Labour MPs call for support for vulnerable groups and protection of 'Singaporean Core'

Singapore

MEMBERS of Parliament (MPs) from the Labour Movement have called for more measures to protect vulnerable workers - including lower-wage employees, seniors and migrant workers - and lessen income equality, with several also asking to protect the workforce's "Singaporean core".

Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday at the start of the three-day Budget debate, National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) deputy secretary-general Koh Poh Koon cited figures that suggest starker income inequality in Singapore than in other developed countries.

Today, the 20th percentile ("P20") of wage earners in Singapore earns about half (0.54) of the median income, he said.

Dr Koh noted that the P20 salary is at least two-thirds (0.67) of the median in most Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries.

To narrow the gap, he called for reforms to the Progressive Work Model (PWM) and the Workforce Income Supplement (WIS) schemes.

The PWM specifies wage levels for certain groups of lower-wage workers, and the WIS provides cash and Central Provident Fund (CPF) pay-outs to eligible workers.

The PWM should be expanded to more sectors and occupation groups, said Dr Koh.

The mandatory PWM should also cover in-house workers, instead of only outsourced sectors currently.

The NTUC is pushing for PWMs in six more sectors - waste management, food services, retail, strata management, pest management and solar technology.

This is in addition to the cleaning, security and landscape sectors currently covered by mandatory PWMs; the lift industry will be covered from 2022.

Dr Koh also called for WIS pay-outs to be based solely on income, and not age.

Currently, younger lower-wage workers receive smaller pay-outs than older ones. The 12-month income-assessment period for WIS eligibility should also be shortened, he suggested.

Fellow labour MP Fahmi Aliman ( (Marine Parade GRC) added that higher WIS pay-outs should be considered for workers in essential services like cleaning and security. PWM wages should also rise for these workers, to "adequately acknowledge the value of their work to our society", he said.

Heng Chee How, who is also deputy secretary-general at NTUC, made seniors the focus of his speech. He urged more government support for senior workers in distressed sectors like aerospace, aviation and retail, to keep their jobs or find new ones.

He reiterated calls to increase older workers' CPF contribution rates from January 2022; he also called for the raising of the statutory retirement age to 63 and the re-employment age ceiling to 68 from July 2022.

The CPF increases were supposed to have taken place from January 2021, but were deferred for a year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mr Heng also advocated a more systematic and pervasive adoption of flexible working arrangements, which can benefit senior workers and caregivers.

There should also be more skills-building initiatives for workers of all ages, and attention paid to workplace health, including vaccinations, to forestall potential discrimination based on health concerns.

The labour movement's assistant secretary-general Patrick Tay called for tougher sanctions to protect jobs for older professionals, managers and executives (PMEs) in their 40s to 60s.

This could include harsher penalties on companies with discriminatory hiring practices, and anti-discrimination legislation.

For example, Mr Tay proposed removing preferential tax and other benefits from companies with discriminatory hiring practices that show no improvement within a stipulated time period, including curtailing the award of public-sector contracts to these companies.

He also suggested Employment Pass (EP) and S Pass salaries be regularly reviewed, in line with rising median wages for professionals, managers and executives (PMETs).

At the same time, he alluded to gaps in the current framework, citing anecdotes of employers raising the salaries of foreign hires to comply with the higher salary requirements - but without offering similar pay hikes to Singaporean PMETs, resulting in "serious parity issues".

Mr Tay also cited anecdotes of employers moving their EP holders to S Passes to comply with policy changes. While there are quotas in place for S Pass holders, the minimum salary requirements are lower for S Passes than they are for EPs.

Nominated MP Abdul Samad Abdul Wahab, the NTUC's vice-president, called on the government to recognise companies who build a "stronger Singaporean core" and develop their local workforce, through "positive differentiation among companies that do not".

"I would like to call on all employers to make the local workforce your employee of choice, and ensure skills transfer to the local workers to moderate reliance on foreign labour," he said.