Lee Yock Suan
Singapore
“The position will be clear when the regulations have been drafted. Right now we are debating it in the absence of actual wording of the regulations. The regulations will be fair, they are meant to maintain a level playing field, and we should wait for the regulations before we pass judgement. The intention is not to go after everybody.”
“I think the Member will be aware that Internet is a very dangerous place. We can have all kinds of poison letters and they will just spread like wild fire. So we must have some means to try and minimise this and make sure that everything is orderly and fair.”
“The other Members have no problem supporting the Bill, including Mr Chiam. I think the position is about 95% clear. Question put, and agreed to. Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House. The House immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill. - [Mr Lee Yock Suan].”
“Then we will have to see the actual situation. But, as I said, the intention is to go after the popular sites, the main sites of parties and non-party political sites. If it is an individual, eg, a young man posting up his own site and saying "These are my views", we are not going to go after those people.”
“The intention is to make the rules clear for the main parties involved in the contest, in other words, the party websites. These are the areas we are mainly after.”
“I thank Mr Chiam for reminding me about his question. On listening to his speech, I was under the impression that he was asking whether this ban on opinion polls applies to the mass media. The answer is yes, it applies to all media, not just the Internet but also newspapers, TV and so on. Thank you for pointing this out.”
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“We have many examples. Companies like Texas Instruments, Hewlett Packard, were holding on to their workers until they could not hold on any longer. They resorted to lay offs, short weeks and so on. They only retrenched workers as a last resort, partly because they have a feeling for the workers. They are responsible. It is also partly because the unions are there - NTUC is watching over this matter. If there is any abuse, NTUC will be sure to bring this up to us. If the workers are non-unionized, they can write to me and I will look into the case and make sure that if it is dismissal without just cause or reason, the company will have to re-employ or compensate the workers.”
“Workers are also good. It is only he who is saying that they are bad. He is trying to be their champion. What is the situation on retrenchment? We have found from our studies that, in fact, employers generally retrench only as a last resort.”
“Most of this money have been accumulated through the years because of this lack of claims. There is one other factor. When this money is kept with the Workmen's Compensation Department, of course, the Department deposits them with various banks to earn interest, which varies from bank to bank, from deposit to deposit. In order to simplify administration, my Ministry pays the recipients a fixed interest rate; otherwise it is impossible to account for all these changes. So partly through this process, some of the money have also been accumulated. Eventually, this money will have to be transferred to the Treasury. So there is no incompetence on the part of my officers. If the Member for Anson knows of any person who has not collected his money, please tell him to come and collect. The money is waiting for him. Again, the Member for Anson has asked why we do not supervise companies which retrenched workers? Why do we not have some laws to protect the workers from this retrenchment? I have tried to explain to him why it is unnecessary. Let me give him some facts.”
“I am coming to it. Between the years 1960 and 1979, the Workmen's Compensation Department recovered and distributed $96.5 million to 238,000 cases. The amount that is left undistributed over this long period is about $156,000 as reported in the Auditor-General's Report. This constitutes only 0.5% of the total amount collected and distributed. Now why has it not been disbursed? It is not because of lack of effort on the part of my officers. It is because a lot of this money is owing to foreign workers who have left and gone home � Malaysians, Indians and others. Many of the amounts involved are below $50 each. We have been trying our best to reach them. But we have not been able to do so. The Auditor-General now recommends to my Ministry that we should put some advertisements in public to everybody, "Here are the money. These are the people concerned. Please come and collect." We have been keeping the money for them for ages. If they do not collect within a certain time, we may have to transfer the money to our Treasury. That is all there is to it.”
“We are talking to both sides. We counsel all the registrants who come to us. The Member for Telok Blangah was not correct when he said that we just do it passively. We have been reaching out to the employers. We have been discussing with the various employer groups. We also counsel the workers on the spot, to try and get them to change their expectations. In fact, I have got a report here which says, "Our officers in the ESD are really trying their best but some of these retrenched workers are understandably very upset", and so on. In fact, my officers have to take all kinds of abuse from them. In some cases the girls end up crying behind the counter. But they are still doing their best. And I think we heard from the Member of Chong Boon that many of his constituents have found jobs through the services of my Ministry. The Member for Anson made a few wild allegations about the Workmen's Compensation Department. Let me just clarify the facts for him.”
