As Singapore goes through a period of a slower economic and job growth over the medium and longer term over the next 10 to 20 years, the Labour Movement identified 3 challenges and necessary mind-sets to overcome challenges:
1) Improving productivity and innovation to sustain economic and job growth
2) Sustaining real growth in our median wage – which grew 17% in the last 5 years – and helping low wage workers to grow wages in higher percentage terms than the median wage growth through accepting that wage increases can only come about and be sustained with upgrading of skills and productivity and taking on heavier responsibilities in terms of career advancement.
3) Ensuring employers are able to attract, retain and value every worker so that businesses are able to grow and ensure better job security.
This is why the Labour Movement introduced the Progressive Wage Mode (PWM). The PWM is a four-in-one model of skills, productivity, career-development and wages. All four components must go hand in hand to achieve the three outcomes: achieve economic growth and job growth; increase workers’ real wages, with low wage workers enjoying a real wage increase faster than the median wage increase; ensuring businesses can compete and grow healthily.
In 2012, NTUC has unveiled progressive wage models for 8 sectors/industries (Cleaning, Healthcare, Pre-school Education, Hotels, Retail & F&B, Marine Engineering, OPEC and Transport). In the next two to three years, the PWM aims to benefit about 100,000 workers in these clusters.
Besides the F&B and Hotels’ examples I mentioned in my Budget Speech, In the Healthcare sector, NUH did a job re-design for Patient Service Associates (PSA)/Patient Care Associates (PCA). Through the job
re-design, NUH created a structured career pathway for PSA/PCA which provided career development and professional growth opportunities for the PSA/PCAs. 3 additional grades, S11 – S13, were added to the structure.
Prior to the re-design, the above mentioned 3 grades are the entry level grades for degree holders and are usually “inaccessible” to employees without degree qualifications. Under the new structure, employees without degree qualifications can be promoted into these grades based on performance and earn up to a salary of $5,200.
In the cleaning sector, there are about 70,000 cleaners in total and about 50,000 (70%) are Singaporean. If Tripartite Cluster Committee for Cleaning (TCC) broadens our outreach, most of the 50,000 Singaporeans workers can benefit from the PWM. I hope MOM would consider establishing same sector-based or cluster platform like TCC for all low-wage sectors.
Lastly, from the labour movement point-of-view, the new Wage Credit Scheme (WCS) will be helpful in our efforts for sustainable wage increases. I would like to ask MOM whether the Ministry has plan to support the labour movement to do more together, to ensure that we give employers and employees effective ways to skill-up and build progressive wages.
