taha: Thank you, Chairman. In his speech, Minister Lawrence Wong mentioned that the tighter foreign worker policy is more about calibration. He mentioned that it is a calibration to ensure that foreign workers and professionals coming into Singapore are of the right calibre and coming in areas where we really need them, in areas of shortages.

To ensure its effectiveness, we must also ensure fair employment and hiring practices and also fair treatment at the workplace. How are we progressing and legislating TAFEP guidelines to ensure fair employment practices and treatment at the workplace?

The Chairman: Mr Abdul Samad. Not here. Okay, Mr Sharael Taha, next two cuts, please.

Advancing the Well-being of Low-wage Workers

Mr Sharael Taha: Thank you, Chairman. The next one will be on advancing the well-being of low-wage workers. Our efforts to uplift low-wage workers have been ongoing for the past decade. It is important to ensure that productivity continues to improve, so that wage growth is sustainable. If real productivity is not achieved, wage growth will drive up costs and make us less competitive in the global market.

Workers have a responsibility to upskill. However, businesses also have a part to play.

In this Budget, we have apportioned significant resources, such as $600 million for the Productivity Solution Grant and $100 million to scale up CTCs to support transformation plans. How can we encourage and support more SMEs to transform their businesses, so that low-wage workers can be deployed more productively with more scope for progression? How can we get business associations to get more SMEs involved?

Enhanced Workfare Income Supplement

I am heartened that the Progressive Wage Model (PWM) will be extended and wage increases for low-wage workers will be co-funded under the Progressive Wage Credit Scheme (PWCS). This will be further boosted by the Enhanced Workfare Income Supplement scheme. The qualifying monthly income cap for the scheme has been raised, age eligibility has been extended and the payout increased, especially for people with disabilities.

While companies transformed to drive real productivity growth, how do we encourage low-wage workers to continuously upskill and upgrade? Can we consider a yearly Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) bonus or a tiered supplement scheme, if the worker uses his SkillsFuture credit or attends training or courses yearly to upgrade himself or herself?

The Chairman: Miss Cheng Li Hui. Not here. Ms Yeo Wan Ling.

Expand Household Services Scheme

Ms Yeo Wan Ling: In the recent decade, changing dynamics in the workplace and at home have rendered dual-income families greater ubiquity, with many seeking to outsource household duties in order to allow women to work. This has meant that Singapore's 1.3 million households are increasingly turning to external help, often in the form of full-time foreign domestic workers, to alleviate domestic responsibilities at home. However, there still remains a gap in the market for part-time help.

The Household Services Scheme (HSS), first piloted in 2017 and made permanent in 2021, has been a popular and innovative scheme welcomed by families. This programme allows eligible companies to employ female migrant workers to support part-time cleaning services to households. This flexibility has allowed families who are unable to afford or provide accommodation in their homes for full-time helpers some access to respite care.

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Currently, this arrangement is limited to only providing domestic services to households, such as home cleaning. Yet, there continues to be a demand for further support in a household's caregiving needs. Our community's social and aged care needs continue to change and have become increasingly intertwined.

We need to allow our seniors to age in place within their homes and their communities, give young mothers peace of mind when they are at work and support family caregivers with respite care alternatives.

My resident, Mdm P, who is in her 40s, came to see me teary-eyed and tired and shared that she is the sole caregiver in a family of six people. She has three children – one of them has a medical condition – two seniors and a husband who is fastidious with cleanliness. The family is unable to afford a full-time helper as they neither have the space for a live-in helper, nor the budget to provide for full board.

She told me that she would like, from time to time, help in child-minding, assistance in caring for her seniors and support in cleaning her home. In order to have more savings for herself and her family, she takes on food delivery at night after her children have gone to bed. Mdm P's situation is neither unique nor rare.

But we have made strides in augmenting our infrastructural facilities and support systems to advance the caregiving ecosystem. There is also a great deal of untapped potential within the HSS to serve our residents better.

Hence, I invite the Ministry to look into expanding the programme beyond the provision of housekeeping services into offering caregiving support for our families.

Expanding the Household Services Scheme

Mr Yip Hon Weng: Expanding the HSS is a good way to support households that need help with certain aspects of their family but do not wish to hire a live-in foreign domestic worker. How does the Ministry ensure that there are merits for two distinct schemes and that the policy intent remains for both schemes?

In the area of respite care for seniors, will workers be equipped with skillsets to care for the elderly with special needs and challenging conditions, such as dementia? Will MOM work with MOH to provide training and certification for these workers?

Additionally, some social service agencies specialising in eldercare as well as nursing homes may already provide such services for elderly caregiving. How does MOM work with MOH and MSF to streamline and harmonise the availability of such services and make it easier for the public to assess their options?

Support for Mental Health in Workforce

Miss Rachel Ong: Chairman, while calls to improve mental health awareness in the workplace are not new, the issue has taken on an added urgency in the last two years, with the pandemic creating new stressors in the workforce.

May I first speak on the stress impact on two groups of people in our workforce. First, the workforce that works remotely. Second, our educators.

Work-from-home and hybrid work arrangements are at an accelerated pace. While this has raised work-home flexibility for some households, this also means the lines between work-life and life become increasingly blurred for some and for others, the lack of suitable workspace in their home can take a further toll on the mental health of many employees.

In some nations, the negative impact of remote working on mental health of employees has led to implementations of new labour laws in Europe.

Given that hybrid work arrangements are likely to stay and for good reason, I would like to ask if the Government also set in place guidelines and policies that safeguard the mental wellbeing of our workers.

Our educators. In a 2021 survey by Singapore Counselling Centre, more than 80% of teachers surveyed say that their mental health has been hurt by the pandemic. From the adjustments to home-based learning in 2020, the stressors our educators in preschool through to Junior College have also evolved over the last two years, with new additional roles, on top of e-learning lesson development.

Our teachers took on partial roles as safe management officers, MOH officers and social workers. They are tasked with enforcing evolving safe management measures while finding ways to keep lessons engaging with minimal interaction between students. When students started getting COVID-19, teachers were tasked to inform parents of the cases and monitor the Antigen Rapid Test (ART) status of students.

In addition, with the pandemic's negative impact on the students' well-being, our teachers have also been tasked with needing to check in with students more intentionally and this is despite restricted in-person time allowed outside of class.

Additionally, with teachers also falling ill or being on Health Risk Warning (HRW), they cover each other's duties, thus taking on additional load. This is especially significant in our childcare centres.

May I thank our educators for the sacrifices that they have made. I know that the well-being of this large population of our workforce would be looked into.

There is also a need to continue to destigmatise mental illness at the workplace. While some workplaces offer counselling services as mental health support, many employees do not seek help promptly and hide their illness for fear of being overlooked for a promotion or being treated differently by colleagues.

This fear is understandable. The definition of what strong mental health is needs to change. Strong mental health is not about being unaffected by mental strains but knowing when to seek help.

Some employers are concerned that those facing depression and other mental disorders result in lower productivity at work but may not realise that those who are seemingly highly productive can actually be mentally strained. Productivity should not be viewed as the key indicator of a person's mental wellness and those who seek help with their stressors should not be viewed as weaker than those who do not.

The Chairman: Are you finished?

Miss Rachel Ong: Yes. Can MOM update on the plans to better support employees' mental wellbeing at the workplace and to support the employment and recovery of persons with mental health conditions transitioning back to work? Thank you, Chairman.

Flexible Workplace Policies

Mr Yip Hon Weng: Many of our Singaporean workers want FWAs to continue post-COVID-19. Failure to accommodate would lead to an outflow of talent, especially with Singaporeans being able to work remotely for overseas companies.

Likewise, foreigners are able to work remotely for companies based in Singapore. Such cross-border virtual employment can complicate labour laws, CPF obligations and taxation matters.

What are we doing on this front to ensure that our laws keep up with the trends?

I understand that the legislation of hybrid workplaces is not the most tenable at the moment, lest we impose too many restrictions on businesses. I am glad that the Tripartite Advisory on Mental Well-being introduced guidelines for employers to set reasonable expectations for after-hours work communications. But besides guidelines, we should do more to nudge companies in the right direction. Other countries have started implementing new work laws to cater to this trend.

For example, in Portugal, employers are prohibited from contacting employees after office hours. Written contracts for teleworking arrangements, equalising rights for remote and on-site employees and requiring employers to cover remote work expenses are amongst the popular items in remote working legislations around the world.

Are we learning from other countries and exploring some of these new laws to update our legal framework?

Promote FWAs/Work-life Harmony and Employment for Women

Ms Yeo Wan Ling: COVID-19 has encouraged novel ways of working. Many firms have made FWAs a part of their new normal, such as working from home, staggered hours and compressed work weeks and varying work duties. As more companies experience success with this transition, especially when FWA measures allow staff to enjoy better work-life harmony without compromising on productivity, they have been more open to increasing the scale of policies that offer greater work-life balance and flexibility to workers.

Indeed, surveys have shown that nearly 80% of our workers hope that their employers will continue offering this flexibility in a post-pandemic age.

Although COVID-19 is here to stay for the foreseeable future, it is pertinent to ensure that beneficial practices adopted during this time will continue to be enforced.

Given the advantages and demands of FWAs amongst workers, how will the Ministry be encouraging employers to sustain the implementation and expansion of these policies in the long run even after the pandemic has abated?

Beyond making work-life harmony policies a permanent mainstay in the workplace, it is equally important that all aspects of FWAs benefit both employers and employees and remain fair for both parties involved. This means that employers, on their part, should keep an open mind while employees should exercise responsibility while using FWAs.

However, potential challenges inevitably remain, such as in monitoring performance with remote working.

In light of this, how will the Ministry ensure that employer appraisals are conducted in a way that is fair to our workers?

