The Labour Movement has submitted our recommendations for Singapore Budget 2017 to the Ministry of Finance in December 2016, calling for targeted assistance for our working people.
Given the current economic state, the Labour Movement is particularly concerned about our working people’s ability to maintain their competitiveness in this challenging environment; brought about by rapid technological disruption, new requirements for skills, changing employment structures, and an ageing and shrinking workforce.
Thus, the Labour Movement stands ready to help our working people, especially those who might be displaced in the future, so that we can help them move into the jobs of tomorrow, today.
Our recommendations for Budget 2017 focuses on four key areas to ensure that all working people will be able to transit and thrive successfully in a fast-changing labour market:
I. Placement to address cyclical and structural unemployment
In this current economic climate, more should be done to enhance job-matching efforts and narrow jobs-skills gaps. As some job types and skills continue to evolve, it is inevitable that some jobs will become obsolete. Our Labour Movement leaders have expressed the need for us to be future-ready. To do so, we need to be more informed on the necessary skills required. This will enable us to customise training programmes, and design them in a modular fashion so that it makes it easier for working people to acquire relevant skills.
o Government to work with the Labour Movement’s Future Jobs, Skills and Training (FJST) capability and e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) on cross-sharing of Jobs Bank information, thereby enabling the Government and the Labour Movement to work closer together to better help workers find jobs and gather insights into new jobs. Both parties can collaborate to identify new skills and translate this to training requirements, by working with Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) and private institutions to hasten rollout of such training programmes, thus enabling workers to better prepare themselves for jobs of tomorrow.
II. Progression for workers to move into new and future jobs
As working people move into jobs of tomorrow, it is imperative to upskill both blue and white collar workers to ensure they remain employable. However, a recent Labour Movement survey showed that almost half of the respondents did not attend training or upskilling courses in the past year. In this vein, the Labour Movement calls for further enhancement of current systems of upskilling, to facilitate improved adoption rates for both new entry and mid-career workers.
o Plug existing structural gaps via greater focus on skills and upgrading through SkillsFuture with credit top-ups, more relevant courses, paid training leave and training allowances
o Work together with the Government and IHLs to develop modular ‘bite-sized’ courses that are more accessible
o Support a “Returnship Programme” that facilitates women looking to re-enter the workforce through job trials, flexible work arrangements and even incentives through Special Employment Credit for employers
III. Productivity to unleash the potential of workers
The labour market is expected to tighten further, with productivity continuing to be the key driver of change. More support for businesses is required as they adopt progressive, less labour intensive measures. The Government can take the lead in industry transformation projects, and continue to focus on promoting universally-designed, safe and conducive work environments to unleash the full potential of working people. Besides broad-based measures for industrial companies, tripartite partners will need to help all companies up their productivity game, and ensure that such gains are shared with their workers.
o Government to take the lead as fair and responsible buyers of outsourced services like cleaning, security and landscaping as an example for the private sector.
o Enhance components of WorkPro to promote age-friendly workplaces.
o Productivity schemes can be enhanced with sector-level projects and resource-pooling amongst companies. Special emphasis to be placed in sectors such as F&B, Retail and Construction.
o Provide better support for workers afflicted by workplace injuries such as the development of a case management system.
IV. Protection for workers in new forms of employment
Given the changing employment models, we need to ensure that workers can continue to enjoy fair work terms. There is a need to examine how laws can better protect the interests of working people on non-traditional work arrangements, such as contract workers and freelancers. The welfare of low-wage workers and outsourced workers must similarly be protected.
o Enhance the Government Procurement Act to improve procurement practices for outsourced services.
o To set up a tripartite mediation framework to resolve issues between service buyers and service providers.
o Examine how labour laws and tripartite networks like the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management can include freelancers.
In recent engagements, our Labour MPs have further elaborated on some of the key recommendations across the four areas. Please refer to Annex A for more details.
Deepening tripartism at sectoral level
While Tripartism has contributed greatly to Singapore’s economic growth and stability, it is important for it to evolve and cooperation to deepen at the sectoral level. This will sustain tripartism as a competitive advantage for Singapore’s continued success.
• In this aspect, the Labour Movement calls on Government agencies to institutionalise staff exchanges and cross-learning between the Civil Service, the Labour Movement and the Singapore National Employers Federation, to strengthen mutual understanding and trust amongst the future generation of tripartite leaders.
• Education modules on tripartism to be introduced as foundation modules for human resource practitioners, employers, businesses and foreign investors.
Though we may face short-term and more immediate challenges, all parties – from the Government, businesses, working people to society at large – will need to endeavour to prepare for what lies ahead. The Labour Movement stands ready to help our working people better navigate this climate of change so as to stay competitive and seize opportunities of tomorrow.
Key highlights of the Labour Movement’s Budget 2017 Recommendations are available in Annex B, while the full paper can be viewed at http://bit.ly/LM_Budget2017.
