Mr Speaker, I rise in support of the motion to thank the President for his Address and his call to rally Singaporeans together and building on our inclusivity.
Introduction
I joined the labour movement nine and a half years in 2002. As an Industrial Relations Officer, I had the opportunity to witness for myself two major bouts of retrenchments. Once in 2003 during the SARS outbreak and the other during the sub-prime crisis in end 2008.
During the 2003 downturn, many rank and file workers lost their jobs. I saw for myself how SIA and SATS staff and the hotels and services industry were badly affected during the SARS outbreak. I saw workers who lost their jobs and had their wages cut. I recalled NTUC and our affiliated unions helping thousands to undergo training and many for career switches. I also recalled NTUC acting as surrogate employer and helping almost 200 tourist guides to undergo Skills Redevelopment Programme training and upgrading as tourist arrivals came to a standstill and their income flow halted.
During the end 2008 downturn, we had swift measures from a closely-knit tripartite effort to manage excess manpower and to upturn the downturn. We bounced back quickly, thanks to the resolute efforts and tenacity of purpose by our tripartite partners from the unions, employers and government. Employers took pains to cut costs and save jobs, unions and workers braced themselves to persevere and stood by their companies whilst the government rolled out the resilience package tapping into our hard-earned reserves. Although we bounced back very quickly by end 2009, I still saw many job losses and institutions like several banks laying off staff, often unannounced and not reported publicly. During the 2008 downturn, I saw for myself increasingly more Professionals, Managers and Executives (hereinafter referred to as PMEs) facing retrenchments.
With the uncertain global economic conditions and outlook, we have to brace ourselves. In fact, just 2 weeks ago, we saw the first signs of the uncertain market conditions with the laying off of about 220 workers from United Test and Assembly (UTAC). I am told almost 100 of them were PMEs, a group of them are currently undergoing skills training at Next-U, the PME training arm of NTUC Learning Hub. They are re-skilling in various areas of computing such as AutoCAD and a hosts of other skills as many of those retrenched have engineering backgrounds.
The Ministry of Manpower had released an occasional paper last week and highlighted that the Singapore workforce had about half who belong to this category called the PMETs. I would prefer to use the term PMEs as the ‘T’ refers to technical officers and technicians who are these days generally considered rank-and-file workers. Since opening of Parliament, I have also posed several questions to ascertain the exact and accurate composition of this PME group of workers and the current demographic and industry profile including their employment and unemployment rates which when answered will throw more light to this growing segment of our working population. Based on extrapolation of the current labour market surveys and reports, I am quite sure we would have about a third of our workers falling within this ‘PME’ classification.
With rising affluence and educational qualifications and with a large proportion of our people embarking on tertiary education and entering into jobs in managerial and executive positions, it will not be long before this group of PMEs form the greater majority of our workforce. What this means is that we need to focus and direct our efforts at all levels and at all fronts to support their personal growth and advancement, protect their welfare and interests and assist them when they need help, oftentimes well before they start asking for it.
Challenges and concerns confronting the various segments of PMEs
Our PME group of workers’ concerns and challenges fall into various categories according to the life stage they are in and their nature of work.
(i) The Vulnerable above 40 group – Retrenchment, Employment & Unemployment
In the first instance, I am particularly concerned of those who are aged 40 years and above. From MOM’s statistics and data, it has been clearly demonstrated that this segment require a much longer period of time before they gain employment after a retrenchment. In fact, I know of a resident who obtained a first class honours in Engineering from NUS and worked as an engineer in a large MNC before he was retrenched during the last downturn in 2008. He was 40 years of age at that time. He was out of job for more than 9 months and finally landed a job in the civil service at much less than half his previous pay. He was fortunate in that his wife was working and they had no major debts. What I am sharing is a real concern amongst many Singaporean PMEs. This is regardless of whether they are earning $3000, $6,000 or $9,000 per month. Many are already saddled with mortgages and vehicle loans. Those with families would be having young children and many have to support aged parents. To further exacerbate their burdens, many of these PMEs who are in their forties would be an only child or have only one other sibling as they were born during the time when measures were taken to get families to “stop at two”. Being retrenched is one thing, finding a job after that is going to be the next hurdle they have to overcome after picking themselves up. Looking back the past decade, such economic swings are no longer once in 10 years like traditional economics used to articulate. I worry for this group of PMEs come the next downturn. I am well aware the Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) has already started regular career fairs for PMEs since the last downturn and is ramping up on such fairs. Due to the very diverse and often specialised nature of PME jobs and PMEs’ interests, the amount of resources to up-skill or re-skill a PME and place him/her in a PME job requires a significantly larger amount of resources as compared to training and placing a worker in a rank-and-file job.