The prevalence of FWAs and work-life harmony (WLH) policies differs greatly across professions and industries. For instance, various reports have suggested that occupations in the PMET sector are more suited for FWAs since their work hinges on more access to technology than physical interaction. However, FWAs have been more difficult to implement in industries that need it the most, especially frontline workers and employees involved in shift work.

As we acknowledge the imperative to better WLH measures, how will the Ministry extend FWAs to workers across all sectors of employment, particularly in industries where progress has been slower?

Flexible Work Arrangements (FWAs)

Mr Sharael Taha: Chairman, inclusive growth should create opportunities for seniors, workers with special needs, back-to-work mothers and those with caregiving responsibilities.

With the increasing prevalence of FWAs, including work from anywhere and flexible hours during the COVID-19 pandemic, how will MOM encourage employers to sustain these arrangements post-COVID-19? How can we use this opportunity to make our workforce more inclusive and make FWAs a viable option, especially for this group of workers? How can we use this opportunity to realise the latent potential from this group of individuals and encourage more to join the workforce?

Can the Ministry consider promoting FWAs, flexible work hours and work-sharing to create opportunities for this group of individuals? Can we create second careers for our seniors who are still able to work but do not want to work full-time?

Supporting Employers in Recruitment

Mr Edward Chia Bing Hui (Holland-Bukit Timah): Mr Chairman, Sir, COVID-19 has changed the way we work, bringing about a paradigm shift in where and how we work. This shift includes working remotely, flexible working hours and optimising a mix of virtual with face-to-face meetings.

As we transit into a COVID-19 endemic environment, further changes in work conditions could create stressors to our employees' mental well-being. Many workers will face the challenge of managing their work-life balance in a hybrid work model, thereby compounding levels of anxiety. Conversely, these shifts could also present opportunities for better work-life harmony and encourage those who have left the workforce due to caregiving needs to return to the workforce.

To tap on the opportunities and mitigate the downsides, there needs to be continuous efforts to support evolving HR practices.

An important question here is how our tripartite partners continue to support our HR practitioners with progressive practices, which will lead to effective work-life harmony, better mental wellness outcomes for workers, thereby leading to better productivity and better business outcomes.

My proposal is to have a common accreditation for the HR industry. This will set the foundation for workers' future work arrangement as companies respond differently to this new reality. This proposal bears similarity to one of the recommendations by the NTUC-SNEF PME Taskforce on enhancing fair employment practices through improving HR standards. This ensures that there is a standard recognition of good HR practices across the board.

There have been ongoing efforts made in providing FWAs for employees who are non-frontline and in non-shift roles. These efforts, therefore, should be translated to include more frontline and shift workers because such jobs will only increase.

As we work towards aligning these common HR practices, I would also like to raise questions on how will MOM encourage employers to sustain this increasing prevalence of FWAs during and post-COVID-19. What are the areas in the Employment Act that require a review to recognise these changes to work arrangements?

MOM should consider framing clear guidelines and consider updates to the Employment Act for such practices, in partnership with SBF, SNEF, NTUC and the various HR professional associations.

For this to work, we need to support our SMEs because, despite much effort over the years, many still lack solid HR policies and capabilities due to resource constraints. These SMEs often do not have policies and procedures in place to be able to adapt to new hybrid environments or necessary HR practices. As their challenges are real, we need some fresh ideas on equipping these groups of enterprises with forward-thinking HR practices. With that, I would like to raise the following questions pertaining to our SMEs.

5.45 pm

What has been the assessment of the Government of all previous efforts to create support services for HR for SMEs? Would a HR-as-a-service, similar to IMDA's CTO-as-a-service, be worth considering? And if previous efforts to bring SMEs to such services had resulted in a lacklustre response, could there be ideas where our relevant Government agencies design solutions that are brought directly to SMEs?

Another critical area of our HR policies relates to the foreign workforce component. Singapore needs a resilient foreign workforce that can withstand future global and regional disruptions. As structural changes continue to take place, MOM could consider how it can further facilitate companies' decision-making on their foreign workforce strategy so that it is more than just complying with set policies. How a company determines the best sources for their foreign workforce, in line with the diversity of capabilities required to complement our local expertise, is a strategic choice that cannot be underestimated. It impacts how companies will be able to acquire the talent and skills needed to compete and this requires more collaboration with MOM, trade associations and SME management.

The shift in our work environment is real and, therefore, how we work together requires innovative solutions. HR has always been important, but the nature of its value is fast-evolving. This is the time to set guidelines for FWAs, enforce workplace mental health wellness, engage SMEs for deeper capability building, design strategic conversations for foreign manpower choices and encourage our relevant Government agencies, such as ESG and WSG, to triple-down in their joint engagements for results.

The Chairman: Mr Patrick Tay, if you would like to take your two cuts together, please do.

Human Capital Professionals

Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan: Chairman, the human capital/human resource function is particularly vital, especially as we adapt to the "next normal" of work in the workforce and at workplaces. Our human capital/HR professionals play a crucial role in ensuring that every company and business has in place fair, responsible and progressive practices for their workforce. One of the key recommendations from the NTUC-SNEF PME Taskforce report is to enhance fair employment practices through improving the human capital/HR standards among the human capital and HR professionals.

I, therefore, urge MOM to seriously consider supporting and increasing the take-up of the Institute of Human Resource Professionals (IHRP) certification for these professionals. This is so that the majority of these professionals operating in Singapore can be equipped with a rudimentary working knowledge of the norms, standards and practices, including how tripartism works in Singapore as well as how to work with unions and the Labour Movement in Singapore. In the longer term and in the future of work, some form of accreditation, besides certification, as highlighted by Member Edward Chia, will also be beneficial for this important profession.

Human Capital Partnership

The Human Capital Partnership (HCP) Programme is a tripartite initiative that brings together a community of exemplary employers in Singapore who have progressive employment practices in their organisations and are committed to developing their human capital.

I wish to ask MOM for a progress update of the HCP since the start of the programme and what are its plans to further enhance and make the programme even more pervasive. Does the award of the HCP Mark demonstrate that these employers are employers of choice who value their people and are committed to investing and developing their employees across all levels? I am asking whether there will be a regular review of the key qualifying criteria for the HCP Mark and whether those awarded the Mark can have their mark removed if they fail to meet the criteria.

As we evolve and adapt to new post-pandemic work norms, good labour-management relations as well as the introduction of more forward-looking and progressive practices, such as PME representation and fair work arrangements, can be valuable factors to consider in awarding the mark.

The Chairman: Replies from the Ministry. Minister Tan See Leng.

The Minister for Manpower (Dr Tan See Leng): Mr Chairman, I thank the Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) Members of Parliament and the others who spoke in support of our workers and our businesses.

Over the past two years of battling COVID-19, our manpower policies had focused on shoring up local employment and keeping foreign workforce policies responsive. We supported businesses in hiring and investing in the skills of a wider pool of jobseekers and helped many jobseekers move into new opportunities. Through updated work pass requirements, we also ensured local-foreign complementarity and spurred business transformation.

These efforts helped mitigate the impact of COVID-19 and facilitated the recovery of our economy. Despite a slight dip in 2020, the median gross monthly income of residents has risen to above pre-COVID-19 levels. Resident unemployment rate has come down from the high of 4.8% to 3.2% today. Given the Ukraine war, we are cautiously optimistic that the unemployment rate will fall back to pre-COVID-19 levels in the months ahead.

To capture the opportunities created by a recovering global economy, businesses are starting to increase their hiring. For the full year 2021, total employment saw an encouraging rebound of 40,800, close to 41,000. We want to provide the necessary support and incentives to restructure our workforce so that we can emerge stronger.

We want to build an inclusive and comprehensive labour market, where businesses can access the manpower needed for their growth and where continued growth leads to a more equitable and progressive society.

The recovering economy provides a better and firmer footing to do so now. If we get this with surgical precision and the right timing – in Chinese, it is 天时地利人和 – Singapore will be a top global city brimming with opportunities for our businesses and our people.

Against this backdrop, MOM's priorities will focus on the three "Up"s: Upgrade, Uplift and Uphold.

The first focus is to upgrade the capabilities of locals and the complementarity of foreigners. We will strengthen support for locals so that they are equipped with skillsets to take on jobs of the future. Through our foreign workforce policies, we will ensure our businesses have access to the complementary manpower that they need.

For our growth to be sustainable, we must ensure every Singaporean worker benefits from Singapore's growth and no one is left behind. Hence, our second focus is to uplift our vulnerable workers and mature workers. We will implement the recommendations from the Tripartite Work Group on Lower-Wage Workers and double down on our efforts to uplift these workers. Senior Minister of State Zaqy Mohamad will elaborate more in his speech. Senior Minister of State Koh Poh Koon will share our approach to uplifting self-employed persons and strengthening support for mature workers.

Finally, every one of us desires a fair opportunity to contribute and to thrive at work, which brings me to our third focus – to uphold inclusive and progressive practices at the workplace. We will continue to support our workforce to meet caregiving needs at home, support their mental health and well-being. Minister of State Gan Siow Huang will elaborate more in her speech. And we will continue with efforts to transform the migrant worker ecosystem to improve their physical, social and mental well-being. This will be further covered by Senior Minister of State Koh Poh Koon later on in his speech.

Let me start by sharing how we intend to upgrade the capabilities of locals and complementarity of foreigners. I will spend the bulk of the speech today elaborating on this segment. As mentioned, Senior Ministers of State Koh Poh Koon and Zaqy Mohamad and Minister of State Gan Siow Huang will elaborate further on our other two focus areas.

Structural shifts in the economy mean new growth opportunities for our businesses and workers. As highlighted in the cuts by Mr Desmond Choo and Mr Dennis Tan, some of the shifts include the greening and digitalisation of our economy. The green economy is an area of growth that we are taking very seriously. As Minister Gan Kim Yong shared earlier, we have developed a whole-of-Government green economy strategy which looks into the jobs and skills that will be transformed and created as a result of the green transition. It is thus important that our workers are equipped with the necessary skillsets to thrive in this fast-changing environment.

