The Labour Movement expects the labour market in Singapore to remain tight in 2015 as foreign manpower quotas continue to further tighten this year. Globally, the pace of economic development remained uneven across economies. As an open economy, businesses in Singapore are generally cautious of the developments in key economies such as US, Eurozone and China, as well as international competition, uncertain global demand and impact of changes in oil prices.
Locally, most sectors are facing manpower challenges, and in particular from bus transport, hotels, healthcare and security are in high demand for workers.
In 2015, the Labour Movement will continue to push for broad-based real wage increases by making the Progressive Wage Model more prevalent – placing emphasis on improving productivity, skills and progression pathways for all workers.
At the same time, with changes in labour laws as well as the Industrial Relations Act, we will widen our scope of coverage to cover more Professionals, Managers and Executives (PMEs).
Healthy Growth in Wages
Workers in the unionised companies enjoyed healthy wage increases in 2014 due to collective bargaining and the strong adoption of the National Wages Council (NWC) guidelines.
Preliminary estimates for Annual Increments and Bonus Payouts
Workers in the unionised companies continued to enjoy healthy basic wage increase of about 4.1 per cent, slightly lower than 4.63 per cent in 2013. This is based on preliminary estimates as at December 2014.
In terms of bonus payment, unionised companies are estimated to pay an average of 3.0 months in 2014 as compared to 3.16 months a year ago. This is inclusive of the 13th month bonus. At the sectorial level, branches in healthcare, education and electronic sectors were generally able to retain the same bonus as the year before, however branches in hotels and hospitality, construction and chemical sectors generally saw have lower bonuses.
For 2015, the manpower crunch will help put pressure on companies to pay higher wages to retain and attract workers. However, this should be matched with a corresponding improvement in productivity to ensure wage increases are sustainable in the long run.
Adoption of NWC Guidelines
About 60 per cent of our unionised branches paid at least $60 built-in wage increases to our workers earning $1,000 and below. Branches that were not able to meet the guidelines cited poor business and restructuring as reasons. Other factors included having built-in wage increase stipulated in contracts and workers in outsourced services. For low wage workers earning between $1,000 and $1,200, the built-in wage increase was 5 per cent, higher the overall average.
The Labour Movement expressed concern on the trend of negative productivity growth as seen in recent quarters. This could lead to wage stagnation. To ensure that our workers can continue to receive wage increases, the Labour Movement stressed that productivity must improve, and more needs to be done in this area. In 2015, NTUC renews its call to our tripartite partners to strengthen alignment and work together on raising productivity and income growth. One of the ways will be to delve into looking at productivity at the sectorial level.
Better Workplace Benefits
Among the 867 active collective agreements surveyed, most were providing compassionate leave for death of immediate family member (98 per cent), marriage leave (91 per cent), compassionate leave for critical illness of immediate family member (71 per cent), and paternity leave (78 per cent). 11 per cent of unionised companies also provided child sick leave, in addition to the childcare leave stated in the Child Development Co-savings Act. Other family-friendly leave benefits provided by unionised companies include eldercare leave and family sick leave to care for immediate family members who are unwell.
In the unionised sector, 2,212 workers were displaced from their jobs last year. This is 27 per cent lower than in 2013 which saw 3,038 workers being laid off. The manufacturing sector accounted for two-thirds of the total retrenchment in the unionised sector, primarily from the electronics sector. Reasons for the lay-offs include high cost, poor business and ongoing restructuring which resulted in eight companies relocating operations out of Singapore to countries such as Thailand, Malaysia and China.
The number of workers retrenched in the services sector also doubled from 2013 to 722 in 2014. These retrenched workers who were from the commerce industry and were laid-off due to loss of business in Singapore.
The Labour Movement noted that at the national level, 7,710 workers were retrenched in the first three quarters of 2014, higher than the 7,220 laid-off in the same period one year ago. The higher retrenchment was also due to more workers laid-off from the services sector. Comparing retrenchment in the first three quarters of 2014, the unionised sector accounted for 21 per cent of the total number of workers retrenched, slightly lower than 26 per cent one year ago.
In the first quarter of 2015, unionised companies may see retrenchment affecting about 300 workers from the chemical and electronic sectors.
Shorter Work Week
For the whole of 2014, the number of workers who were on shorter work week declined significantly to 1,323 workers from 5,793 in 2013. Five companies implemented shorter work week due to lack of orders and a slowdown in business. Majority of the workers were from companies producing semiconductor and electronics products and components.
Industrial Relations Cases
Protecting the rights of our workers is core to the Labour Movement. In 2014, there were 1,922 cases and queries, a decrease of 21 per cent over 2013 which was 2,439.
In the unionised sector, we are able to help union members with their workplace issues or unfair treatment. A large proportion (90 per cent) of cases were referred to and settled at the union-management level, with only 10 per cent referred to the Ministry of Manpower and the Industrial Arbitration Court. More than half of these cases were individual grievances which covered disciplinary issues and cases relating to benefits, salary and termination.
For members in non-unionised companies, we continue to provide advisory services and assistance on enquiries over workplace issues as well as employment related matters. The bulk of the enquiries in 2014 were on non-payment of salary, retrenchment and retirement/re-employment. These queries also relate to labour laws, benefits and maternity/paternity.
We continue to see an uptrend in the number of enquiries surfaced by the PME members from the non-unionised companies. Apart from those enquiries lodged to the GB Unit direct, these included those that were routed from the affiliated unions. In 2014, the query from PMEs saw a 13 per cent more, up from 40.8 per cent in 2013. Their queries covered termination, labour laws and salary issues.
Protecting more PMEs
The Labour Movement is committed to providing 4Ps (Protection, Progression, Placement and Privileges) to all our workers, including PMEs. Currently, PMEs in unionised companies can be represented by executive unions on a collective basis on any industrial matters, or rank-and-file unions on an individual basis for limited representation in four areas: 1) breach of individual contract of employment, 2) retrenchment benefits, 3) unfair dismissal and 4) victimisation. The current Industrial Relations (IR) Act restricts rank-and-file unions from representing Managers and Executives on a collective basis.
The upcoming amendments to the IR Act will give extension of full collective bargaining by rank-and-file unions for eligible PMEs. As at end 2014, 21 per cent of collective agreements signed between our unions and employers already cover professional and junior management positions. With the amendments to the IR Act, the Labour Movement can potentially reach out to another 100,000 PMEs within our unionised companies, and more than 600,000 PMEs currently in the workforce. For those individuals on limited representation, the scope of coverage has been expanded to a fifth area – re-employment.
Forging strong labour relations and building an inclusive industrial relations environment are critical components of tripartism – a model that has worked well for Singapore. The proposed changes to the Act will help bring even more PMEs into this spirit of tripartism. It also ensures tripartism stays relevant, inclusive and future-ready in light of a changing workforce profile and employment landscape.
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