Tan See Leng
Singapore
“We are aware of the Singapore Workplace Report 2026, produced by the Singapore Institute of Directors and Gallup, and we are studying its findings.”
“The Taskforce for Responsible Retrenchment and Employment Facilitation (Taskforce) actively reaches out to all retrenched local employees. In 2025, 77% of Mandatory Retrenchment Notifications (MRNs) were submitted at least seven days ahead of the employee's last working day and 73% of MRNs were submitted at least two weeks ahead.”
“From 2022 to 2025, vacancy rates for technical maintenance roles in the real estate services sector, which includes facilities management, have been lower than the overall job vacancy rate, except in 2025 (see Table 1).”
“The Skills and Workforce Development Agency (SWDA) works with sector agencies to determine the courses which are required by the respective industries. The SWDA currently funds more than 100 courses, spanning a wide range of mental health-related fields.”
“In the first quarter of 2026, the profile of retrenched residents aged 50 to 59 was broadly similar to the profile of all retrenched residents, predominantly comprising professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) and were mainly from wholesale and retail trade, manufacturing, financial and insurance services and profession…”
“In 2025, around 4,200 resident professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) aged 45 to 59 were retrenched, higher than 3,200 in 2024 and 3,500 in 2023. Their six-month re-entry rate remained stable at 48.5% in 2025, compared with 48.9% in 2024 and 50.1% in 2023.”
The complete record
Every one of 2,238 lines we hold for Tan See Leng, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 27 of 45.
“There are existing easily accessible avenues for members of the public to alert the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) of unsafe workplace practices or conditions. These include the MOM hotline, the Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) e-feedback portal on the MOM website and the LifeSG mobile application. Nonetheless, MOM is exploring other means, including the one suggested by the Member, to make reporting more convenient. In line with the "No Wrong Door" policy, WSH feedback given via other Government applications would be routed to MOM.”
“Foreign students issued with a Student’s Pass should be here to study. Student's Pass Holders who wish to work must have a valid Work Pass other than if they study in a recognised educational institution, where they can then work up to 16 hours a week, or if they work under an industrial attachment that is part of the course. In 2022, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) took enforcement action against 38 Student’s Pass holders for working illegally. All of these Student’s Pass Holders were warned for committing an offence under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act. Their Student’s Passes were cancelled by the Immigrations and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) and they were barred from working in Singapore. The 21 employers who hired these Student’s Pass holders illegally were also taken to task – 11 received stern warnings, nine were issued composition fines and one was prosecuted.”
“Care for our migrant workers has been reinforced in three ways: first, we have improved standards for migrant worker dormitories and we will be expanding the coverage of FEDA; secondly, we have set up a new primary healthcare system and the Primary Care Plan for migrant workers; and third, we have better capabilities to improve migrant worker mental health with Project DAWN. For the local workforce, we have enhanced the accessibility and diversity of channels to support jobseekers in securing employment and their career transitions. Above all, we have built and strengthened relationships and networks with both public and private stakeholders to help us weather future storms. COVID-19, indeed, fell on us like a heavy storm. But, together, we have weathered the worst and were able to build back stronger. The mettle of our workforce was put to the test, and we showcased our resilience by facing the challenges with grit and gumption. I have said it earlier but let me say it again. If not for the sacrifices of each and every one of us here in Singapore, we could have come out of the pandemic in far worse shape. Stefanie Sun's song, "We will get there", was re-sung by Aisyah Aziz with images of various workers struggling through the pandemic. The video tells the story of the many sacrifices all of us made. Many of us would have felt our stories told by the images interspersed through the video. As the lyrics go, "We've struggled through the darkest storms, with family and friends. Together, we'll stand and, in the end, hand in hand, we will get there". Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, while we are yet to reach journey's end, we have, indeed, come through the storm, together. [Applause.]”
“For example, the new SGUnited Mid-Career Pathways Programme introduced during COVID-19 has allowed employers to evaluate job fit through company attachments and facilitated positive employment outcomes for trainees. Among those who had completed or exited the programme, around eight in 10 found employment within six months. Among the trainees who found employment, more than half earned the same or higher wages, compared to the last drawn wages prior to onboarding. We have, therefore, regularised the programme from April 2022 to provide more options to mature jobseekers. Ms Janet Ang asked how the Government intends to use the jobs and skills initiatives to correct structural employment misalignment for vulnerable jobseekers. To do more for specific groups that may need greater support to secure employment, the Government had announced enhancements to the Enabling Employment Credit and also introduced a new Uplifting Employment Credit to encourage employers to hire persons with disabilities and ex-offenders respectively. Third, and importantly, COVID-19 has also demonstrated that we should and must continue to build on the tripartite trust and partnerships as a key competitive advantage for Singapore. Our ability to navigate to tide over the worst of the crisis was a testament to the importance of the strong tripartite partnership. Like the ballast of our ship, strong trust and partnerships will allow Singapore to make steady progress, no matter the winds and waves ahead. If Members will bear with me for a few more minutes, I am concluding. Distilling lessons from the pandemic, we have made permanent structural reforms in our migrant worker management capabilities and the ecosystem of support for the local workforce so as to institutionalise lasting change.”
“Close to 200,000 self-employed persons benefited from SIRS. We appreciate NTUC for stepping forward to help with the appeals for SIRS. Additional support for self-employed individuals, such as taxi and private hire car drivers, also came in the form of other Government schemes like the COVID-19 Driver Relief Fund. This support was disbursed by taxi and platform operators, who also helped their drivers with rental relief and commission rates. These efforts contributed to the recovery of the labour market even before the pandemic ended. By December 2020, resident employment had rebounded to slightly above pre-COVID-19 levels, with the net number of residents in employment for the year increasing by 14,900, despite contractions in the first half of 2020. The resident unemployment rate stayed below 5% throughout 2020 even when economic conditions were at their worst and, of course, it eventually recovered to pre-pandemic levels in 2022. We have drawn useful takeaways from the experience of COVID-19. First, we found that accessibility is key to the delivery of employment facilitation services. The establishment of the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Centres in all 24 HDB towns was accompanied by improved sentiments towards Government employment facilitation, which suggested that the increased accessibility and physical presence of these job matching services could have helped to reduce the anxiety of jobseekers. Post-COVID-19, we have maintained the network of Jobs and Skills Centres as readily accessible touchpoints for jobseekers in the heartlands. Second, we have expanded the diversity of channels available to support the employment of jobseekers.”