Helping our businesses to transform and preparing our workers for the future of work have been longstanding priorities for this Government. Since 2016, we have rolled out Industry Transformation Maps, or ITMs, for 23 sectors to chart their transformation journey. As Minister Gan Kim Yong has shared, the Government is working closely with industry stakeholders, unions and academia to update our ITMs to address emerging trends and opportunities.

In 2021, we announced that Jobs Transformation Maps (JTMs) would be launched to map out the impact of technology and digitalisation on individual jobs over the medium term. These provide very detailed, job-level insights to help businesses and workers prepare for future jobs and skills.

To support our scale-up of these programmes, I set up the Jobs Taskforce in September last year to derive strategies to increase the placements of local workers into our key sectors, such as ICT, Manufacturing and Financial Services. For example, our Career Conversion Programmes, or CCPs, support employers to reskill jobseekers and workers for in-demand job roles. They provide targeted support to workers whose job roles might be at greater risk of redundancy.

One such individual is Mr Cheng Kim Ann, a 30-year-old who previously worked on aircraft maintenance. He had just completed his Degree in Mechanical Engineering and wanted to seek out opportunities in the aerospace sector when COVID-19 hit. He re-evaluated his career options and came across a job opening as a manufacturing and equipment engineer with Micron Technology. To help Mr Cheng assimilate into his role, the company put him on the Career Conversion Programme for the Electronics Sector in November 2020. During the three-month programme, Mr Cheng was introduced to the processes in the semiconductor industry which he had to apply in his new job role. Coupled with the on-the-job training provided by the company, Mr Cheng quickly picked up new skills required for the industry and moved on to learning more advanced skills.

During the pandemic, the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package and the Jobs Growth Incentive were introduced as extraordinary measures to preserve human capital and expand local hiring. All these initiatives helped to cushion the impact of COVID-19 on the labour market and provided much-needed relief for the businesses to meet their manpower needs. More than 174,000 local jobseekers have been placed into jobs and skills opportunities as at end-December 2021. All in all, a total of $11 billion has been allocated to support these initiatives.

As announced by the Minister for Finance, we will continue to provide support for businesses and worker segments, such as mature workers. However, moving forward, we will be tailoring our support levels in line with the improved economic and labour market situation and Senior Minister of State Koh Poh Koon will elaborate further in his speech.

Ultimately, support for workers will require a whole-of-society effort. I urge all of our businesses and all of our employees to support our efforts to help you do better. Furthermore, the Government will always provide the necessary support for businesses. But businesses must be willing to set aside time and resources to train up the local workforce. And employees must also be willing to reskill and upskill.

The support for businesses under the ITMs is complemented by our foreign workforce policies. Foreign workforce policies are key levers to keep our labour market tight and incentivise businesses to transform, move up the value chain and maintain their competitive edge.

Let me now move on to our foreign workforce policies. Last September, we debated extensively on the issue of foreign manpower in this House. Parliament affirmed the need for Singapore to stay open and connected to the world and for the Government to continue updating its policy levers to secure the well-being and livelihoods of our people.

MOM has been working steadily on a review of our foreign workforce policies. We remain committed to our goals of upgrading our workforce, comprising a strong Singaporean Core and a high-quality and diverse foreign workforce.

After careful deliberation and extensive consultation with our Tripartite Partners, we are ready to make several important updates to our work pass framework. The updates aim to achieve the following.

One, to bring in a higher-quality foreign workforce with specialised skills, networks and expertise to complement our local workforce.

Two, to support employers that invest in reskilling their workers and the transfer of capabilities to build a strong Singaporean Core.

Three, to ensure diversity in our foreign workforce, because a truly open and connected labour market must also be able to draw the best from all around the world.

And four, to drive productivity growth, while keeping our reliance on foreign labour at a sustainable level.

Above all, these updates will ensure that Singapore can continue to remain open and connected to the world.

6.00 pm

As borders start to reopen and labour demand picks up, I want to lay out the roadmap for these changes, which will be phased in gradually. This is to give businesses the certainty they need to plan ahead as they gear up for growth.

Let me start with the Employment Pass, or EP. At the EP level, we need to bring in highly-skilled foreign professionals, as part of a strong team of locals and foreigners, to grow our economy and to create more good jobs. Hence, we do not set quotas or levies on EPs. Instead, we focus on ensuring quality.

As announced in the Budget Statement, we will aim to ensure that EP holders are comparable in quality to the top one-third of our local PMET workforce. To do so, we will set a benchmark for the EP qualifying salary based on the top one-third, or the 65th percentile, of local PMET wages. And we will revise our EP qualifying salaries based on this benchmark.

The EP minimum qualifying salary will be revised from $4,500 to $5,000. For the Financial Services sector, which has higher wage norms, this will be revised from $5,000 to $5,500.

Given that local PMET wages rise with age, the qualifying salary will also rise with age, to reflect the years of work and experience.

To give businesses sufficient time to adjust, these changes will apply to new EP applications from 1 September 2022 and to renewal applications from 1 September 2023.

We know, and we empathise, that the labour market for skilled workers is sufficiently tight. So, this latest move is not intended as a tightening measure. Instead, it is part of MOM's regular updates to ensure that our qualifying salary keeps pace with local wage growth, so that foreigners are not coming in just because they are cheaper than local PMETs.

As this is a regular updating of our policy, most EP holders will not be impacted by these changes, because, today, they earn well above the qualifying salary. There are, however, some EP holders who do not meet our quality bar. This group will be impacted, but this is how we constantly ensure that we maintain a high-quality EP stock that complements our local workforce.

More importantly, we have also set a clear benchmark for the qualifying salary, so that our businesses will have greater transparency, clarity and predictability on how it will be adjusted in future.

Businesses should expect regular updating of the qualifying salary to keep pace with local wage trends. We will, of course, consider prevailing economic conditions when making a decision to update the qualifying salary and provide sufficient lead time before each change is effected.

While the qualifying salary is simple to understand and easy to administer, it is also a blunt tool. There are limits to relying solely on it to select complementary foreign talents. Mr Liang Eng Hwa and Mr Yip Hon Weng would like to know whether other factors could be taken into account to more holistically assess a candidate's complementarity. This is something that MOM has considered and studied carefully for quite some time. We are now ready to introduce a new Complementarity Assessment Framework, called COMPASS.

COMPASS is an acronym. The C-O-M-P stands for Complementarity and then the Assessment Framework – COMPASS. COMPASS is a points-based system that considers both individual and firm-related attributes to holistically evaluate an EP applicant's complementarity. It is designed to be a transparent system, so that businesses have clarity and predictability for manpower planning.

The NTUC-SNEF PME Taskforce recommended a points system for EPs last year. Mr Patrick Tay has also raised this earlier. I am glad that there is strong tripartite support for COMPASS.

With the introduction of COMPASS, the future EP framework will comprise two stages. First, applicants must meet the EP qualifying salary. Second, they must also score sufficient points under COMPASS, in order to qualify for an EP.

With your permission, Mr Chairman, may I ask the Clerks to distribute a copy of the handout on the COMPASS construct, please?

The Chairman: Please do. [A handout was distributed to hon Members. Please refer to Annex 1.]

Dr Tan See Leng: Let me briefly explain how COMPASS will work. Members can rest assured that all the details will come later.

If I could ask Members to refer to the first page of the handout, under the section "How COMPASS works". Under COMPASS, EP applications will be assessed based on four foundational criteria: (a) the candidate's salary relative to local PMET wages in their respective sectors; (b) the candidate's qualifications; (c) the firm's nationality diversity and whether the candidate improves the firm's nationality diversity; and (d) the firm's support for local employment compared to their industry peers. These are termed criteria 1 to 4, or C1 to C4.

Beyond these four foundational criteria, we are mindful of two scenarios that warrant special attention.

One, where the candidate possesses skills that our workforce has a shortage of, such as AI developers and cybersecurity specialists. Our locals may have such skills, but we do not have sufficient locals to fulfil the demand.

Two, if the firm is undertaking ambitious innovation, hub or internationalisation activities in partnership with the Government, in line with our strategic economic priorities.

In such cases, it would be in Singapore's interest to allow the firm to bring in this candidate. So, we will accord bonus points for these two areas – these are termed C5 and C6. MOM will work closely with our Tripartite Partners – NTUC and SNEF – and economic agencies to assess industry needs, so that COMPASS is kept current and responsive.

An EP application that "meets expectations" on the four foundational criteria would pass COMPASS.

On the other hand, if an application fares "below expectations" in certain foundational criteria, it needs to make up for it by "exceeding expectations" on other foundational criteria or by scoring bonus points. All of the criteria – they are tradeable; none is a veto factor.

Let me give you an example. Consider a firm in the IT sector that scores "below expectations" on both support for local employment and diversity. It has a low PMET share relative to its industry peers and is bringing in a candidate whose nationality is already over-represented in its firm. If the EP candidate only "meets expectations" on salary and qualifications and is performing a generic job role, the application will not score enough points to pass. However, if the firm is bringing in a candidate in an area where skills shortages exist, the application could make up for it with bonus points. Alternatively, the firm can hire a candidate from a nationality that improves its diversity and "exceeds expectations" on diversity. This will allow the candidate to pass.

In this way, COMPASS incentivises firms with a weaker workforce profile to strengthen their local workforce and diversify, so as not to be disadvantaged. At the same time, it still allows them to access highly complementary EPs in areas where skills shortages exist.

Members of the House, let me be clear – COMPASS is not designed to make it harder for businesses to obtain an EP. A good majority of the applications today would not have issues – this demonstrates that our businesses, in general, are progressive and our policies thus far have brought in complementary EP holders.

Some firms, however, would need to make adjustments under COMPASS. And they would know exactly which areas to improve on and how to respond accordingly, given the transparency, clarity and predictability of COMPASS.

