Madam Speaker,
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to participate in this budget debate.
I would like to thank the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance for an inclusive budget which is pro-workers and a budget that addressed the hopes of Singaporeans for “A Better Singapore”.
I would like to raise 3 areas of concerns:
Wage Credit Scheme
I welcomed the Budget initiative on the Wage Credit Scheme (WCS), which helps companies to restructure their operations and in turn to share productivity gains with their workers by paying them higher wages. For the Government to co-fund 40% of wage increases over the next 3 years is indeed commendable. However, I have some concerns and would like to seek clarification from the Minister.
During the implementation process how can employers be held accountable that their employees will indeed enjoy the subsidies through wage increase.
Plugging some of the loop holes in the scheme where the companies can increase wages as one-off variables. Will the government insists that some form of balance should be reached on these increments where any normal annual increment, service increment and productivity that has been realised and can be sustained, should go into built-in basic wages. As such, it should be a combination of build-in and variable increases and not as a one-time bonus.
Should the companies unable to sustain the increased wage cost in the 4th year, will workers then face a freeze in wage increment and for some, even a wage cut? Would the Government consider extending the WCS after the 3rd year.
Cost of Living
Madam Speaker, another area of my concern is the cost of living in Singapore. What we hope for is “A Singapore with affordable living”. However, in a recent Mercer global ranking of most expensive cities to live in, Singapore has moved up the ranking steadily from 11th position in 2010, 8th in 2011 and in 2012, became the 6th most expensive city to live in.
According to the same study, the annual household income required to lead a "comfortable" retired life in Singapore is the third highest among Asia's major economies, behind Australia and Hong Kong, at $48,773. The survey found that this figure is 68 percent higher than what was needed in 2011. Whereas the median gross monthly income from work including employer CPF contributions of full time employed resident rose over the year 2011 by 7.1% to $3,480 in 2012.
With these staggering numbers, I foresee Singaporean trying their whole lives to have adequate retirement savings by perhaps taking on, a second job to put aside more money for their retirement to supplement their CPF savings for a better retirement income.
If the high cost of living persist and are not addressed today, it will escalate into a bigger problem that is difficult to reverse in another 20 or 30 years, especially if inflation gets the better of any wage increases.
Madam, this impact will be felt most amongst our lower, middle income group and our elderly population. Inflation in Singapore for 2012 has gone up by some 4.6%. Although the MOM has reported that wages have also increased last year by 7.1%, what is significant is that the income gap in Singapore has also widened. Social cohesion in Singapore will erode when the poor believe they cannot work their way up. Are there more measures to reduce the widening income gaps?
I am concern for our Singaporean workers, who have put in a hard day’s work, and still have to struggle with their basic needs.
Is time we set up a cost control or a review committee under the PMO to study the overall impact of all price increases be it transport or daily necessities to the overall inflation rate so we can monitor the multiplier and spiralling effect of these increases.
Women In Our Labour Force
Madam, we have a labour crunch in Singapore today. MOM’s Labour Force Report 2012 reflects that although we have 942,000 economically active women in Singapore, we also have some 525,000 women who are age 25 years and above, who are economically inactive and not working. If I exclude women who are 60 years and above, there will then be about 272,000 women who are economically inactive.
Madam, NTUC’s Women’s Development Secretariat (WDS) under your leadership in 2007, pioneered the Women’s Back2Work with U Programme with a focus to help women to return to the workforce by equipping them with the skills and competencies to readjust to modern work environments and requirements, and at the same time, to match them to their potential employers. NTUC also introduced the Jobs on Wheels program in 2012, bringing available jobs directly into the heartlands to women.
As at 2012, NTUC has trained some 16,500 women out of the 17,570 whom we have assisted and have found jobs and returned to the workforce.
Madam, I would like to share a story of how much help and time is involved to help Madam Jenny Chua in her 50s, return to work after a 17 years lapse.
Jenny Chua chanced upon NTUC WDS when she attended the Jobs on Wheels program. She was delighted to know that NTUC will be able to help her return to work. She responded positively when the staff called and did a screening with her to gauge her eligibility for the two training modules.
During the 1st day of training, she appeared aloof and apprehensive. As she was trained to join the retail industry, she was not sure if she could withstand the gruelling hours of standing after staying at home for the past 17 years. With the encouragement from the trainer and her course mates, she became more confident and cheerful and looked forward to the new employment opportunity with Jay Gee Enterprises (Pte) Ltd.
Madam Jenny Chua shared: “I really like my job here. I wanted to leave the job after a week. But my supervisor encouraged me to stay on and give myself more time to get used to the long standing hours. I got my confidence back after attending the training. It has been three months since I started this job. I would like to thank NTUC WDS and Jay Gee for giving me an opportunity to be what I am today, instead of resigning to my fate as a stay-at-home mother and grandmother”.
Jenny was very fortunate as she had a supportive trainer, course mates and supervisor to encourage her to stay on in her job when she felt like giving up.
Madam, this is the reality of the situation. For Jenny, she is able to fulfil her obligations at home and at work as her employer allowed flexible work arrangement for her to work certain hours and days in the week, as such she can now be a working mother and grandmother.