“To expand opportunities for jobseekers amid uncertainty and disruptions, the National Jobs Council (NJC) was formed to oversee the design and implementation of the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package, which supported locals to enter new jobs, to upskill themselves, or to be better positioned for recovery. Various members of the NJC, including unions and business leaders, mobilised their respective networks, their expertise and their resources to support jobseekers to enter into new opportunities. Mr Yip Hon Weng also spoke earlier about assistance to workers who were retrenched. Where retrenchments were inevitable, the Taskforce for Responsible Retrenchment and Employment Facilitation (RTF) reached out to affected local employees to offer employment support, including the provision of information kits on career resources and job fairs. Workers were also supported through matching of excess manpower across industries, skills upgrading efforts and career coaching and advisory initiatives. Taken together, the collective efforts of the Government, the unions and the employers achieved significant traction and scale in supporting jobs and livelihood. From April 2020 to April 2022, around 200,000 locals were placed into jobs and skills opportunities under the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package. Besides, over 744,000 jobseekers were hired with support under the Jobs Growth Incentive, which encouraged local hiring in growing firms as the focus shifted to supporting recovery. In addition, to help self-employed persons whose livelihoods were affected by the period of extraordinary economic uncertainty, we introduced the Self-Employed Persons Income Relief Scheme (SIRS) for self-employed persons with less means and family support.”
“We saw NGOs, businesses, migrant workers, local communities step up to provide food and gifts, care and contributions for our migrant workforce. We learnt how important it was to continually foster these partnerships, as each and every one of these partners made a difference in turning the tide. We will remember these lessons as we build a stronger migrant worker ecosystem, as we work collectively with our many partners to care for our migrant workers and ensure that the migrant workforce remains a productive and pandemic-resilient complement to our workforce. I am going to spend the next few minutes going through and elaborating on what we are doing to support our local jobs and livelihoods. Even as we safeguarded the well-being of our migrant workers, our abiding concern was the jobs and livelihoods of Singaporeans. To help workers and employers navigate through the storm, MOM and the tripartite partners acted quickly. We convened the National Wages Council (NWC) soon after the start of the pandemic in March 2020, to guide employers on how they could sustain their businesses and save jobs. The tripartite partners also issued and updated numerous advisories on matters ranging from leave arrangements during quarantine, managing excess manpower and responsible retrenchment, to workplace vaccination policies. The NWC guidelines and many of the advisories were negotiated under pressing timelines but they provided fair and balanced guidance for both workers and employers. This was only possible through and with the trust among the tripartite partners that has been painstakingly built up over the past many decades.”
“The DAWN task force has since developed resources and raised greater awareness of mental health issues and among our migrant worker community and stakeholders. The DAWN framework consists of seven initiatives. Suffice to say that they are meant for primary prevention and then, for that, we have mental and social wellness awareness and promotion. For secondary prevention, we have identification of at-risk patients and the risk factors, screening for mental health issues, surveillance for the mental health and emotional distress and counselling, and the ramping up of training of para-counsellors. For tertiary prevention, we have developed a plan for timely escalation of care and, when they recover, the provision of post-intervention support to rehabilitate them back, hence, normalisation. These initiatives have been progressively rolled out over the past two-and-a-half years. Our employers and the dormitory operators form an integral part of the support ecosystem for our workers. They are regularly reminded by MOM to look out for the well-being of their workers and encourage closer networks and engagement at work and also in the dormitories. Appropriate access to care services, such as counselling and community support, was also strengthened. With MOM's support, HealthServe set up its 24-hour counselling hotline which has been operational since August 2021 and hired more native-speaking para-counsellors to deliver culturally attuned counselling. We would not have been able to build resilience in these areas alone. It was in this pandemic that we saw the best of Singaporeans, and, indeed, our humanity shone through when we demonstrated care for our neighbours.”
“We increased the frequency of such visits to recreation centres and the community significantly, in the latter part of 2021 after the Delta wave had passed and we had assessed that it would be much safer to do so. We had to constantly make judgement calls on when and how quickly to ease movement restrictions on migrant workers living in dormitories. New COVID-19 variants were emerging all the time and there were persistent concerns about vaccine breakthrough and re-infections. There were also concerns that new variants were getting more infectious while time was needed to assess if there were any changes to disease severity and vaccine effectiveness. So, amid the uncertainty, our considerations were always to prioritise our migrant workers’ safety and ensure that they could continue working, receive their salary and send money home. Nonetheless, this took a toll on the mental well-being of the migrant workers. However, if we had opened up more quickly and it precipitated another series of large outbreaks, it would have put at risk, again, the health of the migrant workers. As it turned out, there were no further COVID-19 fatalities beyond the two in the early phase. We could have eased up more quickly, but, then again, all this is on hindsight. Sir, in November 2020, the ACE Group also set up a multi-stakeholder taskforce called Project DAWN (Depression, Awareness, Well-being, Normalisation). This comprises representatives from MOM, the Government, psychologists, the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) and two NGOs – the Migrant Workers' Centre (MWC) and HealthServe. The purpose of forming Project DAWN is to develop a comprehensive support ecosystem to manage and support the mental health of migrant workers.”
“First, we organised workers living in dormitories into six geographical zones all over the country and we appointed Anchor Operators to provide integrated primary medical service at designated Medical Centres and affiliated clinics. To date, there are 10 medical centres and a network of partnered private clinics serving the population of more than 300,000 workers. To bridge language and cultural barriers, the Anchor Operators have put in place multilingual translation capabilities and augmented their clinical teams with healthcare workers who can speak the native languages of our migrant workers. For the second initiative, we have also mandated a Primary Care Plan (PCP) offered by all Anchor Operators that covers most of the primary care needs of the workers at a fixed annual fee to employers, thereby giving them greater peace of mind. With the PCP, workers can now choose to seek medical consultation 24 hours a day via telemedicine or report sick at their designated regional medical centres for a small co-payment fee. With these measures, we help employers provide quality primary care at affordable cost and allow workers to develop better health-seeking habits through accessible medical care. At the same time, we are also able to leverage on the new primary healthcare system for public heath surveillance. The healthcare resilience of our migrant worker community is now significantly strengthened. As the COVID-19 situation improved in Singapore, we took a careful and calibrated approach to progressively ease restrictions in order to safeguard migrant workers’ health. We started relaxing movement restrictions from as early as September 2020, but we had to roll back because of the emergence of new variants.”
