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Mr Speaker, I would like to second Minister Lawrence Wong’s commitment to strengthening the social compact. Indeed, the three long years of a COVID-19 winter has brought about significant shifts in our community and workforce, and as we adjust and settle into a new equilibrium, we need to pay particular attention to social, economic and livelihood inequalities that have bubbled to the surface during the pandemic.
Two tectonic shifts that have impacted our workforce norms are:
a. One, the rise of gig and self-employed workers and the need for level playing fields; and
b. Two, the prolific adoption of Flexible Work Arrangements (FWAs) and the impact on women returning to
work and balancing caregiving with work responsibilities.
Self-Employed Persons: Improving Productivity and Mitigating Costs
Mr Speaker, the rise of the gig economy has been on-going for quite some time, even before the pandemic. COVID-19 added tailwinds to the growth of the industry with higher demands for home delivery services, and I would argue that the self-employed gig workforce will continue to grow as more Singaporeans embrace the flexibility freelancing work allows for.
However, this flexibility does come with its trade-offs, and these trade-offs are numerous. Unlike the self-employed of yesteryears, where our self-employed persons have total control over their terms of work – when they work, where they work, how much they charge; many self-employed of today no longer have full control over their terms of service, as they:
c. One, depend on platform partners to hook them up for gigs;
d. Two, are less skilled or have no core technical skills; and
e. Three, are hence price takers, impacted by controls from the platforms doubled down by the lack of
control on mitigating the changes in the greater geo-economic environment.
Thus, as the fortunes of our gig workers ebb and flow with the gig platforms, and with the general flow of life, many of our self-employed workers find themselves caught in a bind – while they hope to transit out of a vulnerable situation, they are unable to do so easily, as upskilling and training can be costly, but it comes at greater cost as it impacts the gig worker’s daily takings, and hence their livelihoods.
Indeed, our self-employed workers, like Alexander the Great, face a Gordian Knot when it comes to their financial future, and as the legend goes, a headless knot cannot be undone unless one takes extreme measures to cut it apart. I believe as a society, we need to support and arm our vulnerable self-employed workers better when they decide to face their Gordian Knots.
A headless Gordian Knot to a typical freelance driver looks like this. Gabriel is one of our leaders at the National Private Hire Vehicles Association - he is about to turn 50 and is a provider to his young family. He has had several recent conversations with me on his plans for retirement and is making serious decisions on his CPF contributions. However, he is worried. To improve his income, he hopes to upskill, but to upskill, he must take time off for training, yet training will take up time and eat into his daily income. Coupled with fluctuating fuel prices in an unstable geopolitical landscape, inconsistent trip prices with his platform, and daily rentals he needs to make, Gabriel literally has miles to go before his dream of a comfortable retirement can come true.
We must assist our Self-Employed Persons (SEPs) in improving their productivity through upskilling and providing level playing fields through mitigating their business costs. I would like to bring up some of the ways we can do so.
In the area of upskilling:
f. First, expand the training allowance for self-sponsored trainees to include SEPs, so that they can afford a few days off to upskill;
g. Secondly, consider deeper support for SEPs upskilling in critical skills such as digitalisation and digitisation – this is especially so for SEPs working in sectors where there have been technological disruptions such as the media and transport industres; and
h. Thirdly, develop skills frameworks for SEPs in crafts and trades-based professions such as for photographers, videographers, plumbers, mechanics and incorporating apprenticeship programmes into such training frameworks with Government support.
In the area of levelling business costs due to the small size of their businesses:
a. Most SEPs are unlikely to grow to a scale where they can become Goods & Services Tax (GST)-registered, but they face the full impact of GST increments on their business costs and may not enjoy the Government support given to businesses as they are freelancers. Consider providing GST rebates for SEPs who are not GST-registered to buffer the increase in costs. For taxi and private hire drivers specifically, we should consider the co-sharing of GST by SEPs with their operators and platforms;
b. Secondly, we call on the government to review the 60% Fixed Expense Deduction Ratio to better reflect the thinning margins experienced by drivers especially with global inflationary pressures; and in the same vein, to consider increasing the relief limit for business expenses and allow insurance such as prolonged medical leave to be categorised under business expenses; and
c. Thirdly, for Government procurement to take the lead in recognising SEPs who train under the abovementioned craft and trade skills frameworks when awarding Government contracts.
