By Shukry Rashid
This year’s Budget focus is about creating jobs of the future.
“I think we should see this year’s Budget as an ongoing, continuous effort to restructure our economy, to upskill our workers, so that we can all have the careers of the future,” said NTUC Secretary-General (SG) and MP for Tanjong Pagar GRC Chan Chun Sing during the Budget debate in Parliament on 4 April 2016.
SG Chan added that many workers have feedback to him of their appreciation for the Special Employment Credit, the Workface Income Supplement, the Silver Support Scheme, and the Professional Conversion Programme addressed during Budget 2016.
However, he said that the true mark of success for all these schemes is not these schemes themselves, but for us to work upstream to make sure that as few workers as possible are reliant on these schemes.
Challenges
While there are workers who are being displaced due to structural changes, SG Chan said that there are still jobs being created. He cited the example of how shops are folding physical stores to open up online stores instead, creating new job opportunities in e-commerce, data management and logistics management.
“So the problem is not the total number of jobs available in the economy, the real question is how do we help the person who is displaced at the retail line to get into another job that has been created,” he added.
To avoid this structural unemployment, Singaporeans have to upgrade themselves.
SG Chan said: “It will be a very involved process that the Labour Movement will definitely want to work with the employers and the Government to make sure that we minimise the occurrences of possible structural unemployment.”
More from the Labour Movement
With regard to the SkillsFuture Credit, SG Chan stated that more can be done to increase the number of courses that are current and relevant to the workers. With that, the Labour Movement wants to work with the post-secondary education institutes (PSEI) of Singapore and institutes of higher learning (IHL) to stretch the SkillsFuture Credit that are available to Singaporeans.
For retirement adequacy, SG Chan also called for the review of the fixed retirement age as there are more workers who wish to continue working well into their golden years. This is to allow those with experience and the capabilities to contribute when they can.
Another challenge that the Labour Movement is concerned with is the issue of productivity gains.
SG Chan said: “I hope going forward, beyond a broad policy, we need to go sectorally to examine where are the laggards in our productivity drive, how best can we help them to uplift them in their respective sectors.”
Singaporean Core
The Labour Movement believes in the Singaporean Core and SG Chan urged companies to work on building it.
The Labour Movement acknowledges that for companies to become competitive regionally and globally, they need a diverse team of talents across sectors, cultural backgrounds, and international exposure.
Singaporeans too should be given the international exposure in order to rise up the ranks. SG Chan added that the Labour Movement will work with the Manpower Ministry and the Ministry of Trade and Industry to continue to strengthen the Singaporean core.
Source: NTUC This Week
To read what other labour MPs addressed in Parliament, click here.