“To grow our capabilities in dormitory management, MOM will also be building and owning two new dormitories, which will be operated by a new corporate entity in partnership with the private sector. They will also provide MOM with the opportunity to innovate and pilot new ideas for public health resilience and dormitory living, to improve the lived experience of migrant workers. These initiatives to enhance the standards of the living environment of our migrant workers, will transform the features of the entire migrant worker landscape. Our FAST teams, first deployed during the circuit breaker in 2020, and now under ACE, continue to proactively and regularly visit dormitories to engage migrant workers on their overall well-being and work with both workers and dormitory operators to resolve issues on living conditions in a timely manner. At the end of 2022, we have also added a new feature on FWMOMCare, where migrant workers can send a request to talk to MOM via the mobile application. The FAST officer will then contact the workers directly to address any issue or feedback that the workers may have. This provides an additional avenue for workers to seek assistance when they face a problem. ACE is now a permanent capability to support our migrant workers in their everyday lives and will also have the capability to respond quickly in a future pandemic. In addition to housing resilience, learning from the pandemic, we will also need to strengthen healthcare resilience in the migrant worker community. We took a holistic approach to redesign the way primary care services were delivered to migrant workers and change the way migrant workers sought care when they are unwell. We made two significant changes.”
“This will take into consideration what existing infrastructure in the dormitories today that they can support, as well as the potential disruption to dormitory bed supply, and how this will impact the inflow of migrant workers. We will announce details of this transition plan later on in the year. Miss Rachel Ong spoke earlier about the conditions in the Factory Converted Dormitories (FCDs). Prior to the pandemic, MOM inspected all FCDs in 2016 and took action against a quarter of them. Six FCDs were also prosecuted for unacceptable living conditions. This was followed up with another round of inspections for those with poor standards. Since 2017, 175 FCDs were served with warnings and fines. Another four were also prosecuted for unacceptable accommodation. But we recognise, beyond punitive measures, that more needs to be done to raise the standards of dormitories, including the FCDs. We will continue to strengthen our regulatory levers on dormitory operators. The scope of the Foreign Employee Dormitories Act (FEDA) will be expanded to include migrant worker dormitories with seven or more beds starting from 1 April 2023. This will increase the number of dormitories, including FCDs, regulated under FEDA from the current 53, in about two weeks' time, it will go up to 1,500, and allow MOM to raise standards and respond quickly to future emergencies. This will also give MOM additional levers to enforce against the dorm operator. Other than financial penalties, the Commissioner for FEDA can issue compliance directives to the operator to rectify lapses as well as business restrictive orders which will prohibit operators from taking in new tenants until the operator makes good on all its shortcomings.”
“In the fog of war, we could also have communicated better with the dormitory workers at every stage and every step of the way, to better share information and to assure them on the measures we were taking to protect them. MOM will learn from these lessons and we will strive to do better in the future. This brings me to how we will use the lessons learnt from COVID-19 to build resilience in the dormitories against a future pandemic. The three areas of reforms are: (1) housing resilience in the form of new dormitory standards; (2) healthcare resilience in the form of a new primary healthcare system; and (3) focusing on mental well-being and social support resilience by building awareness of mental health issues and support resources. As we transit to endemicity, we have continued to review measures on the living arrangements of our dormitory residents as part of enhancing liveability in the dormitories and ensuring that Singapore will be better prepared for future health crises. In September 2021, we introduced improved standards for all new migrant worker dormitories. Mr Leon Perera asked for NGOs to be engaged. We already have done so. We have engaged with a very broad range of NGOs for these improved standards, including Healthserve and HOME. Some of these standards include enhanced living and public health such as larger living space per resident, in room wifi, en-suite toilets, better ventilation in rooms and dedicated bed spaces for isolation purposes as well as wastewater surveillance. Mr Louis Ng earlier spoke about minimum standards in the dormitories. We are also working closely with stakeholders to develop a plan for existing dormitories to transition to the new improved standards.”
“For example, MOM set up one-stop onboard centres so that new workers entering Singapore were brought into a dedicated facility to complete their Stay-Home Notices (SHNs), get the necessary medical examinations, COVID-19 testing, vaccination and orientation programme done all under one roof. At the onboard centres, imported cases could be screened out, isolated, managed and contained, so that the disease was not brought into the dormitories. With the tightening of border measures due to new variants of concern, various industry associations organised a pilot initiative to test workers and safeguard them from infection at dedicated facilities in their home countries before onward travel to Singapore. Once the infrastructure was in place, we were subsequently able to reopen safely and earlier, so that the economy could also restart earlier. We started bringing back the migrant workers in significantly larger numbers from end 2021. This was important for many sectors, including the restart of Singapore’s construction efforts. Senior Minister of State Zaqy Mohamad will make further mention of our efforts in the construction sector. Members of the House, looking back at the way we contained and managed the outbreak in the dormitories, we asked ourselves – could we have done things differently? If all of you recall, at the start, testing capacities were very limited, but I think we could have done more. We could have done more surveillance through sample testing for the different migrant worker population to detect clusters early. Masks were very scarce at the start, but we could have ensured some form of facial covering, protective covering or some form of mask were worn by migrant workers to reduce the incidence of transmissions.”
