About 70 unionists, employer representatives and members of the public with Acting Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin and senior Ministry of Manpower (MOM) representatives came together to discuss proposed changes to the current Employment Act (EA) at a closed-door townhall session on 21 November 2012.
It was part of the Ministry’s ongoing public consultation exercise for the review of the EA, with the first phase of changes likely to be tabled at the Committee of Supply debate in Parliament next year.
In his opening address, Mr Tan said the aim of the session was for stakeholders to review the inputs from the unions, employers and the public, and more importantly, listen and understand the different views, perspectives and interests put forward.
Pointing out that both workers and employers played key roles, with workers contributing to the economy and employers providing the jobs, Mr Tan said that both sides needed to understand the trade-offs necessary to reach the goal and build platforms in the areas that they agree upon.
Mr Tan also highlighted the role of Singapore’s tripartite partnership, in particular the strong participation by the unions.
“At the end of the day, one of the key things for us in Singapore is really the whole tripartite partnership which is what I think we are representing here. The Government getting involved as a key player, the employees, unions and individuals, and employers.
“The unions have been playing a tremendous role as well; they all have a good sense of the ground and feedback from their fellow workers, whether they are members or not. Certainly, they have been quite frank and forthright in surfacing the concerns of the workers,” he said.
One of the proposed change discussed was the extension of more protection to PMEs (Professionals, Managers and Executives), which was lobbied by NTUC about two weeks ago.
Mr Tan said: “I would say it is quite critical because the profile of the workforce is changing. That is something that we do need to grapple with and I think that it is probably an important piece among the many important pieces in the review of the EA.”
An eight-week public consultation exercise was launched by MOM on 19 November 2012 to gather views and suggestions for the first phase of the EA. Unions, workers and companies can continue to email their feedback to MOM_EA_Feedback@mom.gov.sg.
Details of the proposed changes are available on the REACH website (www.reach.gov.sg).
