Singapore faces a new reality as it restructures its economy to be more productive and innovative. Businesses will need to take a hard look at how they run their operations so that they can maximise their profitability as well as attract, retain and make better use of every worker. On the other hand, workers who want to enjoy better pay will need to upgrade their skills, take on a larger job scope, and improve productivity. It takes for all hands to come together to make Singapore’s economy future-ready.
The Progressive Wage Model (PWM), mooted by the Labour Movement, is a four-in-one model of skills upgrading, productivity improvements, career advancement and wage progression to achieve win-win outcomes for both employers and workers. PWM enables companies to make better use of manpower and pay higher wages, commensurate with larger job scopes and higher productivity levels.
PWM is for all workers at all levels, for all sizes of companies, across all industries and sectors. Since its implementation in June 2012, it has been implemented in sectors such as hospitality, healthcare and petroleum which have benefitted Professionals, Managers and Executives (PMEs) to low-wage sectors such as cleaning and security.
PWM Update
To help promote PWM, the Labour Movement and its affiliated unions organised itself into 12 key clusters1 to come up with industry-specific initiatives. Since its inception in June 2012 to end October 2014, there has been close to 270 companies who have embarked on their PWM journey. It is estimated that more than 150,000 workers from PMEs to rank-and-file to lower-wage workers have benefited from its impact.
To make PWM more pervasive, seven clusters have formalised some form of tripartite workgroup or committee to spearhead PWM efforts within their respective industries. The seven are: Aerospace and Aviation Cluster; Building & Facility Management Services Cluster; Electronics & Precision Engineering Cluster; Healthcare Cluster; Hospitality and Consumer Business Cluster; Marine Engineering Cluster; and Transport & Logistics Service Cluster.
For example, the Healthcare Cluster Tripartite Workgroup was formed in September 2012 with an aim of encouraging productivity initiatives across the public healthcare sector, through the sharing and diffusion of best practices. The Workgroup also looked at increasing the employability and wages of healthcare support staff through training, job redesign and productivity initiatives.
One of the outcomes is the enhancement of career tracks for the Patient Service Associates (PSAs) which allows them to rise to executive levels. This has been adopted in several hospitals such as National University Hospital, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital and Jurong Health Services. The Tripartite Workgroup believes that this enhancement will not only motivate staff but also help to boost retention as PSAs can envision a long-term career with their respective institution.
PWM Seminar
About 600 management partners, members of the Labour Movement family including unionists and our social enterprises attended today’s seminar – Optimising Manpower for Profitable Growth – held at the Devan Nair Institute for Employment and Employability.
Attendees were shown how skills upgrading, productivity improvement and strengthening career progression have helped companies to do better and their employees to have better jobs and better pay.
The seminar also included a panel discussion which focused on how companies can build on this momentum and start their PWM journey if they have not embarked on one. The panel comprised representatives from the Labour Movement as well as from the Singapore Workforce Development Agency and Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore. There was also an exhibition showcasing how the use of technology such as cleaning robots and a serving robot can raise the skillsets and productivity of our workers.
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