Madam, the journey of helping women to return to the workforce, has been most fulfilling despite the challenges we faced. While we encourage women to return to workforce, we must also recognise that it is a personal choice of individual that we should respect. However, we will continue to be relentless in encouraging and assisting these women to return to work.
Since the commencement of the Women’s Back2Work with U Programme in 2007, I am heartened to note that the labour participation rate for women in the workforce has increased from 66% to 70.9% (25 to 64 years old) in 2012. To increase further the participation rate will require continuous commitment from our tripartite partners.
The labour movement, has for the past 6 years actively encouraged companies to value every female employees and to make concrete plans to restructure the work and promote a pro family culture. With the manpower shortage we faced, it is more critical for us now to review what more can we collectively do to help retain women in our workforce and provide a fulfilling career while managing their families.
Government can incentivise companies to re-employ women who have left their employment for families’ reason and retrain them.
The real issue, Madam, is for us to nip the problem in the bud. While we can try very hard to help women to return to work, why not ensure that we keep them within the workforce in the first place, Prevention is better than Cure.
We need to approach this matter holistically. According to MOM’s Labour Force Report 2012, about 43.3% of our economically inactive women cited family responsibilities as the main reason for not working.
I urge our Government to take bold steps to empower our women to combine their jobs with family commitments to help alleviate the difficulties faced by women. I hope that the Government can consider:
To legislate flexible work arrangements where employees are given the rights to ask for flexible work, similar to those in UK and Australia. Such flexible working arrangements assist employees to achieve balance between work and family responsibilities. It also helps manage the demands that come with being a parent of a young child or a child with a disability, such as picking-up and dropping-off at childcare, caring for sick children, and attending medical and other appointments. Most importantly it retains women in the workforce
To encourage them to work, our Government and employers have to make the employment terms and working environment conducive to women who need to manage their families and those who wish to start their families. For the Labour Movement, we are now working with unionised companies to make Flexi-work arrangement happen. We are now identifying the challenges and that requires lots of support from employees, not just employers
Incentivise Employers
We hope that the Government can give employers more incentives to redesign jobs and provide infrastructure that will allow for flexi-work arrangements.
I hope that the financial support offered by the Government could be further expanded to cover the latest information technology investments that allow workers and women to work from home. There will be a cost to set up proper home offices including broadband installations for functionalities such as video-conferencing. But the productivity gains from reducing tele-commuting time may be worth the investment. SMEs may not be able to afford these costs, and therefore if this could contribute to mothers or care-givers being employed and working from home, this may be worth incentivising.
Will the Government extend incentives to companies who may need to spend a longer time to train these women to perform their jobs, and at the same time to encourage mentorship programme to help these women to integrate into working life.
I would also like to call upon the Government to explore the possibility of further granting incentives or help for women to return to work?
To Increase Maternity Leave From 4 to 6 Months
The Swedish are practising a system of parental leave where couples enjoy 13 months of paid leave, plus another 3 months leave at a fixed rate. The 13 months can be split between parents, so families can decide which parent would best perform the role at home. By law, employers have to hold a mother’s job during her maternity leave, so the job will still be there after 1 year.
In NTUC, we are proposing incremental steps and not a revolutionary leap to match the Swedish system, where we hope that the Government will continue to look into NTUC’s request of a longer maternity leave of 6 months paid by the Government and if possible, up to another 6 months of unpaid maternity leave.
Strengthen Childcare Facilities, Infrastructure and Others
I am heartened that this budget promotes social mobility and that the government will be spending more than $3 billion in the Pre-school sector over the next 5 years.
This is timely; we have heard feedback from women that they have no alternative, but to leave the workforce due to the cost and availability of childcare and eldercare facilities.
The greater challenge, madam, is how to speed up these infrastructures development plan to perhaps 3 years to make the availability of accessible infant-care, childcare and eldercare infrastructure and centres in Singapore.
As the issue exists today, even if the infrastructure is ready in 3 years, we have to start being creative today. The ministry can explore a home child minder arrangement like what is being practiced in Sweden. Women can be trained as Child minders to look after up to 2 to 3 children in their homes like the good old kampong days. Government’s subsidies can then be given to offset the cost for the younger kids who are up to 2 years old while we beef up the number of Childcare Centres.
In many developed countries, it is not uncommon for teenager to work during vacation as child minders; this is something we can look into.
After all, women who cannot find a care-giving solution for their children cannot possibly work with peace of mind.
Conclusion
Madam, I look forward to step up efforts to retain women in the workforce and to encourage and assist women to return to work.
The Labour movement will continue to encourage our Unions to engage their companies to set up Action Plans and Goals to support employees for Work Life Harmony. This includes reviewing work practices, and systems to allow their employees to manage childcare responsibilities, and to embrace an inclusive workforce where there is greater support for working persons with elderly parents and young children, thereby helping and encouraging new mothers and women to return to the workforce.
Let us continue to value this under tapped resource of over 300,000 economically inactive women residents. We must continue to respect and value every woman in our workforce.
In conclusion, Madam, I support the Budget.