(ii) Young PMEs – Meeting Rising Aspirations
Many of our young these days are equipped with ITE certificates, Diplomas, Degrees and Post-Graduate qualifications. Many of them start off their first career/job as executives and skilled professionals. What do you think this segment of our PMEs are looking for? During a series of focus group discussions which I had with some PMEs, they are looking for good opportunities, good jobs, good career advancement, good treatment by Employers, good work-life balance besides good remuneration. They also want to be well protected against unfair treatment, termination and job losses. Career progression and reconciling job satisfaction with personal aspirations have been a common concern.
In the recent figures just released from the Council of Private Education which track student numbers in private schools, it showed student enrolment had reached 146,000 by middle this year of which 113,000 are Singaporeans. Most of them are aged below 30 years and diploma holders. This is in comparison to the about 45,000 Singaporeans pursuing undergraduate degrees in our three local universities and the new Singapore Institute of Technology.
With such large numbers graduating from private education providers such as Singapore Institute of Management, Management Development Institute of Singapore, PSB Academy and other well-known providers in tie-ups with foreign universities, the number of potential young PMEs entering the market or already in the market and upgrading themselves the coming years will certainly increase tremendously. My serious worry for this group of young PMEs is whether there are good jobs for them to fulfil their aspirations and ambitions. We are well aware of growth in sectors such as bio-med, research and development, clean energy and several professional services. The question is whether these young PMEs have a passion or keen to enter into some of these industries and whether employers will accept them with open arms.
For those who are keen and willing to upgrade and up-skill themselves through such private education providers, many of whom are those who are unable to afford an overseas education, are there other avenues where these young people can obtain assistance from the government? I am aware of the Workforce Development Agency’s Skills Training for Excellence Programme (STEP for short) which is outcomes and industry based. However, many of these SIM and MDIS students I speak to including my residents hope to see the likes of UniSIM type of government funding or the likes of the Edusave Merit Bursary or Scholarships.
Last week, I chatted with one of my union leaders who is in his late twenties. He works as a technician. He completed an undergraduate programme (in business management) with one of our top private education providers last year. I asked him if he had received an enlargement of job scope or had his salary or job grade adjusted with his new degree qualification. He told me in a dismal “No!” I believe there are many like him, not just in the private sector but also in the public sector. This begets the issue of under-employment of our PMEs. Many like this young union leader may have to move to another job to be ‘promoted’ to an executive. Some stay on bitterly. This is not a new phenomenon. Countries like the United States face similar challenges. Lower jobs taken on by highly or over-qualified PMEs thereby causing severe under-employment. This is an area which I strongly feel we should take cognizance of despite the fact that we have relatively low youth unemployment compared to many developed countries. We should prepare ourselves.
(iii) PMEs with Children
In the same vein, many PMEs battle with having children and doing well or even keeping up with their careers. Whether male or female, they face a myriad of difficulties, I know of many PMEs who felt apprehensive and at times awfully guilty having to leave their young children/infants at home with a domestic helper or at a childcare or infant-care centre. The challenges of having to rush home before 7.00pm to fetch or see their children, the plight of parents when their child falls ill, the prospect of the centres being shut due to an outbreak of disease and having to make unplanned childcare arrangements frightens many. How then can we create a better climate to mitigate these fear and worries?
Back-to-Work female PMEs who stop work for a period of time during the formative years of their children also face their own set of challenges. This includes being unable to return to jobs which they previously did and also joining organisations with little or no flexible work arrangements nor having any family-friendly practices.
(iv) Other PME Concerns – Singaporeans First, Contract Employment, Limited Legislative Protection and Independent Contractors
There have been concerns and feedback from my union leaders and Facebook friends about foreign PMEs competing and taking away jobs from Singaporean PMEs. We do not doubt the need for foreign PMEs in certain specialised and niche industries. Instead, we cannot and should not fall into a situation where employers can choose foreigners as an easy option when they fail to recruit Singaporeans. There are several ways to mitigate this. As early as June and then in August this year, NTUC Union Leaders have mooted the ideas of a foreign PME dependency ratio and also to put employers through labour market testing before they can engage foreign PMEs. The Manpower Ministry responded consequently by enhancing the Employment Pass requirements which take effect in Jan 2012. I await to see its overall effectiveness next year.