“This process has got to work its way through but the fact is, and we heard it from the Minister for National Development this morning, that there are still plenty of jobs available in the construction industry. Any trainee from the Construction Industry Training Board has no problem getting a job. There is no reason why our able-bodied males from the shipyards who are used to working in the sun should not take up construction jobs. But are they doing it? I am not sure. Maybe some of them are. There is no reason why a girl from an electronics company should not work in a garment factory. You may have read from the papers on 18th March that the NTUC offered to bring 100 retrenched female workers to garment factories. Of the 14 who accepted, 8 turned up and they said, "No, we do not want this job because nobody is smiling." It is true. Everybody is working hard, trying to earn a higher pay.”
“Unemployment benefits are like opium. First, you take a whiff, once you get hooked on it, you cannot get out of it. It is definitely not the solution for Singapore. I think many of us have read of instances in developed countries. In USA, there are some families who have not known employment for several generations. Recently, in Australia, the Labour Party government of Bob Hawke is very concerned. Why? Because his young school leavers and other young Australians have not got used to work. They have got used to not working. And he is from the Labour Party - pro-workers. He is trying to do something about it. I have explained in this House before that, from our statistics, if we put the number of jobs notified with us with the number of new applicants and we compare the two based on seven criteria for a perfect match, only about 30% would get a perfect match. What does this mean? It means that people will have to be willing to accept jobs which are less desirable and with lower pay. Employers also have to make adjustments. Some of them are offering wages which are below market rate. So my Employment Services Department tells them, "This is below market. Would you consider increasing it a bit?" And they have agreed. A lot of them only want to employ workers below 30 years old. A lot of people registered with us are above 30. Again, we tell the employers, "Would you consider an older worker?" They would. But of course in the present situation of unemployment, if the employer has several choices of applicants, he will naturally choose the one he thinks most suitable.”
“More people are unemployed for longer periods.”
“Number required: 20. Number sent: 10. How many turned up: 0. HDB, Post of Electrician. Salary: More than $700. Number of people sent: 20. Three were found suitable but none of them took up the offer because of shift work. This is a good job. $700 with HDB. They did not want to work. I can go down the list. Foster Electric was another one. They wanted production operators. They were offering $400 per month. NTUC offered to send 155 workers. Very few showed up. Five applicants were found suitable. However, none turned up for interview. Of course, the job market is bad. The economic situation is bad. When retrenched workers who are used to high salaries, and they had been paid high salaries because of seniority, now want to get another job, it is inevitable that the employers will just pay them the going rate. So they have a choice - either stay at home without a job and live on retrenchment benefits, live on family support, or take up a lower paid job and do an honest day's work. I can give you another example. This is from my Ministry. A 57-year old Chinese male wanted a watchman's job, after he was retrenched. We made him 11 offers of a job. He turned them all down. We even offered him the job of watchman in a goldsmith's shop. He did not want it because he only wanted to work as watchman in a warehouse. What are we talking about? Do we want to give unemployment benefits? Just look at what is happening in the developed countries? If we offer unemployment benefits, this situation that I have described will get worse, because people will then say, "Well, I will wait longer for my ideal job to come along. Why work?" In fact, studies have shown that in the developed countries as unemployment benefits go up the level of unemployment goes up.”
“This means that there are about 20,000 to 30,000 more Singaporeans looking for work who have yet to find suitable jobs. Compare this figure of 20,000 against the 100,000 foreign workers that we have. If Singaporeans were willing to accept the jobs that foreigners now do, there will be no unemployment problem. My Ministry can control the work permits. We can allocate more jobs. There will be fewer requests for work permits. There will be no unemployment. Compare our situation now to the early sixties when the unemployment rate was 12% to 15%. With the Employment Services Department, as of now, there are about 10,000 people on our list. In 1973, the figures were at their peak, about 27,000 people looking for jobs with the Employment Services Department. Our position now is relatively not as bad as in those years. In those days, the workers were all clamouring round their MPs begging for jobs and willing to accept any job that came. Right now, I am compelled to let in more foreign workers because Singaporeans are unwilling to work in construction sites, in garment factories, in woodworking factories, and even in electronics firms, they are not willing to take on the third shift. That is the fact of the situation. How can we help these unemployed people? The best way is to get them a job, and that is exactly what my Ministry is doing with the support of NTUC and others. Through our efforts many Singaporeans have found jobs. Unfortunately, our experience with job-seekers so far has been disappointing. Many job-seekers who are referred to employers simply do not show up for the interview. I can give him many examples. In the case of NTUC Job Placement Unit (I have a whole list here if Members want to see them afterwards) - NTUC FairPrice, Job: Delivery Assistant.”
