While Singaporeans generally accept that migrant workers are needed to augment our small local workforce, little is done towards assimilation of our migrant workers at our workplaces – even where there are obvious benefits to productivity.
There is a need to engender an open and accepting workplace culture, especially in relation to migrant workers who are a critical component in many sectors of our economy. Harmonious co-existence among staff of all nationalities and qualifications is essential to ensure our economic machinery is well-oiled and churns effectively as a whole, building a bigger pie for everyone to share from as a result, or as we call it, ‘Inclusive Growth’.
We must however go even further in order to be truly successful. We need to make employers see the need to go beyond recruiting masses of low-skilled workers to carry out routine and manual tasks. Sir, it will not be long before investments in automation and our drive towards productivity will require the participation of a more sophisticated, better-skilled migrant worker.
As we continue to drive the productivity mindset in the labour market, we must also be conscious to ensure that this expectation of productivity applies to all our workers. Employers need to play their part to ensure that the qualifications, training and skills required of local workers are the same for foreign workers as well. Employment must continue to be skills and not headcount based. We must also continue to foster social integration among our diverse workforce.
Sir I request that MOM consider stronger encouragement for employers to bring in better skilled, more adaptable foreign workers. One way could be to adapt the current WSQ system to migrant workers as a pre-requisite to renewal of their work permits. In time, if results are promising, the Ministry might even consider WSQ as a condition to the entry of new foreign workers. Such a system would ensure only the right workers with the right skills and a desire to constantly upgrade themselves continue stay and contribute.
Sir, ultimately, we must move consciously towards Skills-Based Recruitment of migrant talent, rather than the currently commonplace numbers-based recruitment formula. Employers need to realize that competency hiring will not only increase productivity for their businesses, but also reap economies through the retention of a higher-skilled, more professional workforce that is able to leverage on new technologies. Further down the road, Skills-based Foreign Recruitment will not only buck our trend of heavy reliance on migrant labour, but also lead to a “skilling-up” of our migrant workforce and alleviating many of the social problems that accompany low or unskilled migrant labour. In our view, “a better-skilled, better-qualified worker naturally translates to a more adaptable, more easily integrated and, more productive worker”.