“This enabled our ACE teams on the ground to identify infected workers and their close contacts quickly and to convey them to recovery and quarantine facilities. We undertook all these measures before vaccination was available, so that the situation in the dormitories would remain safe and stable. Even though there were some COVID-19 clusters and transmission after the completion of dormitory clearance, ACE and MOH working closely together, were able to bring these under control through testing and through isolation. We achieved a significant milestone of zero new cases reported in the dormitories on 13 October 2020. This brought a new sense of confidence and optimism in our ability to respond to this virus. Vaccination was a key lever in our arsenal in the fight against COVID-19 when it arrived. MOM and MOH worked closely together to make vaccination available to migrant workers from March 2021, at the same time as the rollout for the local community. Informational packages in the migrant workers' native languages were distributed to help them understand the benefits of the vaccination. Leveraging the networks of our migrant worker volunteers, dormitory operators and NGOs, we were able to reach out to all workers and encourage them to come forward to be vaccinated. In less than six months, over nine in 10 migrant workers living in the dormitories were fully vaccinated. This made a difference when the highly transmissible Delta variant struck in mid-2021 and there was no further loss of life to COVID-19 among migrant workers living in the dormitories. Bringing COVID-19 infection under control in the dormitories was only one piece of the picture. We had to keep it that way, even as new workers entered Singapore to support our economy.”
“When I was there, I saw other Singaporeans who were being treated in the same room as me. That gave me a lot of assurance that I would be well taken care of and given the same level of treatment as Singaporeans. From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank the Singapore Government and the great healthcare team for taking care of migrant workers like us with so much care and concern." His story reflects the trust, cooperation and the incredible resilience of our migrant workers. With their support, we were able to safeguard their health and their livelihoods. By August 2020, the ITF had completed testing of all dormitory residents to clear the dormitories of COVID-19. The workers could now return to work. To continue the work of the ITF, the Assurance, Care and Engagement (ACE) Group in MOM was formed. The mission of the ACE Group was to safeguard the well-being of our migrant workers by enhancing support for their healthcare, housing and social needs while keeping the workers safe during the pandemic. Our priority continued to be to protect the health and well-being of our migrant workers. ACE established ground presence in the dormitories to assure migrant workers of our continued support. We set up an infection prevention and control programme working with nurses and FAST teams to teach hand washing, personal hygiene and social distancing. In addition, we implemented routine testing and quarantine processes to keep the migrant workers safe. The team also looked after their well-being and recreational needs together with NGOs. We worked with private and public laboratories to increase the frequency of collection of swab samples and expanded capacity for processing of test results, so that we could test more workers more quickly.”
“It was a challenging time for everyone, we appreciate the NGOs stepping in and working with MOM to provide food for the workers where needed. Workers who could not access food could contact MOM for assistance, while MOM concurrently liaised with employers to take over this responsibility when things stabilised. By the time that the dormitory lockdown was lifted in August 2020, we estimated that about half of the migrant workers in dormitories had been infected by COVID-19, the vast majority of whom had mild or asymptomatic infection. The number of migrant workers who were severely ill, for example, requiring intensive care in hospital, was fortuitously low. In spite of that, regrettably, two workers from the dormitories passed away as a result of COVID-19. Every death is one death too many. We had not managed to keep transmission in the dormitories low, but we did our level best at that time, to make sure, alongside with the doctors, that the migrant workers received good medical care and attended to their other needs. The situation could have turned out much worse, but through the collective efforts of multiple stakeholders mentioned earlier, we managed to stave off a potentially worse outcome. At this juncture, I must also acknowledge the trust and support given by our migrant workers throughout this period. It was an immensely difficult time for them because they were worried about COVID-19 and they also worried about the uncertainty for their future. I am gratified that they trusted the Government to do right by them. One of the migrant workers, Mr Hassan Mehadi, conveyed his appreciation to us in a piece of feedback. He wrote: "In April 2020, I was brought to Tan Tock Seng Hospital and I was confirmed to be COVID-19-positive.”
“During the early days of the pandemic where communications with migrant workers were challenging due to language barriers, Dr Muntasir took the initiative and spoke in Bengali using a loud hailer to reassure the residents that their medical needs, their safety and their well-being would be attended to. In the last three years, he has continued to volunteer his medical services and linguistic capabilities and continued to provide free medical advice to Bengali workers living in smaller dormitories. He also gave health talks to large groups of migrant workers. At the time, we did not have many large-scale facilities readily available to de-densify the dormitories. We knew that conveying COVID-19-positive workers away from COVID-19-naive ones and isolating them was key. To this end, the Government worked with private sector partners to set up quarantine, isolation and recovery facilities. Forward Assurance Support Teams (FAST teams) were formed, they were deployed at the dormitories to provide direct access to workers to assure them, to care for them and to engage them. To slow down the transmission of the virus in the dormitories, the workers could not intermingle within the dormitories. We organised and we distributed the meals to the 200,000 workers over four months and ensured that employers continued to pay their workers even when they could not work. Mobile remittance services were also set up to make it convenient for workers to remit monies back home to their loved ones. As mentioned by Miss Rachel Ong, we recognised that some migrant workers, particularly those in the factory-converted dormitories (FCDs) faced difficulties in accessing food as they typically sourced and cooked their own food.”
“We knew that the dormitory lockdown put the migrant workers under stress and strain, but if we had not done so, the transmission among migrant workers across the dormitories and into the community would have been much more severe and much more widespread. If we had allowed transmission to grow out of control, the situation could have become what we saw in other countries – a large number of cases that may have overwhelmed the entire healthcare system with a high consequent number of deaths. Once we had made that difficult decision, the ITF swung into action and set up medical posts and networks in and around the dormitories. Thermometers and oximeters were given to migrant workers to monitor their health. We took care of our migrant workers the best we could, based on what we knew, with the resources that we had, and we ensured that all migrant workers had access to good medical care, help and treatment if needed – timely treatment, if needed. Here, I would like to put on record our appreciation to many of our selfless healthcare workers from both the public and private healthcare institutions who were among the first to step up and provide medical services to our migrant workers living in dormitories at the start of the pandemic. One exemplary individual, who also came earlier on, during the lunch, I think some Members of the House would have met him. One exemplary individual was Dr Muntasir Mannan Choudhury, a hand surgeon with Sengkang General Hospital, who was serving at a medical post in the S11 dormitory in early-2020.”
