Tripartite Guideline or Standard on Unexpected Care Leave

6 Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Manpower whether the Ministry will consider (i) upgrading the Tripartite Standard on Unpaid Leave for Unexpected Care Needs to take the form of Tripartite Guidelines and (ii) eventually legislating the Tripartite Standard on Unpaid Leave for Unexpected Care Needs.

7 Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Manpower (a) whether the Ministry will consider launching a Tripartite Standard on (i) paid childcare sick leave and (ii) paid parent care leave; and (b) if not, why not.

The Minister of State for Manpower (Ms Gan Siow Huang) (for the Minister for Manpower): Mr Speaker, may I take Question Nos 6 and 7 together?

Mr Speaker: Yes, please.

Ms Gan Siow Huang: Currently, employers are required by legislation to provide various types of leave to support employees' caregiving needs. For instance, besides Maternity and Paternity Leave, employers are also required to provide Childcare and Extended Childcare Leave on an annual basis.

Some employers have also gone beyond these legally-mandated provisions to provide additional paid leave, such as Child Sick leave, Parental Care leave and Family Care leave.

To promote such progressive practices, tripartite partners introduced the Tripartite Standard on Work-life Harmony, which encourages employers to provide at least two enhanced types of leave in their companies. Depending on what best meets the needs of the employer and its employees, these can include paid Child Sick leave and paid Parental Care leave, which the Member had asked about.

We will continue to promote workplace practices that strike a good balance in addressing employees' caregiving needs and business needs. This includes encouraging flexible work arrangements (FWAs), which are more sustainable.

Mr Speaker: Mr Louis Ng.

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang (Nee Soon): Thank you, Sir. I thank the Minister of State for the reply and for showing concerns, especially for parents who have twins or triplets and pre-term babies. But we have had the Tripartite Standards for quite some time now. So, could I just ask whether there is a timeframe where we are going to review on upgrading these Tripartite Standards into Tripartite Guidelines?

Second, what are the thresholds before we will consider converting it into Guidelines? And I know that this would not affect the majority of companies because, even for the Civil Service, only about 25 officers take this unpaid leave every year for the last few years. So, it has a minimal impact on the majority of companies but a tremendous help that parents of twins and triplets and pre-term babies really need. So, I hope the Government will consider this.

Ms Gan Siow Huang: We share the Member's concerns with supporting employees with caregiving needs, especially those with young children as well as those who have to take care of elderly parents. The Tripartite Standards are voluntary in nature and, basically, what we are trying to do is to enable businesses to be able to support their employees through family-friendly workplace culture and also balancing business needs as well as the employees' caregiving needs.

The Tripartite Standards, basically, give flexibility for employers to provide additional benefits for the employees, where possible to do so. And in a tight labour market, it is actually in the employers' interest to consider how best to meet the needs of their employees in order to attract and to retain them.

At the same time, the Government is also looking at stepping up and enhancing ways in which the community and infrastructure in the public can support employees who have caregiving needs, whether it is childcare facilities or eldercare day care facilities.

Mr Speaker: Mr Louis Ng.

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang: Thank you, Sir. I really hope the Minister of State can share whether we are going to review this. I appreciate that there are all the other programmes in place, but are we going to review this and improve it from a Standard into Guidelines? I am not asking for legislation, but for it to become a Tripartite Guideline instead.

Ms Gan Siow Huang: Well, the difference between Tripartite Standard and Tripartite Guidelines is that a Tripartite Standard is voluntary for companies to consider. Guidelines, on the other hand, will become mandatory for companies to apply, which means that companies that do not comply will be subject to administrative actions by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

So, as I have explained earlier on, the reason why we do not too quickly and easily convert Tripartite Standards into Guidelines is because we also have to be mindful of the impact on businesses and, at the same time, we understand that if we want to support employees who have caregiving needs, it is important to promote family workplace culture and FWAs, which will become Guidelines by next year, and, at the same time, look at how else we can support employees with caregiving needs through community support as well as public infrastructure.

Mr Speaker: Assoc Prof Jamus Lim.

Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim (Sengkang): I thank Minister of State Gan for her response. I am just wondering if we can push it just a little bit more, because, of course, many of our residents – especially mothers, not just mothers of triplets; but working mothers in general – have struggled with this. So, I wonder if the Ministry will consider, not moving to Guidelines for all firms, which I understand, especially for SMEs, it may be difficult to follow through, but perhaps only for the largest firms, to begin with.

Mr Speaker: Minister Tan.

The Minister for Manpower (Dr Tan See Leng): Thank you, Speaker, for allowing me to respond to both the hon Members of Parliament. We intend to put the Tripartite Guidelines on FWAs up some time next year, in 2024. Members would appreciate the fact that this is a tripartite initiative. So, it involves the Government, the Labour Movement as well as the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF).

So, in moving it forward, we need to get the concurrence and support, not just from a top-down perspective, but also from ground-up. And those Guidelines will then be set into motion. It will always be a work-in-progress to see how we can continue to titrate and calibrate according to the needs of the businesses and the needs of our workers, our local population, as well as also the needs of the employers. I hope this answers and addresses both the Members' concerns.