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Mdm Deputy Speaker, in the last parliament session, I had shared my views and suggestions on CECA and FTAs, and the impact to our Singaporean PMEs.
The Labour Movement acknowledges the need for FTAs in this age of globalisation, but we too recognise the need to support our local workforce’s aspirations and to address their concerns and anxieties.
The economic disruption brought about by COVID-19 has amplified the fears and anxieties of PMEs, particularly on the increased competition for jobs and employment. Mature PMEs are especially impacted and vulnerable in this recession.
We will therefore need to take further steps to strengthen the Singaporean Core by levelling the playing field for our Singaporean PMEs and ensuring fairness whether in terms of hiring opportunities and practices, in the course of employment, or when the employment relationship is terminated.
Fears and anxieties of local PMEs
Co-chairing the NTUC-PME Taskforce, we have engaged more than 9,000 PMEs the last 6 months.
I can feel the fears and anxieties our local PMEs especially over job security. Besides ground sentiments of intense competition from the influx of foreign PMEs, I have a compendium of anecdotes of unfair employment practices by employers who favour hiring foreigners and discriminating against our locals.
Just last Thursday, one mature PME who used to be from the financial sector and now with one of our IHLs wrote to me an email to share how he witnessed first-hand discriminatory practices at the workplace resulting in a fellow mature local PME being displaced.
In our recent taskforce survey of 1,000 mature PMEs (those aged 40 and above), about 1 in 2 of them said that the tightening of employment pass quota in sectors which have weak hiring practices of Singaporeans will help to protect their jobs.
While the Government had implemented several changes to the foreign manpower policies over the past years, many PMEs feel that the policy tweaks are insufficient to curb unfair competition as there are still companies which continue to engage in unacceptable practices.
Some PMEs view the FCF job advertisement requirement as mere window dressing as employers may already have a foreign candidate in mind when they post their job advertisements.
In addition, many PMEs opined that there is currently no proper framework for transfer of knowledge for roles which employers claim there are skills shortages.
One of the PMEs shared with me on how he had received a job offer from an IT company with unfair terms and conditions such as having to pay for damages including incremental cost of finding replacement and other associated costs like advertisement and consultant fees in the event of his resignation. He believed that this is an underhand tactic by the company to eventually inform Ministry of Manpower that they had offered the job to Singaporeans, but none accepted it, so that they are able to hire an EP holder.
Improvements made for a stronger Singaporean core
I am heartened that in my past 10 years of lobbying and advocating for a stronger Singaporean Core, many measures have been put in place to better support and protect our Singaporean PMEs and provide them with a fair and level playing field in the job market.
Ensuring fairness for Singaporeans
That said, more needs to be done to strengthen the Singaporean Core. We must further develop our local workforce’s capabilities and protect our locals from being unfairly discriminated. Our local PMEs are unhappy when many of the roles which they can undertake and do are instead being done by foreign PMEs. It is important to recognise the role that foreign manpower plays, which is to complement and enhance the capabilities of the local workforce and not to replace it. I would like to put forth some proposals.
First, we can enhance fair hiring practices through:
i. improving our HR standards and practices to ensure that companies are equipped with adequate knowledge of employment legislation and regulations to improve compliance with fair employment practices; and
ii. strengthening enforcement and imposing stiffer penalties for errant companies with discriminatory hiring practices. Besides revealing or publishing the ‘triple weak’ watchlist which MOM and TAFEP maintain, I submit that MOM should review the existing legal and policy framework and give TAFEP more teeth and bite through legislating expanded powers of investigation, enforcement, and punishment against companies, employers and even individuals who discriminate in an employment context. This will then send a clear message against workplace discrimination and eradicate unfair hiring practices whether it’s with respect to age, gender, marital status, nationality, disability, race, religion, or sexual orientation etc.
Second, we can level the playing field for local PMEs by enhancing the EP application review process to move beyond looking at the individual applicant’s educational qualification and salary.
We can incorporate a point system factoring 1) support from sectoral tripartite expert committee, 2) whether the employer has been investing in hiring and developing local workers and 3) diversity of nationalities. The point system will then be used to evaluate and approve the EP application.
Finally, we need to ensure that locals have fair access to PME roles and progression opportunities to improve localisation of jobs in high growth sectors. We must ensure concerted, structured, institutionalised, and mandatory skills and knowledge transfer from these foreign PMEs to our local PMEs within a stipulated and agreed time frame in the spirit of complementarity.
Conclusion
Mdm Deputy Speaker, the Labour Movement has consistently advocated for a strong Singaporean Core and will continue to champion for our workers’ interest to ensure that there must be fairness and zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind at the workplace.
It is ever more critical for us to ensure that Singaporeans are considered and treated fairly, especially in the current employment climate.
In the same vein, we will continue to collaborate with our tripartite partners to nurture and develop our workers through training and skills transfer so that they will benefit from better careers and development opportunities in a progressive work environment.
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