“Since so many Members have shown concern and spoken about the unemployment situation, I think I should just spend a few minutes to put the matter in perspective. As at December 1985, the unemployment rate was 4.9%. As of now, the rate may be closer to 6% because more school leavers have since entered the market. But we must remember that, even in the best of times, the unemployment rate was 3%. In fact, now we may be 2% or 3% above the the full employment level.”
“They are neither here nor there anyway. These figures are all estimates. I think if there is a difference in the two sources, it is within the margin of error. Last year, there were about 96,000 jobs lost, and the majority were foreigners. Those figures are the correct figures, and they are the relevant ones. I think there is no point in bringing up 1984 figures. We had no unemployment then.”
“I do not know where the Member got the figures. We can check those figures.”
“He has also made a big song and dance about our not having figures. I have told the House before, in answer to one of the questions, that we have been closely monitoring the retrenchment situation. We have been writing letters offering them our assistance to find jobs. We also monitor these people, from CPF records, to see how many have found jobs. My Ministry also conducts quarterly surveys to find out the actual situation, because we are dealing with large numbers of people. We are dealing with the whole population of workers in Singapore. So it takes time for us, and every quarter, as soon as we can, we update our figures.”
“There is a need for this card, Sir, because some members, for some reason, may want to have a specific job and they just keep waiting for the job to come up. Or there may be others who have got a job but refused to come back to us or failed to tell us they have got a job. In fact, we have to trace the records of the CPF to find out how many of those we have helped have, in fact, got jobs. Therefore, we must have a cut-off date. If they are still interested in our service, they should come back to us. But, as I have said, we refer them to a job on the spot.”
“Of course, we stamp on it "six months" to remind the person that if, at the end of six months, despite our efforts he still has no job, come back to us. So the validity period is six months. On the other hand, when he comes to us, on the spot we refer him to a job. Now our intention is, on the spot we refer him to two jobs to give him a better chance of finding a suitable job. So get the facts straight first before coming here and confusing everybody.”
“By doing so, we do not cut the CPF of about 100,000 workers, ie, these younger members, just so this 8% will benefit. I hope the Member will agree with my position. I think I have covered most of the points on CPF. I would like now to deal with the other questions concerning unemployment. The Member for Anson, in his usual style, has been throwing a lot of mud in my direction. Many members of the public who have been assisted by my Ministry realize the kind of efforts my officers have made in trying to help the people to find jobs and they can tell the Member that he has been spreading a wild lie. The fact is that my Ministry is doing its very best. We have deployed more people (I think about 14 more officers) from the Works Permit Department to the Employment Services Department. Last year, through our efforts, we have placed about 3,000 workers in jobs. The majority of the unemployed still decide to go on their own - to find their own work - which is good. But when they come to us, we do our best to help them find jobs. We do not ask them to wait for a job to come along. We refer them to job on the spot. The Member for Anson has been spreading this rumour that we give the unemployed worker a card stamped "six months" and we ask him to wait.”
“Actually, it is rather late in the day because the scheme is about to be implemented and we have thought about it very carefully. The key point is that this is really an optional scheme. There is no need for any member to use his CPF to buy shares or gold if he does not want to. But there are some CPF members who feel that they can get a better return from their own investment. So they are welcome to try. They can do it through properties, through shares, through gold, and as we liberalize there will be more and more avenues for them to try out. Those who are not sure of themselves and who do not want to take risks will be well advised to keep their money with CPF. The interest rate is now pegged to the market rates, and with the tax exemption feature, I think it is a very good deal for members. So they have a choice. The Member for Boon Lay spoke about the problem of low income workers and whether we should increase the salary level below which no CPF is payable by the employee. I can understand his concern. We have been looking at this issue in the CPF Board. The fact is that, out of the number in the income group between $200 and $400 per month, only about 8% are actually older workers who may be sole breadwinners. This is the group who may be in financial difficulties. The vast majority are, in fact, single. They are mostly young, maybe below 25 but definitely below 30 and without dependants. So for this group of younger workers, we should really try and encourage them to save. As for the older workers, the better method may be to reduce their CPF rate with age. That way, this group will be helped because when we cut the CPF rate for the older workers who constitute 8%, they will then have more take-home pay for their daily expenses.”
