Madam Speaker,
Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this budget debate.
Thank you Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, for an inclusive and all encompassing budget that not only recognizes contributions from our elder Singaporeans, but also addresses the hopes and aspirations of younger Singaporeans.
The Labour Movement has over the years came up with 4 Pillars to better reach out to our workers. They are Protection, Progression, Placement and Privileges. I would like to focus on these areas and take this opportunity to highlight 3 key areas of concern, namely CPF, Women and Tripartism.
CPF (Protection for Workers)
Firstly, CPF contributions are important to Singaporeans as it is essentially savings for our retirement needs and in a broader sense, our housing and medical needs.
Madam Speaker, I am glad that the Finance Minister has responded positively to the call of NTUC to increase the CPF contribution rates for workers especially for those aged 50 to 55. Singaporeans are now living longer, the 50s of today are the new 40s of tomorrow and it is indeed timely to peg the CPF contribution rate to those of younger workers.
During my first budget debate in 2012, I raised my concern about inadequate savings of workers in their CPF accounts for financial independence upon retirement. Although the CPF contribution rates have increased, my concern is whether we have a long term target to make sure that it will be adequate for workers.
Madam Speaker, it is worrying to see the data from the CPF website that only 45% and 48.7% of Singaporeans met the Required Minimum Sum in 2011 and 2012. This means that more than 50% of our Singaporeans do NOT have sufficient money in their CPF for their basic retirement needs and more than 40% of Singaporeans do not meet the Medisave Minimum Sum.
The 2012 survey among the 2,000 Singaporeans by Mindshare also revealed that 65% do not believe that they can retire comfortably in Singapore especially with the ever increasing cost of living. Madam Speaker, based on such reflected statistics, can our workers afford to retire adequately?
I would like to call upon the Government to consider the following:
Firstly, supporting the Labour Movement’s call to restore CPF rates for our workers above 50 to 55 years old to be on par with our younger workers.
Secondly, review the CPF Contribution Rates for longer term so that all our Singaporeans including the younger generations, will have more savings to retire. As it is, our workers are already contributing 20%. As unionists, we areunderstanding that any increase in the CPF contribution rates must take into consideration the economic conditions of the day. However with longer life expectancy and greater needs for retirement and healthcare, we hope that the tripartite partners can meet to discuss and determine a fair longer-term target for CPF Contributions that will also take care of the interests of the workers.
Madam Speaker, for a worker with a monthly wage of S$2,000, an additional 3% monthly will be S$60. This S$60 may be a small sum to the employer. However, for the worker, that would be S$720 annually and in a career across 30 years, even without factor in any annual increment and interest, which would be more than S$21,000 additional savings to retire on. This would make a significant difference for the workers.
Thirdly, to look into reviewing the current monthly salary ceiling for the CPF contribution rates of $5,000 to reflect longer term wage increases of our middle income group.
Lastly, women from the pioneer generation were largely homemakers and have little or no CPF savings. They have contributed significantly towards the nation by having more children and raising their families. Those below 80 years, who qualify for subsidized Medishield Life premiums, may not even have the means to afford to pay for the balance. Can DPM ensure that they are covered by Medishield Life through further assistance and support?
Madam Speaker, “CPF no enough”. Minister, please explore other options before CPF cuts, in future downturns so that workers’ saving for housing, medical and retirement will not be too much affected.
Women & Family
Moving on to the concerns for the women and family. Here, I would like to focus on Protection, Placement & Progression for women and the family.
(A) Protection
As Singapore moves away from dependence on a foreign workforce, it is vital to cultivate a family-friendly workplace. This is to attract more women to return to the workforce as part of the Singaporean core and at the same time prevent more women from exiting the workforce prematurely. Companies must recognise that by meeting the work life needs of employees, they will be able to improve their staff turnover rate which eventually translates into cost savings.
But more can definitely be done to improve the work-life balance for women. The Labour movement has been actively lobbying for more initiatives and I would like to raise five suggestions for your consideration.
1. Protection for women employees going through childbirth.
We urge the Government to consider increasing paid maternity leave to 6 months for Singaporean women and up to 6 months of unpaid maternity leave so that a working mother can take enough time off to care for her new born child. Working mothers must also be protected from being penalised for devoting time and energy to childcare. They should be allowed to return to the same job at the same pay at the end of their maternity leave. Australia, the European Union, UK and the US already have such policies in place. In the UK, for example, besides the policy of returning to the same job at the same pay after maternity leave, should the employer show that the job no longer exists, the mother must be offered alternative work with similar terms and conditions.
2. Protection through Creating a Culture Supportive of Pro-creation and Caregiving.
With a declining birth rate and aging population, there have been campaigns, advocacy and even laws enacted to encourage childbirth and the care for our elderly. It is important to provide a workplace culture supportive of pro-creation and care-giving so that mothers and/or caregivers can continue to be active in the workforce.
Other than infrastructure such as childcare and eldercare centres, it is important that working caregivers have adequate time and be given the flexibility at work to provide care. It is vital that employers offer flexi-work arrangements for this group of employees. This will ensure that employees need not have to live with the dilemma of choosing between care-giving or pursuing their careers. We advocate for the Right to Request FWA by employees, which does NOT automatically ensure the employee is given FWA, but commits the employer to give due consideration to the request for flexibility.