The COVID-19 situation had allowed us to celebrate the contributions of our freelance community. At the height of the pandemic, our drivers ferried COVID-19 patients to isolation facilities, while we stayed in the safety of our homes; our riders brought warm food to our tables, while we settled into a comfortable work-from-home pattern. While we celebrate and thank our gig workers for making the pandemic safer and more comfortable for everyone, the last three years also allowed Singaporeans a glimpse into the lives of SEP workers; and a deeper appreciation of the challenges they face. The SEPs in Singapore are capable of generating incredible value for our economy and society if only we would hand them the tools they need to loosen their Gordian Knots. By supporting them to upskill, providing skill frameworks for their professions and alleviating their costs of business, I have confidence that the investment they receive will leverage disproportionate returns for our economy.
Enhancing Support for Workers with Caregiving Responsibilities
Mr Speaker Sir, even as we move forward into a new post-COVID era, we have not wavered in our core priorities, especially the imperative highlighted by DPM Lawrence Wong to equip and empower our workers, while building a Singapore made for families.
This call echoes the Labour Movement’s own advocacy of enhancing support for workers with caregiving responsibilities, of which women constitute a large portion of those who manage the double shift in the workplace and at home. The Manpower Ministry has noted that 260,000 women of employment age currently remain outside the labour force – their immense potential to power our economy and industries cannot be underestimated. It was interesting to note that according to MOM’s annual Labour Force Statistics, the two most cited reasons why women are not in the workforce was one, home caregiving duties and two, housework (and yes, I completely relate to this).
During COVID-19, I had many women who came up to me, wanting to look for work. Some wanted to supplement their diminished household income, others wanted to do their part to bolster the Singapore economy during our times of need. However, even as we matched jobs to them through job fairs and job mentorship programs, the same caregiving concerns that keep our women out of the workforce are still barriers that do not go away! The seniors are still seniors, the young are still young, and unfortunately, the infirm are still infirm. To allow our women back into the workplace, the workplace will need to evolve. And the prolific adoption of FWAs and the consequent need to job redesign was a silver lining that happened in the dark cloudy days of the pandemic.
It is with this in mind that I underscore the urgency of enhancing the inclusivity of our jobs and re-imagining the way we work by adopting more family-friendly FWAs. Let me elaborate:
a. First, encourage employers to implement flexible work hours and allow employees more autonomy in calibrating their schedules. Flexi-time arrangements help workers better meet their personal responsibilities, such as those tasked with taking care of young children and their loved elderly family members;
b. Second, through the introduction of the compressed work week. This allows workers the option of re-allocating the same number of work hours to fewer days, giving them longer blocks of personal time;
c. Third, implement telecommuting arrangements so that employees can carry out their work in a location away from conventional offices. Flexi-work options facilitate work-life balance and can accommodate workers with diverse and varied responsibilities and needs;
d. Fourth, while embracing these changes, it is imperative that companies fairly assess their employees on FWAs for their work performance and opportunities for promotion. A worker who works on FWAs must never be unfairly compared to a worker who works full time in the office. I believe that this would be key to the long term “norming” of FWAs in workplaces; and
e. Fifth, while the dust settles on FWA norms, we must ensure that there are sufficient safeguards in place to protect them from workplace discrimination and to the extreme, harassment. Owing to the power asymmetries that workers face, a fear of repercussions – such as losing one’s job or being marginalised at work – and the lack of anonymity may discourage employees from reporting incidents of discrimination. Employers therefore need to be engaged and educated on strategies to manage such cases, while creating safe, independent avenues for workers to seek recourse without fear of backlash.