“At the same time we do not want to push the employers too hard; otherwise they might just go over the brink and the employees will then lose all their jobs. That will be worse off for the workers. One problem is that much of the loans are secured by the company's assets. If we try and go after the assets, the bankers have the first claim. And if we push the employers to the brink, there may be nothing left for the workers. The Member for Jalan Kayu again brought up the question of CPF for education. He added one more P this time to his three P's. I have briefly explained just now the thinking of my Ministry, and I hope this adequately answers his question. As far as education in Singapore is concerned, there is no problem at all. The Government's thinking is that education is so important, and therefore the fees are highly subsidized. Whoever is able to gain admission should have no problem going through the course. If need be, we should liberalize further on the interest-free loans, bursaries, and so on, so that there will be no need to touch the CPF savings. On the other hand if any member wants to send his children for overseas education, it may cost him in the region of $100,000. How many CPF members can afford that? But more fundamentally, should we have that feature in the CPF scheme? I think it is better to have a reduced rate with age. Otherwise once we open up a new scheme for use, there will be a lot of other requests. It is just like taxes. Everybody has some good idea about how to cut taxes or to make use of CPF. The Member for Radin Mas has some reservations about allowing CPF members to invest in stocks and shares, in gold and so on.”
“In the light of the situation at that time, we tried our best to avoid cutting the CPF rate. As things got worse we had no choice. We did all we could. We had to cut. So we are prepared to stand by it now. Whilst on the CPF issue, I would just like to touch briefly on the other points brought up by Members. Firstly, the Member for Kebun Baru who started off the debate by raising the question of late payment of CPF by employers. I have explained the last time that my Ministry is doing the best it can. We have tried to shorten the period before we bring the employers to court. We have also tried to get the Attorney-General's Chambers to expedite the approval for us to prosecute. We have also made arrangements with the courts to give early hearing dates for these cases. The problem now is that we are in the midst of a recession. Although some of the employers are late in their payment, the majority, about 90%, pay up within two months. Only about 10%, or less, have difficulty in paying. And if we now go and get the employers to tell their employees on the very day they slipped on their payment, I think we would unnecessarily be alarming the employees. What my Ministry will do is to re-examine the situation. We are monitoring it. As of now, the situation is not too bad. For example, last year we had about 77,000 employers on the CPF list. Eventually we had to prosecute about 6,200. That is about 8% of the employers. So most employees are all right. And of those employers prosecuted, the majority are still paying back the arrears by instalments. So under the present circumstances, I think we are doing the best we can. We do not want to alarm the employees.”
“And that we have done. We have explored all other possibilities. We have cut the tax rate, we have cut the tax on PUB bills, we have done so many things. We have exhausted all the possibilities and eventually we decided, "No, our wage cost is too high. We have to cut."”
“So we had to do it. We were reluctant to do it initially because we wanted to explore all other possibilities.”
“They are savings from our people invested overseas. They collectively belong to all of us as Singaporeans, whether they are CPF savings or other kinds of savings. The Member for Potong Pasir also made a big song and dance about our decision to cut the CPF rate on the employer's side. The position is this. When we first discussed this issue, most of the Ministers in Cabinet, including myself, were strongly against any cut in the employer's CPF because we know it is the pay of the workers, and we should not touch it except as a last resort. As the months passed by and the economic situation got worse and worse - this morning we heard that growth for the first quarter is -4% - we realized that we should not stick to that position. It is better for us to take a cut in the savings than sacrifice jobs.”
“Deposits are guaranteed. As of now, because our population is still young, they are putting in more money, as a whole and as a group, than they take out. But come 20 years' time, 30 years' time, when the population gets older, there will be more people withdrawing from that box than putting in. But so long as the amount of money in that box has not been tampered with, has been preserved, carefully invested, as shown in our accounts, (this Government has been very prudent), there is no question of inability to pay. Maybe the Member for Anson can convince him outside the House.”
“Try and appreciate the point. I have given him a very simple example. Our CPF is like a savings bank. It is the largest savings bank that you can have in Singapore.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I have been trying to answer his point. If he does not understand numbers, he should take some lessons.”
“The money is still there. The money is saved up and invested overseas. It is part of our national reserves.”
“Eventually when the time comes we just unwind the process. The money is still there.”
