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Mr. Speaker Sir, I rise in support of the Budget. Today, we are facing the headwinds of stiff global competition and a rapidly changing economy. Protectionism is on the rise and globalisation is giving way to “slow-balisation”. As a small and open economy, these geopolitical forces impact Singapore. Last year, our economy expanded by 3.2% while growth is forecast to be in the range of 1.5 to 3.5% in 2019.
While there are challenges, we must maintain our sights on the bright spots. Businesses are turning to ASEAN to diversify risk and Singapore can play a pivotal role as a regional hub. Technology and innovation can unearth new opportunities for our growth. Singapore must continue to sharpen our strengths as a trusted brand and a skilled workforce, and I am glad that this Budget provides a strategic plan to help Singapore and Singaporeans to do so.
Every Worker Matters
Key to this plan is our workers. Our labour market is tight with lower birth rates, an ageing population and tightening foreign labour inflows. Work will be disrupted; a study says 44% of work activities in Singapore today can be automated with current technologies, with a third of the skillsets required to perform today’s jobs wholly new by 2020. Rapid skills churn will require workers to swiftly adapt and cope with frequent career transitions. We must not leave our workers behind.
I am heartened that come April 2020, all transformation efforts supported by Enterprise Singapore’s Enterprise Development Grant must include positive outcomes for workers, such as wage increases. I am also glad that my calls for the extension of the Career Support Programme (CSP) and Special Employment Credits (SEC) have been heeded. This Budget is pro-worker and has put workers at the heart of it.
I strongly believe that Every Worker Matters and this Budget can do more for the sandwiched class of professionals, managers, and executives (PMEs).
In 2018, PMETs continued to be more affected by retrenchments with higher skilled, middle-aged PMETs the hardest hit. Older PMETs also face greater difficulty in the job market with the Long-Term Unemployment rate for resident PMETs aged 50 higher than younger age groups. With technology such as Artificial Intelligence, middle-income jobs can potentially be hollowed-out, at the risk of workers’ downward labour mobility. These are real concerns I have heard from PMEs I have met.
Our skilled workforce is our competitive advantage and Every Worker Matters. Investing in our workforce enables us to grow the pie collectively and reap the fruits of labour together. I propose three key thrusts to do so: (1) Enhancing Protection in the Future Workplace; (2) Enabling Progression in the Future of Work; and (3) Expanding Potential of our Future Workers.
Enhancing Protection in the Future Workplace
The Future Workplace must take pre-emptive steps to redesign jobs and future-proof workers’ skillsets. Stakeholders must strengthen information flow, overcome information asymmetry and collaborate on transformation.
At the recent NTUC Future Jobs, Skills & Training Forum, industry and union leaders, employers and workers shared actionable keys for industry transformation based on early successes. For example, in the financial services industry, The Tripartite Advisory on Human Capital Practices for Banking, adopted by 160 banks, calls on banks to proactively identify impacted jobs and redeploy workers into areas of job growth through PCPs. Our unions are also evolving in tandem. Last month, the Singapore Bank Officer’s Association, now renamed the Banking and Financial Services Union, repositioned its mission to serve more workers to cope with disruption. The Labour Movement also welcomed The Singapore FinTech Association, which helps workers to reskill to take up FinTech roles, as an affiliated association of NTUC.
As work evolves, the line between the rank and file and PMETs are increasingly blurred, the share of PMETs among employed residents has also increased to 57% in 2018. Under the Employment Act (EA), there remain distinctions between our rank and file and PMEs and “manual” and “non-manual” work. These distinctions influence the treatment and protection of these workers. It is particularly challenging today to make these distinctions as many jobs involve a mix of manual and non-manual work. There are also workers who have been wrongly classified as “managers and executives,” excluding them from protection under Part IV EA. Some employers have also tried to exclude workers from union protection, under the pretext that the worker is in a conflicted position as he wields “managerial” powers. The relevance of these dichotomies needs to be examined to ensure that our workers continue to be adequately protected.
Enabling Progression in the Future of Work
The Future of Work is fast-paced, and the half-life of skills is shortening. Much like our Formula 1 drivers, we must have quick and effective pitstops, to retool and get back in the race. Training providers must have speed-to-market and move away from traditional certifications to peer network approval systems and industry crowd-sourced on-the-go learning. An example of such a “pitstop” is The Healthcare Academy, set up by the Healthcare Services Employees’ Union and NTUC LearningHub, which upskills workers through industry co-created programmes, delivered through varied modes of learning. Such concerted efforts are needed to ensure that our workers upskill in tandem with transformation efforts.
While the Progressive Wage Model (PWM) is associated with low-wage, rank and file workers, PMETs can also benefit from PWM, especially lower-wage PMETs (earning between $2,500 to $3,500 per month) in highly impacted jobs. Beyond the mandatory PWM, our unions have been implementing structured wage and skills ladders, benefitting all workers, including PMETs. It is timely to scale these efforts on a national level and extend the PWM to lower-wage PMETs to provide for their progression and upward labour mobility.
Expanding Potential of our Future Workers
Our Future Workers will increasingly participate in new ways of work and employment models. With flexible and digital-enabled work, we can tap on sources of untapped labour supply to expand our workforce. To expand the potential of our ageing workforce, I have called for the SEC, CSP and WorkPro to be extended and enhanced to maximise our workforce’s productive longevity and am glad the Budget this year has responded positively. I want to also call for more pre-emptive and pro-active training as we can only do this with strong support from our tripartite partners.
To enable workers to take charge and expand their potential, workers can tap on their SkillsFuture Credits to upskill. Utilisation has increased, and it is time for a top-up of another $500 so that workers can go further in their personal growth. These credits have helped seed and catalyse lifelong learning. Our unions have also been working with employers to set aside time for workers’ upskilling. Some companies have also voluntarily provided a top-up of employees’ SkillsFuture Credits to fund their training, and more companies are encouraged to do so.
All stakeholders have a part to play in co-creating our future. We need to create wealth rather than focus on spending more. More wealth means more to spend. We are generating wealth by transforming our economy to higher value activities and constantly attracting such investments. Most importantly, we must make sure our workers have the skills to do these jobs. We should be bolder in spending money on upgrading and re-training. Help our workers earn more, in better jobs. Regulate the training providers, not the trainees. What obstacles are there to prevent our workers from going for continuous education and training (CET), we need to tackle those! If we argue about how to share a stagnant pie, we are fighting a losing battle. We should be working together to grow the pie.
The Labour Movement is committed to serve as the workers’ viewfinder in navigating the work landscape, by bringing stakeholders together to collectively make better skills, jobs and pay real for workers.
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