“We did not pick up on the asymptomatic cases and we were under the impression then, that our measures were sufficient. Of course, looking back now, we were completely mistaken. It was only in April 2020 that the infectious disease experts began to realise that COVID-19 could spread asymptomatically. By then, the virus was already spreading in the dormitories. We did not have a clear, comprehensive and timely picture of the workers who were sick, because not everyone reported sick. There were significant gaps in our understanding of the disease, in testing, in surveillance and in the data and information regarding the location of the workers in the dormitories. Recognising the scale of the outbreak in the dormitories, the Government set up the Inter-agency Task Force (ITF) in April 2020, brought in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and the Home Team, as well as public healthcare capabilities. We required the resources and organisation to manage the highly complex operations in the dormitories. Drawing on the expertise and resources of multiple stakeholders, the ITF mobilised nearly 3,000 officers and volunteers from the SAF, the Home Team, MOM and across the Public Service. During that period, we worked closely with dormitory operators, employers, the medical community, NGOs and other community groups, to provide care and support for the migrant workers in the dormitories. In April 2020, the dormitories were progressively put under lockdown and the circuit breaker was also implemented in the community. This helped to arrest the spread of COVID-19 in the dormitories.”
“It has been all of your support, your labours, your sacrifices, together with all the rest, that have weathered us through the storm. Today, I will reflect on the decisions made, the tradeoffs considered, and the lessons learnt in the Ministry of Manpower (MOM)'s journey in the following areas: one, bringing the outbreak in the migrant worker dormitories under control; two, protecting jobs and livelihoods of our workers; and three, building stronger systems and capabilities for the future. We were thrust into an uncertain and extremely unpredictable environment in early 2020. There was a paucity of knowledge about the virus regarding its inherent characteristics and transmission modes at the early stage. The prevailing expert view in early 2020 was that the COVID-19 virus was closely related to SARS and symptomatic transmission was the main mode of spread. It was also thought that COVID-19 was spread primarily through droplets rather than airborne transmission. Some experts were even saying that the pandemic itself would be over by the summer season. The inherent mutagenic potential of the virus however, resulted in rapid mutations from Alpha to Delta and subsequently Omicron. Even now, it continues to evolve and it continues to mutate. We had to respond, we had to adapt quickly, learning continuously in real time, given the uncertainties about the virus. Drawing from the SARS experience and prevailing expert views about symptomatic transmission, we implemented measures like temperature taking at the migrant worker dormitories and isolation of workers who reported sick with acute respiratory infection (ARI) symptoms. At every point in time, our measures were guided by science and the latest evidence available at that moment in time.”
“Thank you, Leader, and thank you, Deputy Speaker. Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, Members of the House, the past three years of the COVID-19 pandemic have been a long and arduous journey, fraught with many uncertainties and challenges. The struggles faced by many were heart-wrenching. There were countless difficult decisions and tradeoffs made in the fog of war. But right from the start, we had one overriding objective and that is to protect lives, jobs as well as livelihoods. We were determined to emerge with a strong and resilient economy and to shield our workers from the full economic brunt of the pandemic. We pulled through on both counts. We also made a concerted effort to safeguard our migrant workers' health and thankfully, despite the scale of the outbreak in the dormitories, the mortality rate among our migrant workers was very low. The other silver lining in the dark cloud of this pandemic was witnessing the resilience of our people – one people, standing together, as one nation. It has been a profoundly humbling and heartening experience to see the outpouring of support from the private and people sectors and the indomitable spirit of our workers. To our local and foreign workers, our employers, the industry associations, tripartite partners and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) such as the Migrant Workers' Centre (MWC), HealthServe and Hope Initiative Alliance (HIA) and the many more on the list whom Senior Minister of State Zaqy Mohammad will mention tomorrow – thank you, from the bottom of all of our hearts. Mr Bernard Menon from the MWC, Dr Benjamin Kuan from HealthServe and Reverend Ezekiel Tan from HIA also joined us earlier today.”
“There was an EIA which was prepared by the Chulalongkorn University's Environmental Research Institute and ERM Siam Company Limited. The Lao PDR authorities shared the EIA report with the Energy Market Authority (EMA). This report states that sufficient mitigation measures have been put in place to address the environmental and the social impact of the hydropower project. Based on the Member's suggestion, I certainly will discuss it with my team to see whether there are any sensitivities in publishing it. 12.59 pm”
“I thank the Member for her supplementary question. As I mentioned in my reply, from May 2023, that means in about a month and a half, the CPF Board intends to remind members who have undergone a divorce to review their nominations. We are currently working with the relevant agencies for information on divorced members. Some of the points that the Member has brought up, are currently also being reviewed. So, the Member can appreciate the potential ramifications. If the Member so finds it suitable, after May, the Member can file another Parliamentary Question and we can update the Member on the status of that review subsequently.”
“The Central Provident Fund (CPF) nomination scheme provides CPF members with the option to nominate recipients of their CPF monies upon their demise and the proportion of savings each nominee should receive. CPF nominations are currently treated in the same way as wills. They are revoked upon marriage to give the member an opportunity to make a new nomination. Like wills, CPF nominations are not revoked in the event of a divorce as we recognise that the CPF member may still intend to provide for the ex-spouse and children from the marriage. Nevertheless, the CPF Board includes reminders to all members to review their nominations in their annual statement of account. The Board also intends to remind those members who have undergone divorce to review their nominations. CPF members should review and update their nominations when their life circumstances have changed. The CPF Board has enhanced the CPF nomination service to enable members to conveniently review their nominations and make changes securely, including via the CPF website. The Ministry of Law is studying whether to reform the rule in the Wills Act 1838 that provides for the automatic revocation of wills in the event of marriage. The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and the CPF Board will likewise study the CPF nomination rules, so that the policy remains relevant to the evolving needs and behaviours of our citizens.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, may I have your permission to take Question Nos 11 and 12 together?”
“Based on the latest available survey data in 2020, 1,785, that is, 13.2% of private companies provided paid parental care leave1 to their employees2, 3. The Ministry of Manpower does not track the number or percentage of private companies that offer unpaid parental care leave.”