Silver linings and silver bullets notwithstanding, it is paramount for us to recognise that some companies and industries face greater hurdles in adopting FWAs in a sustainable way due to their current nature of work and the sector they are in. These includes Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and sectors with front facing, customer-facing workers, and those which include workers using specialised equipment. Some of these sectors where the hurdles are more acutely felt, include the Retail, Food Services, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Wellness, Security, Cleaning and Landscaping sectors.
It is also of note that these are also the very same industries and sectors that face manpower shortages, and while the task of job redesigning can seem daunting or “impossible”, I believe that with some innovative, out-of-the-box thinking and support from the Government, the impossible can be made possible. I have seen this being done in several sectors to very good outcomes.
The Health and Wellness Sector is often one where FWAs seem to be out of the question, given the high touch nature of frontline job roles. However, innovative companies such as Singapore Spa Institute have started to pilot out a “Ninja Workforce”, a float of part-timers or gig workers who will take up short stints when the regular full-timers are on FWAs.
Job-redesigning can also be part of clear and transparent HR practices. When we introduced the Progressive Wage Mark at Uniqlo, I was impressed by how transparent the company was in terms of what employees need to achieve in order to be promoted to the next level. This includes clear indications of internal exams that needed to be taken, scores to be achieved, daily tasks to be completed, and these were all available for all employees to see on their staff notice boards!
One of the most innovative job redesigns I saw was also one of the simplest redesigns. I am sure we all love the fluffy and light dough fritters for breakfast – yew cha kways – but the process of making these dough fritters sure aren’t light. Flour sacks can weigh up to 50 kg, and the boss of Xi De Li, a 100-year-old Yew Cha Kway company here in Singapore, was finding it hard to get employees. In an eureka moment, she asked her supplier to repackage the flour sacks to 25 kg, and she started to get more females and seniors to join her company.
These are wonderful and effective examples of how thinking out of the box can allow companies to job redesign, and I believe that with more targeted support from the Government and focused action from businesses, more SMEs can reap the benefits of FWAs, while allowing caregivers to stay or return to the workforce. During the job redesign process, companies may face manpower crunches, and need help through redesign consultancy or facilitation. For this, the Labour Movement can work with the Government on a combination of grant support, roadmaps and specialised consultancies through a Job Redesign Support Package.
Design and Adoption of Returnship Programmes
While FWAs and job re-design processes bode well for our Back to Work Women, it is worth noting that facilitating their transition back to work is equally as important. The NTUC Women and Family Unit has over the past 24 months, introduced a Women Supporting Women Mentorship Programme, and this has been introduced in over 10 locations all over the island. This growing programme is targeted at supporting women returning to the workplace and addresses the issues women face when they are looking for a smooth transition back. Together with the larger NTUC family of social enterprises and our partners in the Labour Movement, we have put into place:
i. A mentorship network consisting of community leaders and Unionists to support women returners who report challenges in adjusting to the culture and pace of the workplace, and thereby a lack of confidence in their new job roles;
j. A suite of training programs conducted by NTUC LearningHub to uplift skillsets which are outdated, or irrelevant, especially if our women returners have been out of the workplace for a longer period of time; and
k. A network of connections to career opportunities and job vacancies through NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) and our trade association partners. To this end, crafts and trade programmes promoted include Tailoring and Dress Making with TAF.TC, Confinement and Infant Nanny Care with NannyPro, Plumbing with the Singapore Plumbing Society (SPS) and Logistics with the Singapore Logistics Association.
We have seen some good progress on this front, for instance, we saw a doubling of women returners joining the tailoring programme from 2021 to 2022 and for the same time period a doubling of women joiners in the SPS networks. In this light, we call for the Government to continue their support of our Women Returner programmes, in particular for the popular trades and crafts persons programmes and for employers to join hands with NTUC in designing and adopting positive returnship programmes.
Mr Speaker, this is an especially important budget, as this is our nation’s first post-COVID-19 budget, and we have an opportunity to co-create together as one Singapore, the new norms that will impact our lives and our livelihoods. It is exciting times ahead for Singapore, and with a keen focus on balancing inequalities, opening up new livelihood opportunities and building safety nets for our vulnerable, I look forward to our collective new social compact. I support the budget.
