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Mr Speaker, as we continue to navigate the realities of a world still rolling with the punches of COVID-19, it is key that we look for new opportunities that helps us forge a better Singapore that produces more equitable outcomes, and more inclusive of Singaporeans who come from all walks of life.
Uplifting workers in the Retail, Food and Beverages Sector through the Progressive Wage Model
First, on the progressive wage model (PWM): every country is faced with an apparent trilemma when it comes to labour policies. What seems to be fair often does not cultivate a competitive workforce, and what appears to do both ends up with high costs of living or taxes.
Singapore’s answer to this comes from the PWM the Singapore labour movement pioneered. Done prudently with meticulous negotiations amongst the tripartite partners, it rewards improved productivity and quality with a wage increase ladder suitable for individual industry sectors.
Two upcoming PWMs will be in the retail and food services sectors. The workers in these sectors touch our lives and hearts everyday, and yet we have taken our workers in these sectors for granted. Many Singaporeans start their day with kopi that’s served by their usual neighbourhood kopi soh. When we celebrate with our families - birthdays, anniversaries, New Year, Christmas, our workers in the restaurants are right there with us, even if their own families are spending time away from them.
Our retail frontliners have also been there for us, when we buy our first set of furniture, when we pick the freshest produce from our grocers, when we scoot down to our convenience stores at 2 am to pick up emergency supplies. Our workers in these sectors have been keeping Singapore and our lives running with their hard work, sacrifices and good cheer.
Despite this even till today, some 60% of food services and 45% of retail full time resident workers are earning at or less than the 20th wage percentile of the local workforce. In many international standards among OECD countries, Percentile 20 defines the threshold for low pay. We need to do something about this.
F&B and retail are price sensitive, where a rise of prices in a kopi or a plate of economy rice at the foodcourt will draw much attention. Indeed our retailers have told me how price spotting even among essential items have become ever more keen with the advent of online shopping, cutting their margins razor thin. Therein, the concept of PWM is critical as it marries wage increases with productivity increases through upskilling, investments in technology and career pathways.
The pandemic has shown that this sector’s veterans and newcomers alike do thrive with the help of technology. Radha Exports Pte Ltd is the company behind the ValuDollar chain of stores. During COVID-19, the team was caught in an onslaught of challenges to their supply chain and manpower.
It was the necessity for change that pushed the company to digitalise and upskill their workers in this process. This increased productivity, generated new and better paying jobs by helping the company justify better pay for their employees.
I visited with the company and was delighted to have met with Uncle Rafi as he is affectionately known. He has been working with the company since 2004, and has moved from being a deliveryman to now their warehouse supervisor. Today Uncle Rafi is 65 years young and he proudly tells me of his lifelong learning journey in Radha, from taking inventory using paper and pen, to creating rooms filled with filing shelves, to now being able to use their warehouse software to call up the smallest bar of chocolate from the aircon comfort of his newly computerised monitoring room.
The moral of the story is clear: Upskilling works and tech is here to help. The PWM ensures competitive pay comes from justifiable reasons. The results speak for themselves.
As the PWM continues to reach out to more Lower Wage Workers, as a Labour Movement, as a Tripartite Partnership, as a country, we need to stand together. This is the heart of the matter: The PWM stands for Singapore’s commitment to uplift workers. This is about companies investing in our hardest working workers, unions protecting them with promise and hope, consumers making sure that those who labour can find ways to make ends meet with dignity, and the Government ensuring that companies, workers and consumers are supported while we are all playing our part in uplifting the lives of our fellow Singaporeans.
Partner Community Stakeholders to Better Protect Gig Workers
Now, I would like to turn my attention to another slice of workers in Singapore, our freelancers and the self-employed.
As many countries battled the economic downturn in the face of COVID-19, the gig economy has provided crucial lifelines for many, allowing workers from affected industries to seek freelance jobs in food delivery and ride-hailing services.
The growing importance of this economy has seen a greater emphasis to protect the interests and welfare of these workers, workers who are not considered employees and thus are not afforded the protections and benefits salaried employees enjoy. Indeed, in the recent study by the Institute of Public Policy just released yesterday, researchers warn of food delivery and private hire vehicle workers facing risks of becoming trapped in poverty and precarity. The study cited that the “lack of savings and voluntary Central Provident Fund (CPF) contributions, being stuck in platform work poses additional challenges to future aspirations, such as home ownership”.
As a progressive Labour Movement, we are sensitive to changes in the evolving Singaporean workforce, and have witnessed, like many in this house, including Mr Saktiandi Supaat, the growing popularity of gig work. As such, the Labour Movement has been at the forefront of Singapore’s push to accord greater protection and welfare benefits for workers in the gig economy. We thank Mr Supaat for his feedback and suggestions for protecting freelancers in the education sector, and hope that Mr Supaat can continue his good work with us in our Associations and our Unions. Over the years, we have set up and advocated for safety nets for our gig workers such as offering protection and representation in the event of illness or injuries and care support for income loss or training assistance. However, there are miles to go before we sleep.
As we seek to maintain the flexibility and ease of entry into the gig economy that current circumstances allow for, it is imperative that the companies and platforms share our workers’ sentiments and work towards providing better protection for our freelancers.
I am heartened to see some platforms putting in place their own measures to protect their riders, with delivery platforms such as Grab and Deliveroo offering their riders basic accident insurance coverage. The Labour Movement, through NTUC Learning Hub, has also started to introduce career conversion classes to protect the long-term livelihoods of our drivers who intend to move out of the industry.
