The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) announced today at the Committee of Supply that from 1 September 2023, NTUC will play a role in assessing companies for their commitment to work with NTUC in local workforce development, before awarding Strategic Economic Priorities Bonus (Criterion 6) towards the companies’ total Complementarity Assessment Framework (COMPASS) score for their Employment Pass (EP) applications.
NTUC’s Role in COMPASS Would Help Level Playing Field for Local PMEs
NTUC recognises that as a small city-state, Singapore must remain open and embrace foreign talent to ensure that our workforce, companies and economy remain competitive. At the same time, as champion of our workers’ interests, NTUC wants to ensure that our local PMEs have a level playing field vis-à-vis foreign talents, and that local PMEs remain employable and competitive in the labour force.
In fact, the COMPASS would address ground feedback and concerns from local PMEs, obtained by the Joint NTUC-SNEF PME Taskforce in 2021, that they want fair opportunities when seeking employment. The PME Taskforce made nine recommendations then, one of which was to level the playing field for local PMEs by enhancing the EP application review process. The PME taskforce had proposed then that the EP application review process should be enhanced to include a point(s) system that factors in: i) sectoral input; ii) whether the employer has been hiring and developing local workers; and iii) the diversity of nationalities within the company.
Under COMPASS, MOM will involve NTUC in awarding 10 bonus points under the Strategic Economic Priorities Bonus (Criterion C6) to recognise and endorse progressive firms that are committed to work with the Labour Movement to strengthen local workforce development through either NTUC’s Company Training Committees (CTCs) or participation in Government-supported programmes.
Through NTUC’s involvement in COMPASS and by awarding bonus points, NTUC can help to ensure that these companies, which are supported by NTUC, and which would benefit from foreign talent, will also commit to develop and strengthen our local workforce.
NTUC’s CTC programme aims to help companies drive business and workforce transformation which will in turn provide better work prospects for our Singaporean workers. NTUC has successfully set up more than 1,200 CTCs thus far, and we hope more companies come on board our CTC programme. For more details on forming and embarking on CTCs, please visit NTUC’s website.
More details on NTUC’s awarding of the Strategic Economic Priorities Bonus (Criterion C6) will be released at a later date, ahead of the implementation of COMPASS on 1 September 2023.
For more details on MOM’s Complementarity Assessment Framework (COMPASS), please refer to https://www.mom.gov.sg/passes-and-permits/employment-pass/upcoming-changes-to-employment-pass-eligibility/complementarity-assessment-framework-compass