SMEs may be concerned about what COMPASS means for them. Will they be disadvantaged relative to bigger firms? We recognise that for smaller firms, their workforce ratios can change significantly and drastically with only a few personnel changes. Hence, for this practical reason, firms with less than 25 PMETs will automatically be scored as "meeting expectations" on firm-related attributes.

Some may notice that the firm-related attributes under COMPASS are considered as part of MOM's Fair Consideration Framework, or FCF, Watchlist today.

COMPASS builds on our current efforts under the FCF, by applying these considerations upstream, at the point of application. Businesses will have clarity on what these considerations are.

Once COMPASS is fully rolled out, the FCF Watchlist will be re-purposed to focus on engaging businesses that score poorly on the firm-related attributes. We will walk with these firms, to help them to strengthen their workforce profile and to adjust to the new framework.

Mr Patrick Tay will be reassured that even with the changes to the FCF Watchlist, MOM continues to take fair consideration seriously. The FCF Job Advertising requirement will continue to apply. Employers must practise fair consideration in their selection of candidates and MOM will not hesitate to take action against employers who are found to be discriminatory.

We are also working on plans to enshrine existing fair employment guidelines into workplace fairness legislation.

We recognise that the introduction of COMPASS is a significant change and companies will need sufficient time to adjust to it. Hence, COMPASS will come into effect for new EP applications from 1 September 2023 and for renewal applications from 1 September 2024.

Coming from the private sector myself, I fully understand and appreciate the importance of transparency. Following this announcement, we will publish the COMPASS scoring rubric on MOM's website. We will progressively roll out educational materials and further details on specific criteria. When COMPASS is in place, employers can use the Pre-Assessment Tool to obtain a "balanced scorecard" of how each application fares prior to submission, so that they know what areas they must improve on.

In summary, we have designed COMPASS to be balanced and reasonable. For employers, they will find that the system is responsive to industry's needs and easier to navigate with a transparent, predictable and clear framework. It also recognises their efforts to build up a strong local pipeline and maintain a diverse foreign workforce.

For our local workforce, they will have greater confidence that the EP holders here are of high calibre and will better complement their teams, and that their employers will also take efforts to develop their local pipeline and to maintain workforce diversity seriously.

And, lastly, for Singapore, COMPASS will allow us to remain open to complementary talent in short supply here so that we can grow our frontier industries to bring us into the next stage of growth.

Mr Leong Mun Wai continues to assert that the Government's policy is poor, because its statistics are poor. As the Minister for Finance said in his round-up speech, we get the sense that the persistent requests coming from him for more information are red herrings. They are distractions from the key problem at hand. During the 6 July Ministerial Statement, I had already shared that the majority of local PME growth over the last decade went to Singaporeans born in Singapore. I repeated this in Parliament in September and stated that this is the same for PMETs. But Mr Leong Mun Wai persists in drawing these divisions, asking for statistics to be split into original citizens, new citizens and Permanent Residents (PRs).

6.15 pm

I have also alluded, at that particular point in time that, as a society, we should not constantly be drawing such lines. Many of our new citizens and PRs share family ties with Singaporeans, or they had studied, worked, contributed and have lived here for some time. They contribute to our strength as a society and as an economy. Singapore is an immigrant nation and openness is one of our society's core strengths that have defined who we are. I urge Mr Leong Mun Wai – have a care – please do not undermine the cohesiveness we have painstakingly built over the years and please ask people who share your point of view to also have a care for the rest of us.

Let me emphasise once again – Singapore is and will always be committed to remaining open to foreigners who complement our local workforce and who are able to add vibrancy to Singapore's economy.

For the framework, we think deeply, we consult widely because we know that whatever we do, whatever we implement, will have a significant impact on businesses, locals and Singapore. And once we are confident that our proposals are sensible and implementable, we move.

That is why we earlier on rolled out schemes, such as Tech@SG and Tech.Pass, to meet strong demand for skilled workers in the tech sector. COMPASS will buttress these schemes to facilitate access to complementary talent.

We have also received feedback from employers who are concerned about bringing in young, high potential employees. These are big global firms which have international rotation programmes, where they send both foreign and local employees for overseas postings to gain exposure.

We will make sure that our EP framework has the flexibility to allow for such rotations. Therefore, we are piloting the Global Rotation Scheme. This scheme will facilitate the entry of high-potential employees from abroad. But, in return, these companies must also post our local Singaporeans abroad on the same leadership development programme. We are starting with a small group of firms and we will expand the scheme once we have worked out the full details.

At the S Pass level, foreign workers perform specialised, technical roles. These are skilled jobs with good opportunities, which many of our Polytechnic and ITE graduates have an interest in.

We want to continue to ensure that our locals have a level playing field to take up these roles and that S Pass holders are coming in to fill skills gaps and not just because they are cheaper. We also want to spur transformation and job redesign efforts. And this is why we have in place controls for the S Pass, namely qualifying salaries, levies and quotas.

As announced, we aim to ensure that S Pass holders are comparable in quality to the top one-third of the local Associate Professionals and Technicians, or APT, workforce.

How much a firm is willing to pay is a practical indicator of the quality of the S Pass holder.

Thus, we will benchmark the cost of hiring an S Pass holder to the top one-third of local APT wages. We will raise both the S Pass qualifying salary and levies to reach this benchmark.

This is a bigger change, compared to the EP salary criteria. So, we will move towards this goal over three steps, to moderate the impact to businesses.

As a first step, we will raise the S Pass minimum qualifying salary from the current $2,500 to $3,000 and introduce a higher S Pass qualifying salary for the Financial Services sector at $3,500. These changes will be implemented for new applications from 1 September 2022 and for renewal applications from 1 September 2023. Similar to the EP, the qualifying salary for older S Pass holders will be higher.

Thereafter, we will raise the S Pass minimum qualifying salary for new applications in September 2023 and in September 2025. Each increase will apply to renewals a year later. The exact salary values will be announced closer to implementation date, based on the prevailing local APT wages.

Just to give a rough sense, based on current local APT wage levels, companies should expect the economy-wide S Pass minimum qualifying salary to be at least $3,150 in September 2023 and to at least $3,300 in September 2025.

MOM will also progressively increase the S Pass Tier 1 levy rate from $330 to $650 over three steps, again, in tandem with the S Pass qualifying salary increases. It will be raised to $450 in September 2022 and then to $550 in September 2023 and $650 in September 2025. The Tier 2 levy rate will be maintained at $650.

As with the EP, the setting of a clear benchmark will give businesses clarity and predictability on how the S Pass qualifying salary and levies will continue to adjust over time.

Mr Chairman, there have been concerns about the increase in qualifying salaries. Locals have asked if their foreign colleagues will, therefore, automatically get a pay raise, at their expense. The short answer is no. Please let me explain.

Take a firm that hires 10 employees – nine locals, one S Pass holder. These employees are all doing the same job, earning the same pay of $2,500. Will the foreigner immediately get a $500 pay increase, just because of the increase in the qualifying salary? No.

First, the higher qualifying salary will only apply to EP and S Pass renewals in September 2023. That is about a year and a half from now. I earlier mentioned that this could even stretch out to September 2026, depending on when the S Pass holder is due for renewal. That is about four and a half years away at the extreme. The firm will have ample time to think about alternative options, for instance, finding or training up another local. This is especially so if the foreigner is not bringing in enough value to justify the pay increase. Businesses are, ultimately, profit-driven and they will not just blindly raise costs.

Employers have said that it is difficult to find locals in a particularly tight labour market, given the low unemployment rate. But as I had said a few days back, there is still significant untapped supply from both women and seniors outside the workforce. With our population rapidly ageing, we would want to encourage people to work longer when they are able to and should they choose to. My constant exhortation to everyone is to bring them back into the workforce, encourage them, give them an opportunity. If businesses can do more to redesign jobs to make the jobs more flexible, more inclusive, I think they can attract more of these segments of workers.

Next, there are quotas at the S Pass level. If the firm insists on giving the S Pass holder a pay increase without fairly reviewing the pay of its locals, it could find itself in a difficult situation. If the locals leave because of the pay discrepancy, the firm may find that it does not have enough quota to retain the S Pass holder at the next renewal. And let us not underestimate the negative impact on productivity of the company when employee morale is poor, or if the company finds itself shorthanded.

Finally, what happens if, in spite of all these, employers still unfairly raise the foreigner's pay, without fairly reviewing the pay of locals?

We know, on the ground, there will be egregious cases such as these. In such situations, locals can take their grievances to TAFEP. And TAFEP will engage the firm to conduct a proper salary review, because unfair remuneration practices run counter to the Tripartite Guidelines for Fair Employment Practices (TGFEP).

So, you can see, there is a whole thought process that the firm will go through. If after all of these, the firm still chooses to retain the S Pass holder, it would be because the value that the S Pass holder brings to their operations more than justifies the higher salary.

On the other hand, suppose we left the S Pass qualifying salary untouched at $2,500. Yes, the foreigner may not get the pay raise, but our locals' wages will stagnate as well. The firm can continue to renew the S Pass holder on the lowest salary required, as long as he is willing to accept it and the firm will then have little reason to raise the pay for the other nine locals who are doing the same job.

As the Minister for Finance said in his Budget round-up speech, keeping the cost of employing foreign workers low ultimately ends up depressing the wages of local workers.

Some locals tell me that they appreciate the need to raise the cost of hiring S Pass holders but asked us why we could not load it all on levies instead. In that way, the foreigner will not get a pay increase and the Government will get more revenue.

But let us just be clear here. We are already increasing S Pass levies. But this is asking us to increase it even more. It does sound like a solution that we can adopt. But why did we not do it?