3. Protection for children of Working Single Mums.
Single unwed mothers are often faced with the burden of being the sole breadwinner and their children already start off disadvantaged. Can the government extend benefit from the baby bonus to working single mums so their children benefit equally with other children? Can the government reconsider this stance for the sake of the child?
(B) Placement
4 More Resources should be allocated for Back2Work with U
Programmes
If we are to keep growing our economy, it is important that enough resources are put into encouraging and helping stay home moms who wish to return to the workforce. Programmes such as the Back2Work with U by NTUC WDS specifically help place women back into the workforce by reaching out to them, providing them with training and advocating for better work life harmony so that they can better manage work and family care. The joint effort from e2i and the Labour movement showed a marked increment in the number of women returning to the workforce. As of November last year, they have successfully placed 4,559 women back to the workforce. While we applaud these efforts, they are merely the tip of the iceberg and more of such successful and targeted initiatives should be introduced to encourage and help the remaining women return to work and to be part of the Singaporean core workforce.
5. Progression
While women are given opportunities for training and career development at the workplace, it is not uncommon for them to turn them down. This is because women are tasked with being the main caregiver in most families and it is harder for them to take on training and development after their working hours due to their care-giving roles. The solution may be as simple as further development of working mothers through E-training resources which is currently lacking.
Besides these 5 suggestions, can the Government consider expanding the criteria for Foreign Maid Levy? According to MOM, at the end of 2010, there were slightly above 200,000 female domestic workers in Singapore. That is equivalent to about one domestic helper for every five households. The current maid levy is $265 per month and the government offers a concessionary rate of $120 per month to Singaporeans with young children below 12, families with an elderly living under the same household above 65 years of age, or with a family member with disabilities. If we want to encourage more women to leave home to work or remain in the work force, can we expand the criteria? Many families employ a domestic helper not by choice but by necessity. Not every working mother has parents or in-laws willing and able to help look after them.
With a domestic helper, their children’s meals are taken care of and have clean clothes to wear. They can remain focussed on their task while at work. Since mothers with older children still have the same duties, can the concession rate extend to all working mothers with children under the age of 12 be extended to 14?
Madam Speaker, with the concession rate, the savings to these household will be over $9,000 and the working mothers can also enjoy peace of mind while at work.
Tripartism
Madam Speaker, in my first budget debate, I reiterated the point made by Prime Minister during the then NTUC National Delegates Conference, that “Tripartism is our national treasure”. This is indeed true and we have also seen “Tripartism for All” at work, with the most recent examples of consensus among Tripartite partners on Progressive Wage Model which was adopted by the Government in the licensing for our cleaners who can now earn at least S$1,000 a month. I now look forward to the recommendation of the Security Tripartite Committee to level up to the Progressive Wage Model. I would like to applaud these initiatives that help our low wage workers, all through proactive pervasive Tripartism where negotiations take place between government representatives, employers and the unions.
There are various other sectors where the spirit of tripartism can be improved. Open communication is essential in ensuring that policies cascaded from the national level are not misunderstood.
I would like to applaud the Land Transport Authority for taking the bold step of introducing the Bus Service Reliability Framework (BSRF) in January. The scheme aimed to improve the transport system in Singapore, to solve overcrowding issues and transport delays. These are good initiatives that benefit the nation and economy as a whole, but when introducing these programmes, government agencies and employers should also take the operational viability of our Bus Captains into consideration.
These transport initiatives are a step towards enhancing the commuters’ experience - but what about the experience of Bus Captains? These initiatives may be misunderstood by the workers that they have to drive faster in order to meet the requirements set by the various agencies. It would then be prudent for government agencies and employers to actively engage unions before the introduction of any new policies as they inadvertently affect our workers. These policy changes affect more than 7,000 Bus Captains from SBS Transit and SMRT. The unions and Bus Captains are on the ground and are able to provide feedback on the operational viability of these schemes and perhaps even offer better solutions.
Tripartite consultation can be seen in full effect prior to the passing of the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) Bill, where there were a total of 20 Tripartite Working Group official discussions and smaller scale meetings and deliberations with various stakeholders over the course of the last 7 years to prepare Singapore for the MLC implementation. Of course not all policies need years to be implemented – the main point is that all stakeholders, heavily affected by policy changes were in consultation to ensure any difficulties for any parties were mitigated before the introduction of the policies.
Such a concerted effort has resulted in a bill that the stakeholders feel invested in and therefore can easily uphold as their viewpoint is heard.
Efforts like this must be viewed as necessary and serve as a model for ALL policy making. Ministries and statutory boards should lead the way and develop KPI's for their staff and officers in fostering good Industrial relations within the tripartite framework.
Madam Speaker, I would like to therefore call on all parties to "walk the talk of Tripartism" in the spirit of what Prime Minister calls our National Treasure and work towards greater partnership and communication between all government agencies, employers and unions so as to achieve pervasive tripartism.
Conclusion
FinalIy, I thank the Government once again for introducing this new breath of measures and initiatives in Budget 2014 for our Businesses and Singaporeans. I hope that the Government will also streamline applications processes to these funding initiatives and subsidies, so that it will be easier for businesses and Singaporeans to access these incentives and subsidies or it would defeat the purpose and spirit with which they were introduced.
With that, Madam Speaker, I support the Budget.