“No, I am not. I would just like to say that there are other Members who want to speak.”
“BILL INTRODUCED SINGAPORE FAMILY PLANNING AND POPULATION BOARD (REPEAL) BILL "to transfer the functions of the Singapore Family Planning and Population Board to the Government and to repeal the Singapore Family Planning and Population Board Act (Chapter 168 of the Revised Edition) and to provide for matters incidental thereto", recommendation of President signified; presented by the Minister for Health (Dr Hu Tsu Tau); read the First time; to be read a Second time on the next available sitting of Parliament, and to be printed. MAIN AND DEVELOPMENT ESTIMATES OF SINGAPORE FOR THE FINANCIAL YEAR 1ST APRIL, 1986 TO 31ST MARCH, 1987 Order read for consideration in Committee of Supply [1st Allotted Day]. [Mr Speaker in the Chair] 11.41 am COMMITTEE OF SUPPLY (Disposal of Amendments) Announcement by Mr Speaker”
“In response to advertisements placed in local and international newspapers, STPB has received 10 private sector proposals to redevelop Haw Par Villa and two adjoining plots of land into a "Chinese Mythological Theme Park". Apart from preserving and enhancing the existing exhibits, the plan is to recreate the traditional Chinese settings within the Garden and introduce new theme park attractions. The project will require private investment exceeding $20 million. An announcement of the award of the project will be made shortly. When completed in about two years' time, Haw Par Villa will be a unique attraction for both tourists and Singaporeans. COMMITTEE OF SUPPLY (Exempted Business Motion) Resolved, That, notwithstanding the Standing Orders as modified by resolution of Parliament on the 1st of March 1985, consideration of the Main and Development Estimates of Expenditure for FY 1986/87 in the Committee of Supply be continued after 4.30 pm until 5.30 pm on the days allotted for the business of Supply and the proceedings thereon be exempted from the provisions of Standing Order No. 1 until 5.30 pm on each day. - [Dr Hu Tsu Tau]. SUPPLY AND SUPPLEMENTARY SUPPLY BILLS Resolved, That, notwithstanding the Standing Orders, the second and third readings of the Supply Bill for FY 1986/87 and the Supplementary Supply Bill for FY 1985/86 may be proceeded with immediately after the conclusion of the proceedings on the Main and Development Estimates for FY 1986/87. - [Dr Hu Tsu Tau].”
“In setting the levy, the Government considers various factors. One of these is, of course, the level of CPF contribution. The other consideration is the difference in wage cost between the foreign worker and the local worker. For example, maids from Sri Lanka can be hired for as low as $100 or $150 per month. When the levy on maids was increased in 1984, I understand that the wages of Filipina maids have, in fact, gone down. As far as the maid situation is concerned, despite the recession, the number of foreign maids is increasing rapidly. The number increased by 7,100 in 1984. It increased further by 3,500 last year, to a total of 28,000 maids. There is, therefore, no justification for a reduction of the levy on foreign maids. At $120 per month, the levy on domestic maids is still lower than the $200 levy for other NTS workers. So if Singaporeans wish to employ more maids, they should perhaps consider employing Singaporean maids. In this way, we will give more jobs to some of the local housewives who are looking for work. HAW PAR VILLA (Preservation and maintenance) 16. Encik Abbas Abu Amin asked the Acting Minister for Trade and Industry if the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board has details of a plan to preserve and maintain Haw Par Villa which attracts both tourists and Singaporeans. The Minister of State for Trade and Industry (Dr Lee Boon Yang) (for the Acting Minister for Trade and Industry): Mr Speaker, Sir, I shall be answering on behalf of my Minister. Sir, the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board indeed intends to preserve and maintain Haw Par Villa as an attraction for both tourists and Singaporeans.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I do not understand the Member's impatience. If the case has been referred to the Board, we will look at it under the present regulations. The Committee will look into it seriously and consider all the factors. So please be patient.”
“That depends on the circumstances of the case. What I painted was a scenario where the member has been owing a lot of money. And there are cases of bankrupts asking whether they can use their CPF funds to settle their loans. So against this, our objective is to protect the member's CPF savings.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I think we should wait for the Committee to complete its study. But the primary objective of the CPF Board and the Government is to protect the member's CPF savings for his old age. So I am not so sure whether it is a good idea to release his entire funds so that he can pay off his creditors, because in the process he will have nothing left. At the moment, the CPF savings, whether they are held with the Board or held against properties, are protected against creditors. So, in the event of bankruptcy, they cannot be seized. I think we have to be very careful here.”
