Ministry of Manpower Committee of Supply on 3 March 2020 - Speech by Patrick Tay Teck Guan, MP for West Coast GRC and Chairman, GPC for Manpower

Sir, I beg to move, “That the total sum to be allocated for Head S of the Estimates be reduced by $100”.

Fairness – Work, Workers, Workplaces

I wish to dedicate my cut to highlighting three important manpower issues in Singapore to enhance fairness and opportunity – for all workers, regardless of the work that they do and their workplaces. I would like to further categorise accordingly:

i. Singaporean Core

ii. Mature & Mid-Career Workers and PMEs

iii. Freelance and Self Employed.

Strengthening Singaporean Core

I applaud the recent move by the Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) to further augment and strengthen the Fair Consideration Framework (FCF) and the naming of recalcitrant employers and companies. I congratulate the good work by the TAFEP team.

I wish to ask MOM to provide an update on how effective the FCF has been to level the playing field for Singaporean PMEs and remove nationality discrimination in hiring practices.

Since 1 Aug 2014, how many complaints have been received and how many companies have MOM called up for additional scrutiny and what has been the success rate in convincing and ensuring that companies discontinue their poor hiring practices.

Many PMEs I’ve met have shared that they are not unhappy with foreign PMEs who bring in huge businesses and investments in Singapore and have unique international competencies. Instead, they are unhappy with foreign PMEs doing jobs which Singaporeans can undertake and do. At the same time, we want to see further efforts to encourage capability transfer, so that we can develop a Singaporean Core across all levels of hierarchy, from rank and file to top management.

In this area of strengthening the Singaporean Core, I have four suggestions:

(1) With the rise of S pass numbers, can MOM explore extending the Fair Consideration Framework to ‘S’ Pass holders as well;

(2) Whether MOM can review the salary ceiling for Employment Pass applicants to level the playing field for our Singaporean PME. This is also in consideration of the rise of median and entry salaries of our local PMEs;

(3) To review and better scrutinise the FCF exemption on intra-company transfers; and;

(4) Whether MOM can push ahead in creating more flexible work-from-home opportunities for Singaporeans. The question to ask is: Are there tasks or jobs that can be arranged to be performed by Singaporeans who require very flexible work arrangements (e.g. stay at home fathers or mothers, caregivers for parents, those with family members who are ill etc)? I find this important, particularly with an ageing populace. This can also be a source of employment for those who are not able to fit into the current model of flexible employment, where work can still be delivered for less time-critical tasks.

Mid-Career and Mature PMEs

I highlighted during the Budget Debate on the exacting challenges faced by mid-career and mature workers especially PMEs in the area of finding work and staying employable.

I wish to ask MOM for an update including the take-up figures, retention and data on the various schemes under the Adapt the Grow since it was first launched. In particular, I wish to ask:

(1) The Professional Conversion Programme (PCP) – further sub-divided into PCP for new entrants and pre-emptive in-employment PCP. I also wish to ask how MOM intends to make the PCP an attractive option for PMEs and better manage the dropout rate of PCP candidates?

(2) The Career Support Programme (CSP) was rolled out on 1 October 2015 to encourage employers to hire mature PMEs for jobs paying $4000 and above, by providing salary support. I wish to ask how CSP has made mid-career PMEs more employed and employable. In particular, are there avenues to further enhance and expand the CSP scheme so as to help more mid-career PMEs land themselves in suitable quality jobs.

(3) The Jobs Bank, otherwise now known as the My Careers Future portal – How successful has the portal been to connect mid-career PMEs to jobs and minimise situations whereby there is jobs and skills mismatch? I also wish to ask if further enhancements can be made so that the portal can also leverage on big data to better enhance job matching.

By the same token, anecdotally, I still hear complaints of ageism in the hiring of workers in various workplaces. Though not rampant, this is and will be a growing challenge as we face the imminent challenges of an ageing workforce; an increasingly mature and older workforce, and as we raise the retirement and re-employment ages. Job Re-Design and augmented technology and intelligence are imperatives but will not be the dynamic panacea...I can’t emphasise the need for us to change mindsets and attitudes towards this segment of workers. Besides the tripartite partners, our people and society as a whole must embrace the changing fabric of the Singaporean workforce so that we can overcome unfortunate stereotyping and mental models.