Suppose we load all the cost increases onto levies. The levy will have to be much higher than $650. And these levies will be applied equally to all S Pass holders. The more productive firms that hire high-quality S Pass holders well above the qualifying salary will face the same cost increase as less productive firms who are paying just the bare minimum. Both groups are equally affected. Raising levies makes no distinction or differentiation between them – between the productive ones and the less productive ones.

And if all firms have to pay more to the Government, they will have less to pay their workers. Will they still have the ability to incentivise their employees to take up new and bigger job roles as they transform?

Members of the House, there are no perfect solutions. I hope that we do not let perfection be the enemy of the good.

That is why, after weighing our options carefully, we moved – raising both the qualifying salary and the levies to safeguard good employment outcomes for our locals.

We know that the changes to the S Pass framework are not trivial. But we must do what is difficult now, to build a stronger and more inclusive economy for all.

With the S Pass moves, businesses that are reliant on low-cost S Pass holders will have to adapt. They will have to redesign their operations to become more productive. They will have to improve the pay and working conditions for these jobs. And because of this, they will be in a stronger position to attract locals.

I understand that SMEs are more constrained in terms of financial resources and many are worried about these moves. I have previously spoken about how we will support SMEs through this transition.

They can tap on schemes, such as the Support for Job Redesign under the Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG-JR). To reskill existing employees and new hires to take on redesigned job roles, they can also tap on programmes, such as the Career Conversion Programmes (CCPs). There are many of such schemes out there.

SMEs will not have to undertake this transformation journey alone. We will walk with them.

Let me now move on to the Work Permit changes. At the Work Permit level, migrant workers take on important roles which locals are less keen on doing. Yet, COVID-19 has shown us that it is not sustainable to continue to rely heavily on foreign manpower, especially at the semi-skilled level. Excessive reliance will leave businesses vulnerable to various disruptions.

In order for our businesses to survive and thrive, they will need to transform, they will need to increase their productivity and, ultimately, reduce their reliance on Work Permit holders. To support these transformation efforts, we will make further changes to the foreign workforce policies for the Construction and Process sectors from 2024.

First, we will reduce the Dependency Ratio Ceilings, or DRCs, for the construction and process sectors from 1:7 to 1:5, to nudge the sectors towards reducing reliance on migrant workers and improving the productivity of workers. That is a reduction from 87.5% to 83.3%.

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Second, we will dismantle the Man-Year Entitlement (MYE) framework, to reduce allocation inefficiencies.

Third, we will revise the levy structure for both sectors. To incentivise businesses to adopt more productive technologies, such as Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA) and employ more productive workers, levies will be lowered for off-site construction and higher-skilled workers. The Minister for National Development will share more in his Committee of Supply speech.

The changes will help support the sectors' transformation and automation. To help defray costs to adopt automation, businesses can tap on grants, such as the Enterprise Development Grant and the Productivity Innovation Project.

The changes to our foreign workforce policies aim to strengthen the complementarity between local and foreign workforce at the EP and S Pass level and to spur industry transformation at the Work Permit level.

I understand that Mr Cheng Hsing Yao and Ms Janet Ang suggested calibrating our foreign workforce policies further to address persistent shortages in certain sectors.

We already do so today. Sectors, such as Construction and Process, have higher foreign worker quotas as we recognise that fewer locals join these sectors. We also exercise flexibilities to support essential services like healthcare and the cleaning of public housing estates. Going forward, we will adopt an even more targeted approach by providing flexibilities to businesses that contribute to our economic priorities and in job roles where there are more pressing manpower needs but fewer locals.

To support the growth of businesses that contribute to Singapore's strategic economic priorities, MOM is supporting MTI and participating economic agencies to launch the Manpower for Strategic Economic Priorities, or M-SEP scheme. The scheme will provide such firms some flexibility to hire S Pass and Work Permit holders beyond the prevailing DRCs for a limited period of time.

For a start, MTI and participating economic agencies will support firms that meet their criteria of undertaking ambitious investment, innovation or internationalisation activities. This would include firms that participate in existing schemes, such as ESG's Scale-up SG and EDB's Research and Innovation Scheme for Companies.

In addition to supporting our strategic economic priorities, we will require these businesses to commit to developing our local workforce. The details are being worked out and we aim to introduce the scheme later this year.

In addition, we recognise that some businesses hire rank-and-file workers on S Passes due to the source restrictions for Work Permit holders.

With the moves to increase the benchmark for S Pass quality, MOM will allow businesses in the Services and Manufacturing sectors to hire some of these S Pass holders on Work Permits. We will introduce a Non-Traditional Source (NTS) Occupation List, which is a tight list of rank-and-file occupations where employers will be allowed to hire NTS foreign workers on Work Permits.

The list will be introduced on 1 September 2023. The list will include occupations, such as welders, food processing workers and specialty chefs. I know many enjoy the multicultural cuisines in Singapore. I hope that this will reinforce our position as a food paradise, supporting the cultural heritage of Singapore. The list will be subject to a quota, amongst other controls, and we will study carefully if more occupations should be added to the list.

However, I would like to make it clear that this does not signal a broader liberalisation of Work Permit sources across the board. The Tripartite Partners have a clear consensus on the importance of uplifting our local lower-wage workers whom the Work Permit holders directly compete with. Hence, we will continue to keep the Work Permit sources tight to support the efforts to uplift lower-wage workers and the ongoing moves to be more manpower-lean.

Taken together, the two schemes, the M-SEP and the NTS Occupation List, will complement the changes we are making to our work pass framework by supporting the growth of businesses that contribute to Singapore's strategic priorities and, ultimately, creating good job opportunities for locals.

I have spoken at length about our upcoming moves. I have explained why they are necessary to restructure our workforce to prepare for the opportunities ahead and move towards a more equitable society.

Many businesses, both local and foreign, whom I have spoken to generally understand this. They have been very supportive and also want to be good, progressive employers. However, they also share two challenges. One, difficulties in finding workers; and two, increase in business costs. We take this feedback very seriously.

On the difficulty in finding workers, I earlier touched on the schemes we have to address this. The calibrated reopening of our borders should ease some pressure and, as mentioned earlier, there is still an untapped supply of various segments of our population, and businesses can do more to redesign their jobs to attract these segments of workers.

On rising business costs, MOM has put in place measures to support our businesses. Our support measures will provide up to $6.8 billion to businesses in financial year 2022. This includes the provision of the Jobs Growth Incentive. We will also roll out transitional offsets for the increases to senior worker CPF contribution rates and transitional support for the moves to uplift lower-wage workers.

The moves are also timed carefully and implemented gradually to moderate the cost and manpower impact on businesses.

At the same time, I also want to assure our fellow Singaporean workers that they will always be at the heart of our efforts to drive economic growth. We will also endeavour to create good jobs. Mr Chairman, let me now say a few words in Mandarin.

(In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] This year, we are making various moves to upgrade the capabilities of our local workforce and complementarity of our foreign workforce, uplift vulnerable workers and senior workers, and uphold inclusive and progressive practices.

Most business owners whom I have spoken to understand the need for these moves. However, some employers, more so amongst the SMEs, are concerned. They share that they face difficulties hiring locals and the announced moves may make it worse. In addition, they worry about the higher business costs.

I would like to assure SMEs that we hear your concerns. We will help in several ways. Let me make three points.

Firstly, our foreign workforce policies will be sensitive to the profiles of our SMEs' circumstances, which may require differentiated treatment.

Under COMPASS, candidates will be assessed on not just their qualifications and wages but also the hiring firm's diversity and support for local employment.

For firms with less than 25 PMETs, they will, by default, be treated as having "met expectation" on firm-related attributes.

Secondly, we will provide some flexibilities to firms and for certain job roles.

For example, currently, some firms are unable to hire foreign workers they need due to certain Work Permit restrictions. We will allow firms in the Services and Manufacturing sectors to hire their workers from non-traditional sources on Work Permits, for a tight list of occupations with fewer locals, for example, in Precision Engineering and Food Manufacturing.

MOM will also support MTI in introducing a scheme to give additional S Pass and Work Permit quotas to firms that contribute to Singapore's strategic economic priorities. More details of these schemes will be available around the end of this year.

Thirdly, we will continue to support our SMEs in their transformation journey.

For SMEs looking to automate and transform, they can tap on the Productivity Solutions Grant, the Enterprise Development Grant or the SMEs Go Digital programme.

Last month, Workforce Singapore launched the new Career Conversion Programme for SME Executives. SMEs can enjoy up to 90% salary support to hire mid-career local jobseekers.

These are just some of the many schemes out there. I urge SMEs to tap on the schemes available and begin their transformation journey.

Singapore is a small country, devoid of natural resources. The road to nation-building has never been smooth-sailing since Independence. Back then, Singapore was often likened to a small fishing boat in a big ocean, which could be easily swept away in a big storm. Our pioneers built on their resilience to ride out the odds and propel Singapore forward. After decades of hard work, Singapore has grown and progressed. We are no longer a small fishing boat, but a steady big ship.

I hope businesses will bear in mind the perseverance of our forefathers and continue to adopt the same attitude in their transformation. Let us create better employment prospects for our workers and work together for a better future!

(In English): Mr Chairman, before I close, allow me to share one aspect of uplifting our workers, which is to strengthen their retirement adequacy. As announced in the Budget Statement, we will do so in three ways.

First, we will adjust the Basic Retirement Sum to provide members with higher monthly payouts to keep pace with long-term inflation and rising standard of living. We expect more members to receive at least the Basic Retirement Sum payout, with about eight in 10 active CPF members turning age 55 in 2027 being able to do so. This is up from 67% for the cohort that turned 55 in 2021.

Second, we will implement the next step of the CPF contribution rate increase for senior workers.

Finally, the enhanced Workfare Income Supplement Scheme, we will top up the income of half a million lower-income workers, with payouts amounting to over $1 billion in CPF and in cash from 2023.

Mr Patrick Tay asked in his cut about raising the wage ceiling for CPF contributions and Mr Heng Chee How also raised this at the Budget debate. We are encouraged by the union's support for the CPF system.