“Yes, it is true that a CPF member can sell his present property and buy another one with CPF funds. In the process, of course, he has to pay commission charges, conveyancing fees and so on. This is one reason why the CPF Committee of my Ministry is looking into the question of whether we should allow CPF funds to be used to refinance the purchase of a property. This matter is still under consideration.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, the fundamentals of the CPF scheme are being reviewed. The study will also examine whether CPF savings could be allowed to refinance a property which a CPF member has already purchased with cash. At present, this is not permitted. CPF funds can presently only be used for the purchase of a residential property or for servicing a loan to finance its purchase. The CPF Board has first charge on the private residential property purchased with CPF funds in order to protect the member's CPF savings. A member cannot use his CPF savings to service a mortgage loan for purposes other than the purchase of the property.”
“Seafront land suitable for the development of sea sport facilities is presently very limited in Singapore. It is therefore not possible for the Government, as a matter of policy, to provide alternative facilities for the relocation of boatels affected by development. However, arising from the appeal made by the Member for Punggol, I am glad to say that the Minister for National Development has decided to allow nine out of the 10 boatels to remain in Punggol for another five years up to 1991.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, the situation at the moment is that there are still jobs available for Singaporeans if they are prepared to adjust their requirements. Of course, the employers also have to make adjustments. As of now, we do not see a need for the Government to make any special effort to help Singaporeans find jobs overseas. We are not yet at a stage where we need to export labour. However, it does not mean that we are stopping people from looking for jobs overseas. As a matter of fact, some of the multi-nationals are already posting their people overseas. And other Singaporeans who want to seek jobs overseas can either go to employment agencies or do so themselves. It would be difficult for the Government to, for example, tell the multi-nationals that they should recruit people for their overseas jobs. And in fact for certain skilled jobs, Singapore may still be short of those people. SEA SPORTS IN PUNGGOL (Development) 12. Mr Ng Kah Ting asked the Acting Minister for Community Development (a) whether the Government has any plans to develop sea sport facilities in the Punggol Constituency; and (b) whether those affected by the development, especially the boatels, will be relocated, and, if so, where. The Acting Minister for Community Development (Mr Wong Kan Seng): Mr Speaker, Sir, there are no immediate plans to develop sea sport facilities in the Punggol constituency because, as the Member for Punggol is aware, the seafront land at Punggol will be reclaimed. The reclamation is expected to be completed only in the 1990s. After the completion of the reclamation, Punggol will be one of the sites to be considered for the development of sea sport facilities. The boatels in Punggol are affected by development.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, the Ministry's Employment Services Department does not help Singaporeans to seek jobs overseas. We have no plans to do so.”
“My Ministry is also involved in this. But I was saying that the spearheading of this effort is by the Ministry of Trade and Industry. EMPLOYMENT SERVICES DEPARTMENT (Assistance in seeking jobs overseas) 11. Mr Chew Heng Ching asked the Acting Minister for Labour whether the Ministry's Employment Service Department helps Singaporeans seek jobs overseas; and, if not, whether there are plans to do so.”
“There is a programme done by the Ministry of Trade and Industry. In relation, for example, graduates, there is a forward plan. And the employment situation would vary with the kind of graduates. For example for the graduates who finished their course last year, those in pharmacy had no problem at all. They were all snapped up immediately, probably by the National University Hospital. Then there were other graduates from NTI. Again, they had no problem. But those in Civil Engineering, Architecture, and Arts had more difficulty. Even for them, they can adjust their requirements and perhaps take up other jobs.”