“All employers are required to offer up to six days of paid childcare leave1, as well as six days of unpaid infant care leave2 a year under the law. On top of these, employers may also voluntarily offer additional paid or unpaid child sick leave. Based on the latest available survey data from 2020, 3,635 or 27% of private companies voluntarily provided additional paid child sick leave to their employees3, 4.”
“As of January 2023, the median basic monthly salaries of domestic and non-domestic Work Permit Holders (WPHs) were $650 and $1,000 respectively. However, the basic salary is not representative of the overall remuneration and benefits which WPHs receive in their course of work because under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Regulations, employers are responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of their WPHs, including the provision of acceptable accommodation, adequate food and medical treatment. WPHs may also receive additional wages, such as overtime pay, allowances, bonuses or cash incentives in recognition of their performance at work.”
“From 2018 to 2022, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) received a total of 70 reports on forgery of in-principle approval (IPA) letters. The perpetrators of these forged IPA letters are typically overseas agents who are beyond our enforcement reach. The employers in Singapore and local employment agencies were able to show that they had sent the original IPA letter overseas. However, the overseas agent would amend key employment terms, for example, salary, before handing the forged IPA letter over to the migrant worker. Over this period, one employer was convicted for forging the IPA letter.”
“I thank the Member for his persistence in trying to extract some measure so that he can come back in two years' time and put a check. The entire focus as I have spent over an hour yesterday in my Committee of Supply (COS) speech doing, is to focus on levelling up our competitiveness, maintaining our lead against the whole business world. Therefore, it is important that in the scheme that we put up – and today given where we are, we have actually very tightly scoped these companies that qualify under the M-SEP scheme. So, you should look at it from that context. In the broader macroeconomics of how we look at our workforce, and the overall change, the one-third to two-third ratio will still maintain. If you are going to look at one particular aspect of the entire plethora of schemes that we have available and say that this particular scheme is going to result in over-concentration, that is not going to happen. I hope that gives you enough reassurance. This is again very tightly scoped. These are companies that EDB and ESG work very closely with and the number of work passes that is going to be awarded through M-SEP would not move the needle significantly. It is really meant to see how we can provide these companies to have a leg-up to fulfil our strategic economic priorities. 10.52 am”
“Because the ultimate fulfilment of the conditions is really about growing our economy, our competitiveness and at the same time, making sure that our locals continue to be put up front in terms of training and in terms of upskilling.”
“Mr Speaker, I beg your indulgence because this needs a bit of time to go through. To the Member’s first supplementary question, the actual proportion depends on the firms which successfully apply for the initiatives listed, which is under Condition 1. Under Condition 1, in terms of fulfilment of the M-SEP scheme, there are 16 programmes that are listed. For me to go through the exact details of the M-SEP scheme itself, perhaps the Member could separately file a Parliamentary Question. I am happy to walk the Member through. So, that is the qualifying criteria. Of the firms today that are currently eligible for M-SEP, about 40% of them have local shareholding of at least 30%. Having local shareholding is not a prerequisite for M-SEP. What is more important in the entire M-SEP scheme is that they contribute to our growth and they create opportunities for Singaporeans. Hence, these firms must be locally incorporated or registered. In this particular way, M-SEP is very selective in targeting firms or investments which will grow our economy and our competitiveness. And to be part of these programmes, the firms would have been working closely with our economic agencies like Economic Development Board (EDB) or Enterprise Singapore (ESG). To the Member's second point in terms of the end of the two-year period, it should not be taken in isolation. If you look at the overall flow in terms of the scheme from the fulfilment of Condition 1, then the two-year mark in terms of a higher concentration of foreign workforce or that potential should not be any impediment whatsoever.”
“All Manpower for Strategic Economic Priorities (M-SEP) beneficiaries are locally incorporated or registered business entities. They would need to be as such in order to hire Work Permit or S Pass holders to benefit from the M-SEP scheme.”
“The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has put in place education and enforcement measures to safeguard the employment standards of all Work Permit holders (WPHs), including performing artistes on Work Permits. Employers are required to provide a copy of the in-principle approval letter to WPHs in their native language prior to their departure to Singapore. This allows them to be aware of their key employment terms (KETs). Mandatory written KETs must also be provided to the WPHs within 14 days from the start of their employment. We also routinely disseminate educational information, for example, on employment rights, available support channels and lawful behaviour while living in Singapore, to WPHs through platforms, such as social media posts and the FWMOMCare application, which can be downloaded by all WPHs. Performing artistes who require assistance can approach MOM. We will look into all complaints from WPHs about their employment rights and will conduct inspections and investigations as necessary.”
“So, we want to ensure that these companies still have access to high-quality complementary candidates so that when there are certain niche skills and skills that continue to evolve, we can bring them in and also train our local talent as well to create more good job opportunities for our locals. You keep harping on this thing about imposing a levy. It is easy enough for the Government to do so because it generates revenue. But at the EP level, Mr Leong, our focus is on making sure that we can differentiate, that we can get the best, the highest quality, the highest qualified talent anywhere in the world, to come here. If you look at it, employers do not have infinite budgets for manpower. We should think about a win-win partnership where we benefit, we let the employer win, so that Singaporean employees will also have that win. And that has been our intention. That is why in all of our policies, we focus on making sure that our economy is vibrant so that there are enough resources for us to continue to invest back in our people to continue to develop Singapore, progress Singapore to a place that is brimming with opportunities, hope, and always, with optimism. I hope that you can put that aside and focus on bringing all of us together and building that Singapore for our future. Because I think that is the core of what we do. [Applause.]”
“Mr Leong, I think in the interest of time, I will try and keep it short. But, actually, all I can do is just refer you back to the Hansard reports for you to read the thing. The position has not changed. I think it is late. You have asked quite a number of questions. I just want to address some of it. Your approach that you talked about, in terms of imposing hard caps on the number of foreigners from each nationality that the firm can hire, I think the approach is very, very rigid, and it is overly so. I have been in the private sector all my life and I have also set up businesses in many countries. I think if you do that, many of my old networks will probably give this place a miss. The reality is that if you structure an industry, if you want to grow the industry, it is a combination of making sure that we invest in our people and, at the same time, we are also able to imbibe – the word is "imbibe", not "open the doors and let them in freely". To imbibe enough talent so that they can actually complement our local talent and we all then prosper together. I think that is a more nuanced approach. We have introduced COMPASS which takes a very nuanced position by incentivising firms to strengthen their local core and their workforce diversity. We also still ensure that these companies can get the additional talent they need – which you see is the common and recurring theme around our debates for the last many days. There are many, many Members on both sides of the House who keep telling us and lamenting how tight the talent and the manpower situation is in this country.”
