Expanding Foreign Construction Worker Directory System to Other Sectors

3 Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Manpower whether the Ministry will consider (i) expanding the Foreign Construction Worker Directory (FCWD) System to other sectors such as the cleaning sector and (ii) incorporating the FCWD portal on mobile applications targeted at foreign workers.

The Minister of State for Manpower (Mr Zaqy Mohamad) (for the Minister for Manpower): Speaker, the Foreign Construction Worker Directory System (FCWDS) was set up in 2015 by the Singapore Contractors Association Limited (SCAL) to facilitate job matching between employers and foreign workers in the Construction sector. The Construction industry finds it useful to develop the FCWDS to flexibly redeploy workers across companies given that the work is cyclical and mainly project-based.

We have not come across another industry which has expressed interest to set up a similar directory.

The FCWDS has been incorporated into a third-party mobile app owned by the private sector, called the FWapp, to improve its accessibility to foreign construction workers.

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang (Nee Soon): I thank the Minister of State for the reply. I was just wondering whether we can extend this to the cleaning sector. Because I think the cleaning sector, like the construction sector, is quite cyclical as well. A lot of the contracts are two years. So, a lot of these cleaners who come to Singapore to work and gain their experience, sometimes, go back within the two years. I think it will benefit both the cleaners and the companies to hire the skilled workers in Singapore.

The second question I would like to ask is whether we can then incentivise the hiring of the existing workers who are in Singapore. This directory will be more effective if we can incentivise, in a sense, maybe provide a reduced foreign worker levy if they hire workers already in Singapore.

Mr Zaqy Mohamad: I thank the Member for his clarification. Firstly, when we look at this, it is really to strike a balance and giving employers certainty, especially in the Services sector compared to Construction which is very project-based. Services tend to be for longer periods, for example, as mentioned, it could be two years; it depends on the length of the contract. There is a difference there. The second difference is that when you look at the Construction, for example, SCAL as an industry association, championed it and therefore, the database was set up and agreed upon by employers. We have not received requests from other industry associations. Certainly, for the cleaning sector, if the industry association is prepared to do so, we can take a look.

Specific to cases, for example, in Town Councils, where contracts change and cleaning contractors have to move around, we have facilitated some of the changed between employers. We have facilitated some of these to ensure that cleaning service is not disrupted. That is something we are prepared to do, but not as a broad-based policy, nation-wide.

11.07 am

Mr Speaker: Order. End of Question Time. The Clerk will now proceed to read the orders of the day.