“The Government does not have to make provisions for retrenchment benefits to be paid to retrenched workers who are not government employees. In the private sector, retrenchment benefits are usually provided for in collective agreements between unions and employers. Over the years, various norms for retrenchment benefits have been established which are accepted by employers, unions and workers. These norms are recognised by the Industrial Arbitration Court. They provide for retrenchment benefits that are related to the length of service of the workers and the circumstances of the company carrying out the retrenchment. DONATION FOR CONSTRUCTION OF SENNETT COMMUNITY CENTRE 6. Mr Chiam See Tong asked the Acting Minister for Community Development what was the total amount of money donated by members of the public towards the construction of the Sennett Community Centre, situated in Jalan Wangi, Sennett Estate.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, recently a lot of garment factories appealed to me to be allowed to employ Malaysian girls because they could not find Singaporeans. We tried our best to bring the unemployed workers from our Employment Service Department to these factories and encouraged them to adjust to these new jobs. Unfortunately very few of them stayed on or wanted the jobs. Eventually I had to relax our regulations and allow more of these garment factories to bring in Malaysian girls. So we do adjust our work permit regulation and we also counsel the job seekers, as well as the employers, to try and minimize this problem. But our problem is really nowhere as severe as in the early 1960's when our unemployment rate was 12-15%. At that time there were no foreign workers in Singapore. As of now, we still have over 100,000 foreign workers in Singapore.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, the Ministry keeps a close monitor on retrenchments and the problems of retrenched workers in finding jobs. Many employers have developed the practice of informing the Ministry of impending retrenchments, two weeks to a month in advance. The Ministry also conducts a quarterly survey of companies to find out the number of workers retrenched. From these two sources, the Ministry obtains the names and addresses of retrenchees. The information is used to offer employment assistance to retrenched workers and to monitor at the aggregate level their progress in seeking re-employment. The best way to assist retrenched workers is to help them find alternative jobs. My Ministry's Employment Service Department sends personal letters to the retrenched worker to offer its job-matching services. The response to this invitation last year was, however, low, only about 15%. It is very likely that the majority did not need our help. Among those who seek my Ministry's assistance, many are selective in their job requirements. They are counselled in the hope that they will lower their wage expectations and accept other jobs which they are also qualified for. We also request employers to relax their requirements, eg, by taking in older workers and those with lower educational qualifications. In the past few months, my Ministry has made general improvements to its job-matching process and increased manpower and other resources to help unemployed workers find jobs earlier. My Ministry is also in close liaison with the NTUC Job Placement Unit. We exchange job vacancy information to increase job opportunities for unemployed workers.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, CPF contributions credited to members' Ordinary, Special and Medisave Accounts in 1985 are as follows: Ordinary Account - $4,814 million Special Account - $488 million Medisave Account - $692 million In 1985, a total of $43 million was withdrawn from the Medisave Account. ASSISTANCE TO RETRENCHED WORKERS 12. Mr S. Vasoo asked the Acting Minister for Labour (a) what actions are being taken to monitor the problems of retrenched workers; and (b) what programmes are planned to assist them.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, they have not been discouraged. I think the situation is that most of the more highly educated, in looking for jobs, are able to respond on their own. If Members were to look at the classified advertisements they will find that there are quite a lot of vacancies for various jobs, and the experience has been that these people tend to reply directly to those advertisements. In fact, from our own experience, ie; from our Labour Force Survey, we find that only a relatively small percentage of the unemployed decide to come to us while the rest prefer to go directly. And this is the way it should be. They either go through friends or other channels, or they respond to advertisements. So the end result is that those people who come to us generally are those who have greater difficulty finding jobs, and the same thing applies to the employers. CPF CONTRIBUTIONS (Particulars) 11. Dr Toh Chin Chye asked the Acting Minister for Labour (a) what is the amount of members' contributions to the Central Provident Fund in the (i) Ordinary Account, (ii) Special Account and (iii) Medisave Account for 1985; and (b) how much was withdrawn from the Medisave Account for the same year.”
“Yes, we do have requests from most of the Ministries and departments. In fact, whenever they require daily-rated employees, for example, they will come to our Employment Services Department to look for workers. We also coordinate with the Job Placement Unit of the NTUC as well as the Singapore Manufacturers' Association.”
“We should not relate the 10,000 who are now listed with the jobs found last year because this was over a period of one year. Last year, speaking from memory, I think our success rate of emplacement was about 20%. There are various reasons for this. One reason is that the employers who come to us are normally those who have difficulty finding workers to fill their jobs; another is that preferred jobs cannot be found for the applicants. The problem, as we have found from our records, is that there is quite a big mismatch between those people wanting jobs and the jobs available. For example, a lot of people want clerical jobs but there are relatively few available. On the other hand, last year we had requests from employers for about 2,000 seamstresses for garment factories, and only nine job applicants were willing to work in those factories. So the important thing really is not that there are no jobs available, but there is a need for both the job registrant and the employer to make adjustments so that we can try and put more of these people into jobs.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, the answer is about 10,000.”