Mr Speaker. Thank you for allowing me to join this debate. I stand in support of the budget.
In late July 2019, the Ministry of Manpower estimated that there were 60,000 vacancies in our economy waiting to be filled. Now, less than a year later, we are staring at an annual GDP shrinkage of between (-4%~-7%). Before the year 2020 began, the global economy was already feeling the effects of the US-China trade war. And then COVID-19 struck. The world became a totally different place for everybody.
If the projected shrinkage of the National pie materialises, it would be the worst since Singapore’s Independence. It reflects the serious anxiety we see on the ground – businesses worrying about survival, workers worrying about their jobs. It is why the Government has had to roll out 4 Budgets totalling $93 billion in as many months, and which entails drawing $52 billion from the national reserves – all unprecedented moves.
Even so, we cannot realistically expect the cushioning to completely counter what COVID-19 has done or will do – hitting both supply and demand at the same time. Not all businesses will survive this. Neither can all jobs be saved from this tsunami.
When push comes to shove, and beyond what the very important Job Support Scheme (JSS) can do for business and to save the jobs for all local workers, what will happen to the older segment of our workforce?
Over the past weeks, I’ve had discussions with union leaders and also with employer representatives over the subject of older workers in the context of COVID-19 and our economy. They have shared their views candidly with me and I’ve put them together and will share some over here and make some recommendations.
Preserving Jobs
We know from experience and studies that older workers are at higher risk of being retrenched than younger workers. We also know that when an older worker loses his/her job, he/she will take longer than a younger worker of an otherwise similar profile to find new work, and even then would in all likelihood take a substantial pay cut.
Therefore, the most merciful thing to do for older workers, is to minimise their risk of retrenchment.
The tripartite agreement to delay the CPF contribution rate changes from Jan 2021 to Jan 2022 is a step in this direction, in order not to inadvertently raise the risk of retrenchment for older workers above age 55.
In delaying the change or the increase, Government also decided to remove the corresponding wage offset meant to help employers shoulder half the cost of the CPF increase. I hope that Government can consider re-channelling the $80 million originally earmarked for that transitional offset into strengthening the Senior Employment Credit for the next one year. This Senior Employment Grant which was announced in the Unity Budget, incentivises companies to hire of older workers age 55 and above. It’s paying for an outcome. Every percentage help to companies, is helpful towards incentivising employment and employability of workers. I believe that if Government to do so, it will send a strong and visible signal to both employers and older workers that it is resolute in wanting to save jobs in this difficult time.
In Unity Budget 2020, Government also announced a new Part-time Re-employment Grant (PTRG) for employers who offer it to re-employed workers aged 62 and above who request for it. I hope that Government can apply this incentive to a slightly younger age group from 55 and above who request it, for the next one year because this one year is a critical period.
I make this call not only to lower the cost of such workers to their employers who respond positively to their request, but also in view of the fact that COVID-19 is especially harsh toward older persons, and employers are therefore also worried about how to deploy such workers and manage their safe return to work. We must therefore find ways to incentivise employers to keep such workers hired, whether full-time or part-time, back-to-workplace or telecommute, rather than to do without them.
Matching Jobs
No matter how hard we try, I think it is inevitable that some older workers will be displaced as companies take measures to cope and to transform. It is imperative that we find ways to help as many older workers earn income as possible. If not, they will become structurally unemployed prematurely, and will have to depend more on their children who themselves are under pressure, and on general taxes for support.
In this regard, I urge the National Jobs Council to pay due attention to job preservation and job creation for older workers as well. The Circuit-Breaker period has illustrated cross-industry job possibilities. Whether it is Professional Conversion Programmes (PCPs) for older PMEs or full-time/part-time/gig jobs in retail, logistics, healthcare, transport, the public sector and others, let us give older workers a fair go at these opportunities too.
I recall that when we battled SARS in 2003, there were a number of big projects that created many thousands of new jobs. That helped absorbed displaced workers. This time round, the Government has also announced moves to create public and private sector jobs and traineeships and MTI recently announced an investment pipeline coming into Singapore which will create thousands of jobs as well. Aside from opportunities in areas such as healthcare and e-logistics, we should also consider how areas linked to our longer-term security – urban farming, renewable energy – where jobs can be created and also given due attention and development.
Advocating Fairness & Opportunity at Workplaces
Over the years, through wage reform, many jobs have wages that are performance-based rather than seniority-based. I urge employers therefore in considering how to manage their excess manpower to be fair. Please do not target older workers as a category. The Labour Movement and tripartite partners will be on the lookout for age-specific and other unfair practices.
