Gig workers: Committee to focus on savings, injury protection; may involve legislative change
RETIREMENT and housing adequacy, work injury financial protection and bargaining power are the three big areas that the newly-formed advisory committee on platform workers will look into, it announced on Wednesday.
The committee's work is expected to be completed by the second-half of 2022.
The end-product may involve putting out recommendations that require legislative change, said Senior Minister of State for Manpower Koh Poh Koon. He was speaking to reporters at a virtual press conference on Wednesday, after the committee's first meeting.
"It could well be a set of tripartite guidelines, for example, to guide either workers or platform operators on what is the expected behaviour... It may well be other things that require legislative changes to bring into effect; some of the measures that need to be secured and guarded by law to give adequate legal protection," he said.
"Or it could well be something that we leave to the union, for example, to have the flexibility to negotiate with the platform operators, because the situation can evolve; platform business models can change as well, so we do not want everything to be a one-size-fits-all."
Headed by Goh Swee Chen, chairperson of the Institute for Human Resource Professionals, the advisory committee is focused on three groups of platform workers: delivery persons, private-hire car drivers and taxi drivers. It includes industry experts, academics and government representatives (full list at bottom).
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The committee, which was announced after this year's National Day Rally, ultimately seeks to ensure a more balanced relationship between platform companies and their workers, said Ms Goh at the virtual press conference.
Asked about the year-long duration, she said: "The intent is to ensure that we do have a balanced outcome here, taking into consideration the needs of the parties. It is complex and that's why we need the broad consultation and the time to ensure that the work itself doesn't in any way be detrimental, either to the platforms or the platform workers."
On the question of why the committee does not have any representatives from the platform companies, Ms Goh cited the issue of commercial sensitivity.
"What we want to do is to respect the commercial sensitivity of each of these platforms, and therefore we thought that if we convene a committee, we would not be able to work through some of the details that we would need to work through (with) platforms themselves.
"What we will be doing is to establish a resource panel, and this is where we will reach out to the key stakeholders. This will include the platforms themselves," she said.
On the issue of retirement and housing adequacy, the committee noted in a press release that platform workers, as self-employed persons, contribute about 8-10.5 per cent of their income to their Medisave. However, platform operators currently do not make CPF contributions for workers. The committee will explore ways to help platform workers save up for retirement and housing needs.
In the case of work injuries, the committee will look into how platform workers can be better protected financially if injured. This is since they are often on the road and at greater risk of accidents and injury.
The third issue of bargaining power stems from how platform workers are not able to form unions, because they are not employees. They therefore have no access to unions' collective bargaining and dispute resolution mechanisms. The committee will look into how to strengthen their bargaining power.
The platform work model is likely to continue its rise, increasing the consequentiality of the committee's work, its vice-chairperson Danny Quah, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, told reporters.
"The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed a dramatic rethink of traditional ways of working. All of that rethink moves in the same direction, of this kind of fragmentation of tasks and moving into more of a platform economy modality," he said.
Like Singapore, other mature economies such as the US, UK and Italy are also tackling platform worker issues. "In some dimensions, (they are) already ahead of Singapore. In other dimensions, Singapore will be leading the way," Prof Quah said.
ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON PLATFORM WORKERS
Advisor: Koh Poh Koon, Senior Minister of State for Health and Manpower
Chairperson: Goh Swee Chen, Chairperson, Institute for Human Resource Professionals
Vice-Chairperson: Danny Quah, Dean and Li Ka Shing Professor in Economics, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
Members (industry)
- Sim Gim Guan, Executive Director, Singapore National Employers Federation
- Lam Yi Young, Chief Executive Officer, Singapore Business Federation
- Shaikh Ismail, Director, MOHH Entities Technology Services, Integrated Health Information Systems
- Leslie Teo, Managing Director, Data and Strategic Transformation, Great Eastern Life
Members (labour movement)
- Ang Hin Kee, Advisor to National Taxi Association (NTA) and National Private Hire Vehicles Association (NPHVA)
- Yeo Wan Ling, Advisor to NTA and NPHVA
- Jean See Jin Li, Executive Secretary to NPHVA, and Director, NTUC
Freelancers and Self-Employed Unit
Members (academia)
- Hoon Hian Teck, Dean, Singapore Management University School of Economics
- Jessica Pan, Associate Professor of Economics, National University of Singapore
Members (government)
- Poon Hong Yuen, Deputy Secretary (Workforce), Ministry of Manpower
- Jeremy Yap, Deputy Chief Executive (Public Transport, Policy and Planning), Land Transport Authority
- Adrian Chua, Deputy Secretary (Industry), Ministry of Trade and Industry
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