Uptake of Progressive Wage Mark Accreditation and Its Impact on Volume of Business

18 Ms Yeo Wan Ling asked the Minister for Manpower (a) since the implementation of the Progressive Wage (PW) Mark accreditation, recognising companies that pay progressive wages to lower-wage workers, how has the uptake of the PW Mark accreditation been; and (b) whether the Ministry tracks if more service buyers have chosen to do business exclusively with companies accredited with the PW Mark.

The Senior Minister of State for Manpower (Mr Zaqy Mohamad) (for the Minister for Manpower): Since the Progressive Wage Mark (PW Mark)'s launch in January 2023, more than 3,600 firms have been accredited with the PW Mark.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) encourages service buyers to procure from PW Mark-accredited suppliers. However, MOM does not track the number of service buyers that have chosen to do business exclusively with companies accredited with the PW Mark. Nonetheless, based on our recent business sentiment survey, nine in 10 businesses polled indicated that they will prioritise purchases from corporate suppliers with the PW Mark, in support of our lower-wage workers.

As a major service buyer, the Government has taken the lead in making the PW Mark a contractual obligation for tenders since 1 March 2023. This requirement will be extended to include Government quotations from 1 March 2024.

Sir, uplifting lower-wage workers is a whole-of-society effort. We urge all employers to pay Progressive Wages to their lower-wage workers and to apply for the PW Mark if eligible. We also encourage service buyers and consumers to do their part by purchasing from PW Mark-accredited companies, where possible.

Mr Speaker: Ms Yeo Wan Ling.

Ms Yeo Wan Ling (Pasir Ris-Punggol): In the successful roll-out of the Progressive Work Model (PWM), it is important that service buyers embrace revised wage ladders set up by the Tripartite Committee. It is very heartening to note that the take-up rate has been healthy for the PW Mark. How many employees does this translate to and the percentage of 20th percentile and below worker segments?

I also note what Senior Minister of State had mentioned – that the Government had taken the lead and requiring for PW Mark for suppliers and sub-contractors in new Government tenders. In the same vein, will they also take the lead in starting the re-negotiation process for existing contracts, especially for the long-term contracts which can extend up to 10 years?

Additionally, there has been some feedback that some service buyers have asked for service providers to pass on or share their Progressive Wage Credit Scheme (PWCS) credits that the service providers receive during the re-negotiation process. While this advisory shows that the practice is not supported and that PWCS support should instead be made transparent by service providers in the negotiation process, what pragmatic steps is the Ministry taking to safeguard service providers against such requests in the process of re-negotiations?

Mr Zaqy Mohamad: To the Member's first supplementary question on how many workers are covered, I mentioned earlier that we have got more than 3,600 firms that are accredited with the PW Mark and that collectively, they hire approximately 56,000 low-wage workers. If you think about the percentages, in the 2021 Tripartite Workgroup Report, we sized the low-wage worker segment to be about 283,000 workers. So, this is about 20% of the total population. Which I think is encouraging, given it has been implemented for the first few months.

Secondly, as the Government has also put in place requirements for contract obligations for firms who want to tender and subsequently in future, to quote as well to Government, this will hopefully drive more adoption. I think this is an encouraging sign.

To the Member's question on contract re-negotiations, these are commercial negotiations. Therefore, the Government does not intervene in contracting. I think that has to be the principle. However, on the Government procurement, I think we are largely aligned with the Tripartite Advisory. So, the terms, conditions and the advisory given by the tripartite partners are quite clear. And therefore, we encourage and we certainly will make sure that our Government agencies abide by it and support this.

On the question relating to long-term contracts and some of these unscrupulous practices, I suggest that the Tripartite Advisory is an agreement made between the Government, the Labour Movement as well as their employers. So, if they are specific cases, I recommend the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) or the Member surface them to us so that we can look into them and advise accordingly.