“To the Member's point about how to accelerate the income under PWM, I will leave it to Senior Minister of State Zaqy Mohamad to answer the question. The Member's last point was about how I ensure that the larger share of IT jobs in high positions will go to Singaporeans in the next five years. We will continue, through all of the programmes that I have been painstakingly elaborating on over the last two days – whether it is SGEP, Global Ready Talent, Tech@SG – these are all programmes that we set up to train, to invest, to upskill and to reskill our Singaporean Core talent and we will continue to do so. If Mr Leong has even more constructive programmes that we can do to train and upskill our Singaporean Core, I am happy to also take that into consideration. But as to whether I can provide some form of guarantee over the next five years, whether they will all end up in high positions, I do not think anyone can guarantee that. We can guarantee a level playing field at the outset at every single level, but I do not think anyone can guarantee a similar high outcome or success for everyone. I hope that answers your question.”
“I have also learnt a lot from my learned colleagues here in their responses and replies to your questions as well. If you look at it, we are at almost full employment. We are at 3% above pre-pandemic level. This is 3% above 2019. At a point in time when our resident employment is at this kind of high level, for companies to want to grow, to fulfil all this and so on, they have to hire. They have to hire workers. Obviously, in the fourth quarter, you see more non-residents finding jobs. To the Member's point about how certain I am that Singaporean PMEs are not disadvantaged because for the Employment Pass (EP) holders, the employers do not have to contribute to CPF, please refer to my numerous explanations in the past. The way we calculate the Minimum Qualifying Salary is after taking into consideration the gross salary of a local – in a similar cohort – plus the CPF contribution of the employer and we set that as the benchmark. If you look at it from the perspective of someone who has been here for 10 years, the salary of that EP holder is on a rising scale. It will not be at $5,000. For the EP holder, for him to be able to get the EP, the company will have to set that qualifying salary probably at above $10,000. With that, we believe that we have adequately addressed any form of income disparity between our locals and foreigners. On top of that, we do not see a need for us to ensure that foreigners have to contribute to CPF because our CPF provides for retirement adequacy, housing – a roof over the heads of our Singaporeans. We do not see the need to provide the same level of safety net for foreigners. Hence, we do not impose this CPF contribution on them.”
“I thank Mr Leong for his three to four clarifications, but can I humbly request for me to address Ms Hazel Poa's point? After all, you are from the same party. On the second part of her clarification, let me set the entire context by giving the full response. Over the last 10 years, the proportion of active CPF members attaining their cohort's Basic Retirement Sum at age 55 has improved from about five in 10 to almost seven in 10 today. We expect this number to increase to about eight in 10 in 2027. For members who are able to set aside the Basic Retirement Sum (BRS) in 2022, about seven in 10 – about 70% – can choose to set aside the Full Retirement Sum. To the Member's first point, I wish to make an amendment that was on the Member's part about whether platform workers are covered by the workplace legislation. The Workplace Fairness Legislation needs to have a formal contract – a formal relationship between the employer and the employee. I think the nature of platform work is that many of the platform workers have multiple platforms that they work for. You could be on one, you could also be on another. I think some of them have about two or three. Perhaps Senior Minister of State Koh Poh Koon will be better placed to respond to this because of his deeper knowledge. In that sense, to say that it is a singular relationship between an employer and employee, the nature of it is not a like-for-like comparison. But what we will do is that the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices (TGFEP) will be clarified further to include the discrimination of platform workers. To Mr Leong's four points, thank you for that compliment. It is really the collective work of all of my colleagues in the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).”
“To the first clarification, the answer is yes. For the second clarification, in terms of the Full Retirement Sum, if you can let one or two other clarifications go through, I will come back to you.”
“I thank the Member for his clarification. The CPF LIFE Escalating Plan has a lower start but over time, it actually exceeds the Standard and the Basic Plan, as we speak today. Today, we are in an era where inflation is high because of the geopolitical uncertainties. We have also seen the global supply chain disruptions as well as a lot of interest rates tightening. The broad initiatives, the broad measures that we put up today, will improve retirement adequacy over the medium to long term. During times of shocks such as what we have gone through the last two years and what we are still going through, the Government has constantly come in and intervened. We have had the Assurance Package; the GST Vouchers have become a permanent GST Voucher scheme. And there was a whole slew of support schemes that has been put up to support all Singaporeans and our CPF members to tide through this particular period. You can see the MOM schemes in terms of CPF financial retirement adequacy, as a long haul, over a very long period of time, to provide the basic retirement adequacy. And at certain times, if I may borrow a term, it is like an immunisation, you get a booster coming in from the Government to help to uplift the members' retirement lifestyle and smoothen out some of the expenses. If you look at the measures that we have rolled out over the last 12 months or so, for the low-income, the coverage is very substantial and it covers practically all of the inflationary increases in terms of spending. For the middle-income, it covers it substantially. That has been the construct thus far. I hope that addresses the Member's point.”
“I thank Mr Giam for his two points. To clarify, given the small size of our market relative to many of the other bigger countries in terms of their workforce, if we were to publish the list and make it so open, in many of these countries where the workers come from, they will then understand what are some of our vulnerabilities. So, to that extent, I would rather keep the list to a very tight, narrow scope where we work very closely with the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), the Ministry of National Development (MND), the Ministry of Health (MOH), and the different sectoral agencies to curate it and work through these agencies to address some of these sectors' shortages. So, that is the first point. To the Member's second point about a three-yearly review, we also want to provide a certain level of certainty and predictability to businesses setting up here or businesses that are already operating here. If we keep moving this list very frequently, businesses will find it very hard to adapt, to respond and to be nimble. The three years, we feel, is a sufficient runway for us to address some of this in the Shortage Occupation List (SOL). And I have already shared in my earlier speech what are some of the criteria that we will put in place. Just to reassure the Member, that between MTI and ourselves and some of the other sector agencies, we will also conduct yearly reviews. So, we do not have to go through the full three years but within one year, if certain shortages have become even more acute, we will not hesitate to respond. I hope that addresses his points.”