COVID-19 has also revealed the sudden disruption to manning when segments of workers are stuck elsewhere even when the company is allowed to operate. There is therefore scope for localisation to help companies be more resilient against such sudden supply disruptions. There will be roles that can be done by willing and properly trained and re-trained local workers – including older workers. The Labour Movement will be keen to work with companies on such initiatives through the Company Training Committees (CTCs) and NTUC Jobs Security Council (JSC) (which will now function in support of the National Jobs Council).
In this regard, the Hiring Incentive introduced as part of the SkillsFuture Mid-Career Support Package (SMCSP) in the February 2020’s Unity Budget will be useful. This incentive targets employers who hire local workers aged 40 and above through eligible re-skilling programmes and it was meant to last 6 months. I call for the duration of this hiring incentive to be extended from 6 months to 12 months, to make the incentive more attractive to employers to offer job contracts of at least a year to such mature, mid-career jobseekers.
I also ask Government to consider help – both monetary and non-monetary – to both require and enable workplaces to be reshaped to be COVID-safe for workers of all ages, to be age barrier free. This should become part and parcel of basic WSH (Workplace Safety and Health) specifications, so that Singapore has a sustainable operating model in this New Normal, and not work on the notion that COVID-19 is a one-off event and will go away and nothing like it will hit us in future. We have to now be ready for all time.
As part of the re-opening of the economy after the Circuit Breaker ends, workers will progressively return to work in some way. For occupations that employ a large number of older workers at the frontline, I urge the Government to prioritise testing for these workers. This will give both they, their employers and their customers greater peace of mind. It would also enable those infected to be identified as early as possible and given treatment, and thus limit transmission both in the community and at the workplace.
Recreating Jobs
While I call for the preservation of jobs for older workers, this does not mean that the way these jobs are carried out should remain the same. Far from it. Unless companies and workers transform job designs and work processes, and increase their use of technology and spur innovation, they will not escape the worst that this storm will bring. This COVID-19 storm is so furious that there simply won’t be enough resources to prop up zombie companies and jobs.
This means that we must spur companies to press on with Job Redesign.
I call for practical support for companies – in monetary and non-monetary expertise terms - to help them quickly redesign jobs and processes that incorporate the following key dimensions:
First, how to re-engineer processes and use technology to render more jobs Easier, Safer and Smarter (ESS). ESS is not a new idea at all. Mr Lim Swee Say tried hard to promote it both in his NTUC and MOM roles. But current times provide the opportunity to take this up, because companies can see for themselves the obvious need, advantage and imperative of doing so – increased competitiveness, resilience, attractiveness, flexibility. The WorkPro Job Redesign Grant of up to $300,000 per company can be reviewed and re-energised to spur action for this harsh but opportune period.
With many SMEs struggling badly and yet together employing nearly 2/3 of the workforce and many older workers as well, how we help SMEs redesign processes and jobs and entire operations for this new environment and transform. If we can do that, that will move the needle. Is it easy? It won’t be easy. But if that ground does not move quickly and well enough, then it is very difficult to move the overall at all simply because of the number of businesses that are SMEs. Again tapping into the moment that we are in now, everybody knows we have to change not because we like it but because of the reality. I call for a concerted tripartite effort to minimally help the more promising SMEs and through that to show to the rest and lead the pack in this transformation.
Training & Re-Training
This topic has been covered in depth by SMS Koh Poh Koon earlier and I shall not belabour the point. I call on employers to remember and to invest in the training and retraining of Older Workers. Don’t leave them out or just do it for the younger workers. Give these older workers a fair go at training especially training that makes them digitally employable.
When the dust settles, countries that best invest in their workforce and infrastructure to be fighting fit in a very digital future, are likely to out-compete the rest.
An employer who views his older workers as assets and another who views them as liabilities will both be right, because they will each act in a self-fulfilling manner. The enlightened employer will continue investing in sharpening the skills of his older workers just as he does his younger workers. The ageist employer will deny his older workers the opportunities to keep current, and they will rust away just as he predicted. I therefore call on employers to adopt a Progressive Mindset. I thank every progressive employer who are ready to do so and I say it needs an equally progressive response from other workers.
Likewise, I urge fellow Older Workers to be enthusiastic about learning new skills to stay employable. This is the best favour we can do for ourselves in this environment.
Conclusion
Mr Deputy Speaker, disease and Geo-politics have put Singapore in particularly daunting circumstances. But we shall NOT be daunted.
Mr Lee Kuan Yew, speaking at the 1966 National Day Rally, said “Never be depressed, never be deflated by setbacks. …We face facts. And this is one of the greatest strengths about Singapore: its willingness to face reality…. not because we wished it to be but because it was. This capacity to face up to situations, however intractable, however unpleasant, is one of the great qualities for survival. A people able to look facts squarely in the face, able to calculate the odds, to weigh the chances and then to decide to go for it, are a people not likely to go under.”
Mr Deputy Speaker, we are the people. We can, and we will overcome. Thank you.