The CPF wage ceiling has been periodically updated since 2003 to keep pace with wages of resident workers. The most recent update was in 2016. We will review the CPF wage ceiling and engage employers and employees ahead of any changes.

These efforts are aimed at helping Singaporeans save more and boost their retirement income. This will, however, be meaningless if we do not continue to safeguard the savings that Singaporeans set aside for old age. This is why we must carefully assess any calls for more liberal use of members' CPF monies.

In her cut, Ms Sylvia Lim suggested allowing members with CPF balances beyond the required retirement sum to make lumpsum withdrawals from their CPF savings before age 55, highlighting those who face income disruption.

The Government already provides targeted and directed support to these members. For example, to help those who face financial hardship during this difficult period, we introduced an entire suite of support measures, including the COVID-19 Recovery Grant. Singaporeans will also receive support from existing broad-based permanent schemes, such as Workfare and ComCare.

Importantly, all of these do not draw down on Singaporeans' CPF savings and, as Mr Desmond Choo wisely highlighted, it will not come at the expense of retirement income.

In his cut, Mr Gerald Giam requested for additional flexibility for seniors to use CPF to purchase 2-room Flexi flats and to pay for the resale levy.

Before members turn 55, they can request for their Ordinary Account (OA) savings not to be transferred to their Retirement Account (RA) if they intend to use it for housing. After they turn 55, members committed to a housing purchase may also use their CPF balances in excess of the Basic Retirement Sum to finance the housing purchase.

I would also like to reassure Mr Gerald Giam that CPF Board already exercises some flexibility for seniors facing financial hardship seeking to use CPF to purchase a 2-room Flexi flat.

To pay for any resale levy, home buyers can use the proceeds from the sale of their first subsidised flat.

Members who still face difficulties affording a property, including 2-room Flexi flats, can approach HDB for assistance. And I am sure HDB will also work with relevant agencies like CPF Board to provide help to members based on their specific needs.

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Next, Mr Louis Chua suggested having members seek higher investment returns on their CPF monies by expanding the range of financial instruments available under the CPF Investment Scheme or allowing members to invest alongside Government investment vehicles.

We have said this before and, Mr Louis Chua, coming from his financial background, should be familiar that there is no silver bullet in achieving higher returns. Higher returns come with higher risks and a greater potential for losses. And this is true of any investment fund, and Government investment entities are not immune to this. As Mr Desmond Choo pointed out, there is volatility and uncertainty in the investment climate.

Today, CPF members can already invest in a diverse range of products, including exchange-traded funds (ETFs), shares and gold products. The CPF Board welcomes more ETFs to join the CPF Investment Scheme. However, ETF providers' decision to apply for inclusion are, ultimately, based on their own commercial assessment. To safeguard members' interest, the CPF carefully considers these factors, such as investment-related fees and track records of the products, before approving any such applications. Only products listed under the Singapore Exchange or registered with local authorities are included under the CPF Investment Scheme as foreign products are subject to changing regulations in jurisdictions over which we have no oversight and no control.

As Mr Louis Chua mentioned, 75% of CPF Investment Scheme members made profits or broke even in the reporting period of FY2020. This means that 25% of members made cumulative total losses. More product offerings do not necessarily equate to higher returns.

To ensure that the list continues to remain relevant, the CPF Board will continue to review it on an ongoing basis. It strikes a balance between allowing CPF Investment Scheme participants the flexibility to diversify their investment portfolios to enhance their retirement nest eggs, while safeguarding members' interest.

So, we have to be very careful when striking this balance, because it involves CPF monies which should be safeguarded for retirement.

We are also studying if a lifetime retirement investment scheme can be introduced for members. It is meant for members with the risk appetite and sufficient investment horizon who may not wish to actively manage their investments. We will provide further information and updates when ready.

Meanwhile, members who prefer not to take any risks with their retirement savings already enjoy interest rates of up to 6% per annum on their CPF savings, where investment risk is entirely borne by the Government.

We will continue to look at how we can strengthen retirement adequacy for all of our members, so that they can enjoy financial security in their later years.

Let me conclude. We are making many moves to upgrade the capabilities of locals and complementarity of foreigners, uplift vulnerable workers and mature workers and uphold inclusive and progressive workplaces.

But we acknowledge there will always be more work to be done. But we will continue relentlessly to put in the hard work of supporting our workers and the businesses.

Charting new waters is never easy. I am sure Members here are familiar with the teach-a-man-to-fish analogy to equip ourselves for the lifelong journey ahead. Well, the essence of what we have laid out today reinforces this. But it also acknowledges that the waters are choppier, the fishes are harder to come by and catch, and if we just stay put and do not shift our anchor, we will soon run out of time and opportunity to fish!

So, we will have courses to teach you how to catch the harder-to-catch fish, we will equip you with upgraded equipment – all the advanced rods, the sonar equipment – to fish, including using the new COMPASS to guide you to bountiful sources of fish, notwithstanding choppier waters.

With workers, unions, businesses and the Government on the same ship together, I have no doubt that Singapore will continue her voyage into an even brighter future! [Applause.]

The Chairman: Senior Minister of State Dr Koh Poh Koon.

The Senior Minister of State for Manpower (Dr Koh Poh Koon): Mr Chairman, I will continue along the lines of Upgrade, Uplift and Uphold as outlined by the Minister. I will elaborate on how we will upgrade the capabilities of our local workforce, uplift our vulnerable workers, as well as transform our migrant worker ecosystem to support their well-being and resilience.

The SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package and the Jobs Growth Incentive (JGI) were introduced as extraordinary, time-bound measures to preserve human capital and expand local hiring amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The National Jobs Council's efforts saw more than 174,000 local jobseekers placed into jobs and skills opportunities as at end December 2021.

The labour market is recovering steadily and unemployment rates continued their downward trend. But we are not completely out of the woods. The COVID-19 situation may yet evolve further. There are segments of the workforce, such as mature workers that we were more concerned about even before COVID-19 and they have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Nonetheless, we have made good progress despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the close to 509,000 local hires supported through the JGI from September 2020 to August 2021, about half were mature workers. Some mature jobseekers continue to face difficulties in finding permanent jobs.

So, we will press on with tackling three structural issues.

First, vulnerable workers who might need additional support in the hiring process; second, mature workers who might need help transiting to new job roles; and third, continuing the outreach to jobseekers requiring career matching services.

In all three areas, some of the schemes launched during the pandemic have been especially useful and valuable in supporting the vulnerable jobseeker segments. We will continue to keep them in our toolkit of schemes, with some adjustments to their parameters.

To address the issue of vulnerable workers who need additional support in the hiring process, we will extend the JGI. As noted by Mr Yip Hon Weng, the JGI has been effective in encouraging employers to expand on local hiring. It was introduced in September 2020 and has been extended twice since then to March 2022. Close to 509,000 locals were hired into new jobs by 67,000 businesses from September 2020 to August 2021.

JGI-eligible employers have continued to hire from a wide pool of jobseekers, including half who were not employed at the point of hire.

Therefore, we will extend the JGI by another six months from March 2022 to September 2022. But we will concentrate our resources on the more vulnerable jobseeker segments as I had mentioned earlier, namely, mature workers not in work for at least six months, persons with disabilities and ex-offenders.

In the next phase of the JGI, employers of these groups of jobseekers will receive up to 40% salary support for the first six months, and up to 20% for the next six months. In line with previous JGI phases, employers should achieve local workforce growth and growth in local workforce earning at least $1,400 a month. This means that eligible employers may receive up to $21,600 per hire over a 12-month period.

The JGI will continue to work in concert with other existing structural programmes. For instance, to support employment of persons with disabilities, we have introduced the Enabling Employment Credit, which Minister of State Gan Siow Huang will elaborate on. Together, these schemes ensure that persons with disabilities continue to be well-supported during the economic recovery.

We hope that this will encourage employers to give them a chance, to hire them and train them if needed, so that they can eventually form an integral part of your workforce.

Mature workers may also need more help in making career transitions or re-entering employment. Through the SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways Programme, we have equipped workers with skills and opportunities to take on new employment. The company attachment programme allows employers to take a greater chance on unproven candidates, provide them with on-the-job training and evaluate their job fit. Even trainees who are not offered a job by the host organisation come out of the attachment equipped with skills, experience and industry contacts. Seventy-six percent of trainees who completed or exited their attachments found employment as at October 2021.

Some mature workers who may continue to face challenges in finding permanent jobs may already have years of experience and would only require some training to take on their intended roles. Hence, we will retain the SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways Programme for mature jobseekers. This will complement the deeper reskilling provided by our existing Career Conversion Programmes, or CCPs.

One such mature worker who was willing to undergo further training is Chan Wan Chuen. As a 45-year-old back-to-work mother who re-entered the workforce in 2020 after four years, she enrolled in the programme to upskill and improve her employability. I am glad to note that her positive mindset had paid off and she has transited well into her role as a Technology Assurance Domain Lead in UOB bank with her newly acquired skills in data analytics.

Miss Rachel Ong and Mr Liang Eng Hwa have asked for more details on how this scheme will be extended. Mature trainees will continue to receive training allowances of up to $3,800. However, with the recovery of the labour market, we will scale back Government funding from 90% to 70%, with the host organisations co-funding 30% of the allowance to the jobseekers.

To encourage host organisations to hire the trainees earlier if they are found to be a good fit, we will allow host organisations to receive the full support quantum if the trainees were hired at least three months into the attachment.

Ms Janet Ang has called on local workers to keep reskilling and to stay relevant and has highlighted CCPs as a useful way of helping our local workers to do this. I agree with her. The CCPs provide employers with substantial salary support when they hire and train mid-career hires for new job roles.