Freelancers and Self Employed

Thirdly, the freelance and self-employed group of workers are one big group affected by the current COVID19 situation. To mitigate the effects brought about by the outbreak and better support freelancers and self-employed persons during this lull period, I reiterate the call I made during the Budget debate to extend the absentee payroll (which is traditionally used to fund employers) to this group of workers. This is so that they can also have the opportunity to go for skills upgrading and training, while receiving a training allowance. NTUC stands ready to partner the government to administer the Surrogate Employer Programme, so that we can better encourage our freelancers and self-employed persons to come forward for training.

Sir, in Mandarin.

如何确保所有工友，无论白领蓝领自由业者，在职场上都能受到 公平待遇是职总一向来非常关注的课题。在这方面，我有三大建 议:

首先， 人力部最近 宣布更新 公平考量框架，

打造以新加 坡人为核心的劳动队伍的工作上要继续迈进，比方说缩紧 S Pass 和 EP 申请条件上或甚至打造更多机会，让有需要的国人有 灵活工作安排的选择。

同时，为更好的帮助年龄 40 到 60 岁的国人能够找到好的工 作，在职场上与时俱进，我们是否能够加强政府所推出的各种计 划，如专业人士转业计划、职业支援计划或甚至新加坡工作库， 为帮助更多的国人能够从事好的工作，享受好的职业发展。在我 国劳动队伍老龄化的趋势下，我鼓励大家改变对中年或年长工友 的观念和态度。

第三，由于 2019 冠状病毒疫情，许多自由工作者和自雇人士也 受到冲击。当务之急，便是如何帮助这群工友或甚至一些被忽略 的工友在这段低迷时期，也能在放缺席假期间获得薪金补贴。职 总已做好准备，同政府重启“代理雇主计划”，鼓励他们报读课 程，提升技能。

Review of Industrial Relations Act

The Industrial Relations Act was amended in 2015 to permit rank and file unions to collectively represent executive employees. In order to avoid conflicts of interest and undermining management effectiveness, executives with senior management functions were excluded from collective representation. These functions are set out in section 17(3) of the Act. The tripartite partners have also issued the Tripartite Guidelines on Extending the Scope of Union Representation for Executives.

In the years that have followed, unions which have sought to extend their scope of representation to include executives have met with some difficulties, mainly due to the overly general way in which the exclusions in section 17(3) have been worded.

At ground level, our unions have come across instances where employers cite section 17(3) to deny collective representation for executives who are not really in senior management grades or having access to information which would give rise to genuine conflict of interest if they should be represented by the union.

The unions’ experience, therefore, is that the exclusions set out in section 17(3) are too broadly worded, thereby giving employers the opportunity to claim that even mid-level executive employees fall within them, whereas the intent behind the law was only to exclude those who are at senior management levels and carrying out functions which genuinely give rise to a conflict of interest if they are represented by a union.

Besides these, there are other areas such as the status of Collective Agreements during a Judicial Management/Receivership and whether the scope of coverage of the CA can be limited to union members only and several other procedural and technical areas which are unclear.

I would like to suggest that a tripartite workgroup be formed to look at reviewing the IR Act and addressing some of these areas of concern. This will help to better reflect the true intent of the law, look after the interests and welfare of workers and help employers and unions reach consensus on extension of scope and other areas of industrial relations smoothly and expeditiously.

Review of Trade Unions Act

In light of the expected growth of freelance workers or what many term the ‘gig economy’ in the next 5 to 10 years, the labour movement hopes more can be done to enable this group to become union members, so that they too, can enjoy the plethora of membership privileges NTUC and our Unions offer. At present, the Trade Unions Act requires a person to be in a ‘contract of service’ to join a trade union. Freelancers who are in a ‘contract for service’ may not be full fledged union members per se. As such, I suggest for the Ministry Of Manpower to work with NTUC to review and study this with a view of removing or relaxing the prohibition, and explore ways to allow freelancers to be union members without compromising or contravening traditional collective bargaining and representation.