Protecting PMEs against whimsical dismissals

WHEN Singapore's main employment legislation, the Employment Act, was passed in 1968, it sought to standardise the working conditions of clerks, industrial clerks, shop assistants and workmen to instill discipline, attract foreign investment and create jobs.

The workforce demographics in Singapore's early days of independence consisted largely of such blue-collar workers. The doyens of the workforce then - managers, executives and confidential employees - represented a small, elite class considered able enough to negotiate bespoke conditions of service for themselves, and thus did not require such legal protection.

Fast forward 40 years and Singapore's employment landscape has changed quite dramatically, from one of industrial production to one with a growing services sector. Today, workers are much better educated and qualified, and managers and executives are now a significant part of the workforce. This largely overlooked class, numbering about 630,000 (roughly a third of the total resident workforce), has gradually grown its profile; at first known by the catchy acronym PMET (profess…