Even as these efforts are encouraging, such measures do not sufficiently protect workers, particularly those who rely on the gig economy as their primary source of income. Without basic labour protections, one can ill-afford to fall sick or face sudden emergencies without facing a loss of income. If this is their hard-earned rice bowl, should we not then provide them the required protection they deserve? Instead of basic insurance, should we not look towards a standardised level of insurance applied to all workers in the same plight? If our workers are contributing to the enterprise value of their partner platforms, should we not then also insist on platforms also contributing to retirement safety nets of their partners?
As the Advisor to the NTUC National Taxi Association, National Private Hire Vehicles Association and the National Delivery Champions Association, I have heard loud and clear from the ground, the need for better protection and representation of our gig platform workers. One of our Brothers, Raymond, met with an accident last year. While covered by his platform partner’s insurance package, he felt that the claim process was onerous to a point where he decided not to pursue the insurance, as he would be able to earn back in one day what he would have received in claims.
Brother Joseph also spoke to us about gaps in their platform partner’s support when their app went down and drivers were not able to earn their full day’s livelihoods. Our Associations assisted to compile the list of bugs as the app went back up so that our drivers would have a coordinated voice on what impacts their livelihoods most. These are just some of the many small inconveniences and I would say large tribulations our gig economy workers face as the gig economy and its ecosystem of platforms evolve and grow.
As we look to provide greater protection and welfare benefits for workers in the gig economy, the Tripartite Partnership must strive to support a healthy diversity of career options and sustainable, dignified livelihoods brought about by the gig economy. In this respect, I look forward to the recommendations of the Advisory Committee for Platform Workers. It is a good significant beginning for a more coordinated approach to supporting our growing gig worker population.
Holistic Approach to a Fulfilling Work-life Balance to Accommodate Single Mothers and Women Returning to Work
On this topic of an evolving workforce, one of the greatest lessons learnt has been on the importance of accommodating diverse profiles as a design feature of our labour force, rather than a design fault. In particular, the interests of two groups of employees: women returning to work, as well as single mothers, must be paid attention to.
The Labour Movement has long recognised the distinct challenges women face at work that primarily stems from women having to saddle a greater proportion of domestic responsibilities, and have accordingly championed and provisioned to advance their cause.
For example, our NTUC Learning Hub has started to co-create with our Women and Family Unit confidence training courses as well as skills-based programmes to help give women returners the much-needed boost when it comes to re-entering the workplace. We have also introduced a Women Mentoring Women programme that consists of Women Union Leaders joining forces with Female Grassroots Leaders in mentoring women who need support with livelihoods and careers.
The primary thrust of these support have been to alleviate the pressures that our women face both at home and the workplace, so that they can engage more productively and meaningfully in both spheres of their lives. To this end, the Labour Movement has sought to continuously enhance Flexible Work Arrangement standards to stay responsive to changing family and workplace needs.
As we celebrate these strides forward, we should also be mindful of ongoing gaps and lapses. It is also my firm belief that changes in organisational culture is just as important as formal frameworks, and enhancements to FWA policies must be accompanied by parallel changes in attitudes and values. As companies consider FWA a long-term feature, ground issues such as fair performance evaluation of employees on FWAs, and the availability of FWA options to employees in all job roles become all the more real on the ground. On this, I call for more support from our Government to help employers upskill their HR and line managers to manage a workforce with employees on FWAs.
Mothercare, is a name many mothers are familiar with, and it is not surprising that they have championed my heart for women. When I visited Mothercare recently, I was delighted to note that mothers with young children were 40% of their new hires in 2021. While I was at their store, I delighted in meeting with Mdm Fadilah who has four children and has worked her way from Sales Assistant to Store Manager in just eight short years. She was not alone, as I met another three teammates who were moms with three to four children each. The secret to Mothercare’s success? They are committed to job redesign and providing flexible working arrangements especially for their moms at work.
I believe that we ladies can have our cake and eat it too with the support of our workplaces, and I look forward to the measures our government will introduce to encourage and support our employers to take on the challenge of job redesign.
Mr Speaker, in Mandarin please.
a. 议长先生，渐进式薪金模式在今年年底和明年年初会扩展到零售业和餐饮服务业。这即将会影响到2万8千全职低薪国人。这群人士，是陪伴着我们过每天平常生活的同僚, 邻居，朋友，甚至亲戚。他们是楼下每早见面的咖啡嫂，便利店爱笑的小弟，陪着我们庆祝生日的餐厅服务员大哥，常帮我们打折扣的超级市场收银台的阿姨。在我们新加坡零售业全职国人当中，有百分之45是列为底薪工人；餐饮业的比例在百分之 60。我们必须改善这情况。这次预算案，政府宣布了一个5年的过度薪资辅助 – Progressive Wage Credit Scheme，帮我们的餐饮业和零售业的薪金模式打了一个给力的定心针。但，改善底薪国人的情况还是需要其他共同承担者的配合。帮助底薪的国人是政府的勤务，职总的使命，企业的投资，员工的干系和国人的义务。
Conclusion
Helping businesses pivot to capture new capabilities and allowing for employees to share in the fruits of advancement; creating deeper safety nets for the freelance ecosystem; ensuring parity for single mothers and sparking deep attitudinal changes at workplaces for women. These are the opportunities we must latch onto as they present themselves in a Singapore economy that awaits thoughtful reconstruction. #EveryWorkerMatters.
Mr Speaker, I support Budget 2022.