My fellow labour MP Alex Yam on Monday’s sitting shared on the vulnerabilities of young PMEs who are on contract employment. This is indeed true. Not just the young but the not-so-young PMEs are also affected by the perils of such contract employment.
In general, our Employment Act explicitly excludes managers and executives in its scope of coverage. The Act was amended on a few occasions since promulgation and updated to offer limited protection to lower level executives. On 1 February this year, the tripartite mediation process was introduced to cover those earning less than $4500 for specified heads of claim. To date, the tripartite mediation panel has successfully mediated 3 cases involving executives with employment related claims. The Ministry of Manpower also offers PMEs a voluntary mediation route. However, I am concerned about the ambit and coverage of the employment Act to PMEs as the median salaries increase year after year and PMEs’ employment terms and contracts become increasingly complex, sometimes involving transnational and cross-border issues. I therefore ask this House how effective our current Employment Act has been in protecting the interests and providing recourse to aggrieved PMEs. The meaning and intent of the word “Executive” which is provided in the Employment Act when it was first promulgated in 1968 and the meaning of “Executive” today 43 years later, I submit, is surely, dissimilar.
By the same token, we are increasingly seeing an increase in what is commonly known as “freelancers”. They are independent contractors who do not fall squarely into an employer-employee relationship and therefore not protected by our labour legislation. We see such workers in various sectors such as tourist guides, trainers and those in the creative/arts/entertainment industry.
I have shared earlier the concerns and challenges of PMEs. We have questions to ask ourselves. What works or does not work for PMEs? Where are the new jobs for PMEs? What capabilities should we develop? Why do employers prefer Employment Pass holders than engaging our local employees? We need to examine our current national programmes, initiatives and capabilities. Are they effective? What should be the way forward? What more can we do for this ever growing group of PMEs who will surely form the majority of our workforce.
Recommendations
I have several thoughts and suggestions. PMEs will need adequate support for the 4 UPs (Up their Skills and Knowledge, Up their Marketability and Employability, Up their Protection and Up the Spread of Jobs and Employment Opportunities).
Set-Up of a National PME Taskforce - I opine that the government should work closely with the tripartite partners to set up a taskforce to address PME concerns over and above those highlighted earlier. Greater research and study need to be undertaken to examine the short and long term ramifications and challenges facing this growing segment of the workforce. The issues are wide-ranging and would cover amongst others, PME unemployment, employment and under-employment. We need to find counter-measures and solutions to these issues. This may well involve amending related legislation to protect the interests of PMEs.
PME Capability Development Fund – There is an entire train of activities in enhancing the employment and employability of PMEs. It is not merely placing them in a job but in the right job. Before we land them a job, there is a need for proper career counselling and even professional coaching. In particular, the range of PME jobs, requisite capabilities and development opportunities are extremely diverse and efforts needed extensive. Are we able to develop new capabilities to train, equip, re-design, counsel, coach, place, retain, and nurture our PMEs. Resources required are huge. I moot the possibility of creating a PME Capability Development Fund for the tripartite partners to tap on to train and equip and perhaps roll out initiatives and programmes which the taskforce recommend. There is also the possibility of setting up a ‘one-stop shop’ to meet and serve the needs of PMEs. It could well be a comprehensive resource portal for PMEs with updated information and pointers and also link to job search engines including coaching and career counselling.
The above are but my initial recommendations which I hope this government will consider as we embark on this journey of outreach and serving the needs of our PMEs. I will share further thoughts, views and recommendations during future sittings.
Appeal from Nee Soon East Residents
Mr Speaker, Sir, standing in the queue together with my fellow MPs, I am also asking for the Minister to build a hawker centre for my residents in Nee Soon East as there are heavily populated parts which do not have simple eateries within proximity.
Closing
Mr Speaker, Sir, in closing, if I may quote some of my favourite quotations in William Shakespeare’s Tragedies, Macbeth and Julius Caesar. “Fair is Foul and Foul is Fair, hover through the fog and filthy air”. There is a foggy air of uncertainty but we, as individuals, one united people and country shall turn what is “Foul” to “Fair”. By the same token, “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune”. We too, shall ride on the tide and reap great victory and harvest.
Sir, in supporting the motion to thank the President, let me also call on all of us "To turn any uncertainties and potential adversity into opportunity and to tap any opportunity to transform it to victory and harvest". We have so much going for us. For fellow men and women, ourselves and for the sake of our children and their future, let us build on what we have to make Singapore a best place for all.