Since 2016, Workforce Singapore has placed over 39,000 locals into new job roles through CCPs. We want to continue to do more. But this will require both employers and jobseekers to also do their part. I encourage employers to adopt a "plug-train-play" mindset and be prepared to train their new hires instead of expecting a perfect fit from the word go. The CCP and SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways Programme will support you. I also want to encourage jobseekers to have a more open mind to new possibilities, new opportunities and to acquire new skills.

To help scale up efforts to reach out to more jobseekers, SGUnited Jobs and Skills Centres were introduced in June 2020 amidst the COVID-19 situation in all of our 24 HDB towns to provide career advisory and coaching services, as well as curate job opportunities available in the vicinity of our jobseekers.

To ensure that our job matching services remain readily accessible to our jobseekers in the heartlands, we will maintain SGUnited Jobs and Skills Centres in all 24 HDB towns. Besides having career ambassadors deployed to the centres, we will roll out job kiosks and phone advisory services so that we can flexibly deploy career ambassadors while best meeting the needs of our jobseekers.

We will also continue working with partners to provide more options for local jobseekers who are mature, long-term unemployed or persons with disabilities. We appointed Adecco as an SGUnited Jobs and Skills Placement Partner in March 2021 and have appointed two additional employment agencies, Charterhouse and Good Job Creations, this month.

We will not extend the SGUnited Traineeships after it expires in March 2022. The SGUnited Traineeship programme was introduced amidst a weak labour market to provide fresh graduates with traineeship opportunities to acquire industry-relevant experience and to build up their skillsets and networks. With the economy recovering, fewer graduates are participating in the scheme. But current trainees will be supported to the end of their traineeships.

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Sir, I will now move on to how we can drive transformation through working closely with our Tripartite Partners and industry players to provide greater support for companies and workers in their transformation journey.

NTUC shares a close relationship with the Government. They champion workers' interests, as well as trust with employers and the Government to achieve win-win outcomes.

Brother Heng Chee How suggested for a tripartite focus to identify priority sectors and occupations for re-skilling, especially for older workers, tapping on NTUC's Company Training Committees (CTCs). As shared by Brother Chee Hong Tat, since April 2019, NTUC has mobilised more than 800 companies to form CTCs and supported companies to develop and implement their transformation plans, including re-skilling of workers. This has enabled unions and companies to work together to respond with agility during COVID-19, to pivot operations to survive and, at the same time, to help workers sustain livelihoods.

The efforts of the unions via the CTCs have achieved positive outcomes and MOM wants to accelerate these efforts to benefit more companies and workers. Mr Sharael Taha has asked for the resources to support NTUC to scale up the CTCs. The Minister for Finance has shared in the Budget speech that we will support NTUC's efforts to scale up to 2,500 CTCs by 2025. This will double the coverage from 250,000 workers today to 500,000 workers in 2025. About $100 million will be set aside to support NTUC. We will invest $28 million to support NTUC to drive this transformation and another $70 million grant to enable companies to operationalise the transformation plans through the CTCs.

Next, I will talk about our efforts to uplift the different workforce segments, starting with senior workers. As announced during the Budget, the Government will continue to support the retirement adequacy of our seniors by raising the CPF contribution rates. By the time we are done with the full increase around 2030, a 55-year-old member currently earning median income can expect his monthly retirement payouts to be boosted by about 10%. Sir, I would like to say a few words in Mandarin.

(In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] The Government spares no effort to improve the quality and skills of the workforce so that every worker can enjoy better employment prospects.

Now, let me focus on senior workers. By 2030, our citizen population aged 65 and above will nearly double to 900,000. With an ageing population, it is important to tap on the accumulative human capital of our seniors to keep our economy growing.

To allow more senior workers to work longer if they wish to, from July this year we will raise the statutory retirement age from 62 to 63 and the reemployment age from 67 to 68. In addition, employees who are hired at age 55 and above can qualify for reemployment, as long as they have worked for their employer for two years.

According to the 2019 recommendations by the Tripartite Workgroup of Senior Workers, the Government will start to raise the CPF contribution rate for senior workers from this year and will continue to do so in 2023 to support the retirement adequacy of our seniors. By 2030, a 55-year-old member currently earning median income can expect his monthly retirement payouts to be boosted by 10%.

(In English): Sir, I will now go on to talk about how we will support self-employed persons. For our self-employed persons (SEPs), the Government has progressively strengthened support for this segment of the workforce over the years.

As announced at Budget 2022, eligible lower-income SEPs can receive enhanced Workfare payouts of up to $2,800 from 2023.

The Government has worked with insurers to introduce prolonged medical leave insurance, which covers many self-employed drivers and riders.

The Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management provides mediation services to SEPs to address disputes with their service buyers and SEPs can have their rights enforced at the Small Claims Tribunal.

One group of SEPs that we are paying closer attention to are those that work with online matching platforms which provide transport and delivery services. Known as platform workers, they work as private hire car and taxi drivers, or deliver food and goods to our consumers. The Government shares the concerns that Mr Louis Chua, Ms Yeo Wan Ling, Dr Shahira Abullah, Mr Sharael Taha and Ms Hazel Poa have raised about the welfare and job opportunities for platform workers. Mr Don Wee also highlighted this issue at the Budget debate.

With the emergence of digital platforms, it is now easier for people to source for work on online platforms. The profile of platform workers is diverse. We find that the majority of those who depend on platform work as their main job are older residents aged 50 and above, with non-tertiary qualifications, although delivery workers tend to be younger than other groups. Platform workers have consistently cited flexibility as a reason for taking up platform work. Some do it to supplement their main source of income, while others rely on it as their main source of income.

Earlier this week, the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) published a study on platform work, involving a survey of more than 900 private-hire car drivers and in-depth interviews with both the drivers as well as delivery riders. The study found that the flexibility offered by platform work comes with caveats. For instance, platform workers often have to follow working arrangements and pricing policies set by the platforms, which can change without their consent. Some have indicated that they view platform work as a temporary arrangement and would like to transit to regular employment. Even as we support them in their job search through career matching services and programmes under the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package, they may still face challenges, such as lacking the time to job hunt or having the requisite skills to take on new jobs.

This is a complex issue but, clearly, more needs to be done to close the gap in the protections provided for platform workers to ensure a fairer relationship between the platforms and the platform workers. Hence, we convened an Advisory Committee in September last year that includes representatives from Tripartite Partners to review this carefully. Since then, the Committee has been consulting widely through a public consultation exercise. I would like to take this opportunity to share some of our preliminary observations from the exercise.

On retirement and housing adequacy, most platform workers expressed concern over their ability to meet both current and future needs. More than half of platform workers who responded to our public consultation exercise felt that mandatory CPF contributions to their Special or Ordinary Accounts would be important for their retirement and housing needs. And on this issue, the IPS survey found that 84% were worried about whether they have enough savings for retirement.

Take the example of Ms Peh Xin Xuan, a 28-year-old who has been working as a food delivery rider for many years. For a period, it also served as her main income; it was her full-time job at that point in time. But over time, she found that the irregular earnings, without CPF contributions and the sheer physical demands of platform work took a toll on her financially, physically and mentally. Furthermore, Ms Peh recently applied for a BTO flat with her fiancé. Like many young Singaporeans, she hopes to use her CPF savings to finance the flat and would like more support to help riders like herself better save up for their long-term needs.

Clearly, this concern warrants intervention. Failure to do so will result in unmet needs in the future and impose costs on other parts of society.

Today, platform workers already contribute up to 10.5% of their earnings to their MediSave accounts. The Committee is considering the idea of requiring platform companies to make CPF contributions to support the retirement and housing needs of platform workers. Platform companies have raised concerns that such a move will result in a sudden increase in business cost, something which I can understand. So, an option being considered is a phased approach which will allow time for the platform ecosystem to adjust.

To Ms Hazel Poa's suggestion to allow a special scheme that allows platform workers to contribute and withdraw CPF on demand, I do not wish to pre-judge the deliberation of the Committee, but I would like to make a few clarifications.

Firstly, there are already private savings products which are available in the market for everyone, including platform workers. It is common for returns to be commensurate with the length of holding the funds in the account, such as a fixed deposit account. It is impractical to have our cake and eat it by allowing platform workers to withdraw and deposit like a savings account, while still enjoying interest rates higher than what is being offered by a fixed deposit account, for example, in the banks.

Secondly, allowing withdrawals on demand will also go against the objective of improving their long-term retirement adequacy by setting aside savings for old age and allowing for the compounding of interest to take place over time.

So, I would say that the PSP's suggestion is populist but impractical.

On financial protection in the event of work injury, platform workers said that they were concerned that injuries would affect their livelihoods, and that the insurance coverage provided was not consistent across different platform companies.

We are heartened by the general consensus among platform companies that they should provide some coverage against work injuries.

The Committee is exploring how the overall Work Injury Compensation Act (WICA) framework can be applied in this setting, but the Committee also recognises that any solution will need to take into account the nature of platform work, including flexibility in working time and the ability to work for more than one platform simultaneously.

On the issue of representation, some platform workers said that they lack avenues to voice concerns and expressed the hope that the unions could represent and assist them if there were disputes. Others wanted a say in contract terms that impact their well-being.

We are encouraged that, in response, platforms have indicated their willingness to support good industrial relations and improve the working conditions of platform workers.

Suggestions from the platforms include the establishment of industry-wide norms through tripartite discussions or with an independent body. The Advisory Committee will be studying these possible solutions, including the idea for unions to represent the platform workers.

Mr Patrick Tay asked if the Ministry will be reviewing the Employment Act. We do regularly review our legislation, including the Employment Act, in consultation with Tripartite Partners to ensure that they are relevant. Several major policy reviews are still ongoing, such as in relation to the work of the Advisory Committee for Platform Workers. It is too early to say how the recommendations would be implemented or what legislative changes are needed. We will consider the recommendations holistically and see how to ensure that our legislative frameworks can support the policies.

The eventual recommendations will contribute towards a more sustainable equilibrium – one where the costs of labour protections are more equitably distributed and shared across the stakeholders in the platform ecosystem.

Sir, I will now talk about our migrant worker community. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a challenging time for everyone, not least for our migrant workers. They have shown remarkable resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Their health and well-being have been a priority over the past year. As of 20 February 2022, 99.4% of migrant workers residing in dormitories are fully vaccinated.

During the last COVID-19 wave in September, migrant workers who tested COVID-19 positive were given timely access to medical support, through regional medical centres, mobile clinical teams and telemedicine consults. Most experienced mild or no symptoms and were able to recover safely in recovery facilities, with fewer than 0.1% requiring hospitalisation.

Beyond physical health, we co-created a mental health support ecosystem for migrant workers with our partners, including the Migrant Workers' Centre (MWC) and HealthServe. To date, close to 600 frontline officers have been trained in basic psychological first aid and more than 200 migrant worker peer leaders have undergone self-care and peer support training. They help to detect signs of distress amongst migrant workers more quickly and link them up with counselling services and support helplines in their native languages.

As mentioned in my response to the Adjournment Motion put forth by Mr Louis Ng last month and in response to Mr Leon Perera's question on easing of restrictions on migrant workers, let me say that migrant workers can visit any Recreation Centre, or RC, daily since September 2021. [Please refer to "Committee of Supply – Head S (Ministry of Manpower)" debate for clarification to the month stated, Official Report, 7 March 2022, Vol 95, Issue No 55, Budget section.]

Vaccinated migrant workers are allowed on community visits and, as of mid-February 2022, more than 95,000 migrant workers have visited the community. The current community visit quotas are not fully used up and we will be easing in steps the quota and restrictions and as the COVID-19 situation improves.

From 18 February, we have also stepped down the requirement for migrant workers to undergo the Rostered Routine Testing, or RRT. This would provide a return to normalcy for these workers.

We are also prioritising the granting of entry approvals for migrant workers to return to Singapore after they go on their home leave. This will facilitate them to go on home leave for visits.

7.15 pm

As we restore economic activities, we will need to continue bringing workers into Singapore safely and help newly-arrived migrant workers settle in. Therefore, in March last year, we started the Migrant Worker Onboarding Centres, which have now been renamed Onboard Centres.

These function as a one-stop centre for newly-arrived migrant workers, bringing together various entry requirements into an integrated and seamless end-to-end process. Workers can serve their Stay-Home Notice (SHN) as required, complete a medical examination, and undergo a residential Settling-in Programme (SIP), all under one roof. To date, more than 55,000 workers have gone through the Onboard Centres.

Going forward, MOM will continue to improve the well-being of our migrant workers by fortifying housing standards, improving medical support and increasing recreation options.

First, fortifying housing standards is an ongoing process and is necessary to create a safer and more comfortable living environment for our migrant workers. As announced last year, the Government will build two new purpose-built dormitories (PBDs) at Kranji and Jalan Tukang. These dormitories will be built to improved standards to minimise future outbreaks of diseases. We will also work with dormitory operators and other partners to test new and innovative ideas for dormitory living and management.

MOM is also reviewing the Foreign Employee Dormitories Act (FEDA) to expand its coverage to smaller dormitories with fewer than 1,000 beds.

Second, we will support employers in managing healthcare costs while improving medical support for our migrant workers. I will talk about this in the outpatient setting and the inpatient setting.

On the outpatient front, as announced on 19 February 2022, employers will be required to purchase a Primary Care Plan, or PCP, for migrant workers with effect from 1 April this year. MOM has appointed four medical service providers to deliver primary healthcare services over six geographical sectors.

This integrated primary healthcare system builds on the medical support plan we set up amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Migrant workers can expect to access a range of primary healthcare services, including acute and chronic care, 24/7 telemedicine services as well as mobile clinical teams, to ensure rapid responses to public health emergencies and concerns in dormitories.

The appointed medical service providers will minimise language and cultural barriers in care provision through hiring healthcare workers who can speak the native languages of our migrant workers.

Employers can purchase the PCP at a fixed fee of between $108 and $138 for each worker per year, or about $9 to $12 per worker a month. This gives employers cost clarity and will meet most of the primary care needs of their workers. To mitigate the moral hazard of overconsumption and instil personal responsibility, migrant workers will also be required to co-pay a small fee, ranging from $2 for a telemedicine session to $5 for each visit to the medical centre.

This PCP will be made mandatory for all workers living in the dormitories or working in the construction, marine shipyard and process sectors, as part of work pass requirements.

On the inpatient front, MOM will enhance the coverage of the mandatory medical insurance to better protect employers against large medical bills for their Work Permit and S Pass holders, including those of migrant domestic workers (MDWs).

Today, employers are responsible for the medical expenses of their Work Permit and S Pass holders that are incurred in Singapore. Unlike that of locals, the medical bills of migrant workers and migrant domestic workers, or MDWs, are not subsidised. They are also not covered under the national schemes, such as MediShield Life and MediFund. To help employers better manage the medical bills of their migrant workers, employers are required to purchase medical insurance with at least $15,000 coverage for their Work Permit and S Pass holders.

As medical costs are expected to increase over the years, more employers may end up incurring larger out-of-pocket expenses on their workers' medical bills. To provide employers greater peace of mind in financing their workers' inpatient and day surgery bills, the coverage of the mandatory medical insurance will be enhanced with the following features.

First, we will maintain the first dollar cover of at least $15,000. This ensures that the bulk of employers whose workers' medical bills fall under $15,000 continue to be fully protected under the enhanced model. On average, there are over 1,000 employers per year who face bills that are larger than $15,000. A co-payment component will be introduced for them, up to an annual claim limit of at least $60,000. This ensures that healthcare costs remain affordable and sustainable. Let me illustrate this with an example.

Under today's existing requirement, if a migrant worker or a migrant domestic worker incurs a $70,000 bill, the insurer will cover the first $15,000 and the employer will be left to bear the remaining $55,000. With the enhanced medical insurance, the insurer will continue to cover the first $15,000 in full, as per today. For the remaining $55,000, the insurer will co-pay 75% while the employer will pay the remaining bill. This means that the employer pays $13,750, which is significantly lower than the $55,000 he would otherwise need to fork out today.

The second enhancement is that we will standardise a list of baseline allowable exclusions across insurers. This will provide greater clarity to employers on the coverage that they are entitled to.

For example, insurers may exclude procedures that are not medically necessary, treatments arising from workers' criminal acts or repeat occurrences of undesirable acts by workers such as self-inflicted injuries as well as venereal diseases. Insurers may also exclude treatments for pre-existing illnesses that occur within the first 12 months of the worker's employment with the same employer.

The third enhancement is that insurers will have to offer age-differentiated premiums for workers aged 50 and below and those who are above the age of 50. This will help to keep premiums affordable for the vast majority of employers, given that 95% of our migrant workers and migrant domestic workers are below 50 years old.

The fourth enhancement will require insurers to reimburse the claims for inpatient and day surgery bills directly to the hospitals instead of making employers pay for their workers' medical treatment upfront and then claim it from the insurers later. This will help employers who are cash-strapped and free up cash flow for businesses and help families who have migrant domestic workers in this process.

Employers with existing Work Permit and S Pass workers will also progressively transition onto the new medical insurance policy when they renew their work passes. The enhanced coverage for medical insurance will be effected for all new work pass applications by the end of 2022.

The enhancements have been carefully calibrated to provide better support for businesses and migrant domestic worker employers in managing large medical bills while keeping premiums affordable. I want to thank employers, industry associations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which have expressed their support for the enhanced medical insurance scheme during our engagements with them.

The third area we want to do for our migrant workers is to enhance their social well-being and recreational needs. Our partnerships with NGOs and other whole-of-society partners have been crucial in helping us to support our migrant workers. We have been working hand-in-hand with our migrant worker community, too, as they would better understand the needs of their fellow workers.

Mr Rajarathinam Sankaralingam has been a dormitory supervisor since 2012 and assigned to oversee activities in two dormitories. On top of his regular activities and duties, such as conducting briefings to fellow migrant workers on the latest Government advisories and guidelines, Mr Lingam often goes above and beyond by accompanying residents who require medical treatment at hospitals even when these incidents take place at night. We are thankful for their partnership.

We are working with NGO partners to make our eight Recreation Centres livelier by bringing in more programmes and activities that our migrant workers enjoy, such as retail bazaars as well as sports and cooking competitions. A ninth Recreation Centre will be ready later this year in Sembawang.

Workers are able to visit the Recreation Centres for essential services like topping up and purchasing telephone cards, going to the barber, buying groceries as well as for other recreational activities, such as movie screenings, live performances and meeting their friends.

The Chairman: Dr Koh Poh Koon, my apologies for having to stop you. As we are approaching 7.30 pm, I would have to invite the Deputy Leader to move the Exempted Business Motion.

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. Deputy Leader.

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) –

Dr Koh Poh Koon: Thank you, Sir. Sir, as mentioned earlier, migrant workers have been visiting the community.

Today, the visit slots are not fully utilised, but we are prepared to adjust the quota to allow more migrant workers to visit the community as the COVID-19 situation improves.

Mr Chairman, to help sustain the resilience of our workforce, we have put in place measures to drive workforce transformation, to uplift our vulnerable workers as well as transform the migrant worker ecosystem by improving existing healthcare, housing and recreational needs.

As we continue our work for these groups of workers, there is still much work to be done for others, such as our platform workers. Strengthening our workforce will always be a priority to ensure that we remain resilient in future storms.

The Chairman: Minister, you have a clarification?

Dr Tan See Leng: Yes, Mr Chairman, I have a clarification. With regard to the Non-Traditional Sources (NTS) List, I mentioned that the NTS List will start in 2021. It should start in 2023.

The Chairman: Deputy Leader, may I invite you to report progress?