“Regardless of the industry, there should be multiple pathways to success. We are looking into how we can redesign such jobs – with better starting salaries, better upskilling opportunities, and other ways to attract and retain workers in these jobs. Shifting society's perceptions of such jobs takes time and process, so we have to persevere. We are also strengthening support for Singaporeans' retirement adequacy. The CPF system is a key pillar for Singapore's retirement adequacy, and it meets workers' basic retirement needs. To ensure the CPF system remains relevant, we must study how we can boost the CPF monthly payouts for seniors. At the end of the song "Small Stream That Flows Forever", the lyrics say, "There are thousands of ups and downs in life, only the best confidantes meet forever, for their friendship is forever, like water flowing from its source". I hope you will see MOM as a close partner in your career path, provide feedback and suggestions and co-create and improve policies together. This is also the objective of the Government's Forward Singapore exercise to renew the social compact. We will continue to work with you to ride out the storm and move towards a better future!”
“Back when I first entered the workforce, I was just as ambitious, but I understood that my career path may not be smooth, and I may face various obstacles before arriving at my intended destination. Whether you are a young person, or like me, a middle-aged person, rest assured that we will journey with you every step of the way, and help you become more resilient and move forward with you. Whether you are in your early-20s, 30s, mid-40s or late-50s, we will empower you to find and work towards new opportunities and seize better job opportunities. If you are looking for a career change, you can be assured of the support we will provide you to upskill and re-skill. If you have just lost your job, you can be assured that we will step in to help you in your job search. If your interest is in hands-on work, you can be assured of more opportunities to learn. We will help you in your career transition. If you are approaching retirement, we will continue to strengthen the CPF system, help you meet basic retirement needs, so that you can enjoy your golden years. As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure. Whether Singaporeans can continue to seize opportunities depends on their career health. We should be responsible for our own career health, understand the needs of our career, industry trends, our interests and capabilities. To assist, we will be launching a new CareersFinder feature on the MyCareersFuture portal. The feature will harness data analytics and artificial intelligence to provide you with more personalised jobs and skills insights to improve job matching. We also need to build a more inclusive labour market. As the saying goes, "Every Trade has its Master". Even though "head" work remains a priority, we should not overlook "hands-on" work.”
“Ms Janet Ang and Ms Yeo Wan Ling will also be assured to know that we will continue to engage employers, employees, HR partners and other key stakeholders to make clear the intent of the legislation and the whole-of-society effort required to uphold workplace fairness. During the implementation process, we will also work with NTUC to help employees to better navigate the case management process and seek remedies for their grievances. And we will work with SNEF to guide employers to adopt Fair Employment practices and comply with the legislation. Even as we introduce stronger worker protections in legislation, and let me emphasise this, we want to preserve Singapore's harmonious and non-litigious workplace culture. To this end, the committee has also made recommendations to encourage disputes to be resolved within the firm in the first instance. And if not, through mediation to repair the employment relationship where possible, with adjudication at the Courts only as a last resort. We will continue to welcome all feedback, including from Members today. The Tripartite Committee will take the feedback into consideration for its final recommendations. With that, Mr Chairman, let me now conclude in Mandarin. (In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] In the past year, I have been involved in many dialogue sessions. Most Singaporeans understand that we face many challenges on our road to economic recovery. I am glad that Singaporeans are still hopeful about their future and actively sharing their hopes and aspirations with us. This reminds me of a Xinyao song, "Small Stream that Flows Forever". The lyrics say “who does not dream when they are young”.”
“With the introduction of the Workplace Fairness Legislation, the Tripartite Committee consulted various agencies, religious organisations and advocacy groups on their views. We recognise that maintaining religious harmony is important in our multi-religious society. It is, therefore, important to give religious organisations the space to practise their religion. As such, given the purpose and character of religious organisations, the Tripartite Committee has recommended allowing religious organisations the discretion to make employment decisions, based on religion and their religious requirements. It must be emphasised that this discretion given to religious organisations is very carefully scoped. It will only apply to places of worship and religious organisations with sole religious purpose and function. It will also not allow them to discriminate based on other protected characteristics, where there is no religious basis to do so. On the question of vaccination-differentiated safe management measures (VDS), we have reached out to and offered employment assistance to the unvaccinated workers. They can also approach Workforce Singapore (WSG) or Employment and Employability Institute (e2i), if they require further assistance. Workers who feel that their employers are imposing vaccination as a requirement without genuine occupational needs may approach MOM or TAFEP for assistance. Since the release of the updated advisory on COVID-19 vaccination at the workplace in October 2022, there has only been a handful of such complaints.”
“There will be a wider range of enforcement levers against errant employers that are more effective as deterrence against workplace discrimination. The Fair Consideration Framework job advertising requirement will also be legislated, which will allow us to take action against employers who breach this requirement, using the new enforcement levers. The Tripartite Committee has also recommended protection against retaliation for those who report workplace discrimination or harassment, to give assurance to employees to come forward to report it. The majority of complaints on nationality discriminations are by locals indeed. So, they will benefit from the greater protection. Mr Leong also suggested small firms should not be exempted from the legislation. Small firms may not have the corporate competencies to comprehensively implement the new rules from day one. As the proposed legislation is only the first step, we will exempt small firms with fewer than 25 employees for a start. Workers in small firms, however, will continue to still be covered by TGFEP. Those who are unfairly dismissed can lodge claims with the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM). For these employers, we will also step up education and enforcement efforts via TGFEP. The Tripartite Committee agrees that we will monitor the ground situation after legislation is introduced and review the exemption with a view to tightening it within five years. Mr Leong referred to a specific case in a religious organisation in 2013. For that case, based on prevailing guidelines and laws, the church did not have sufficient grounds to dismiss the employee.”
“Mr Gerald Giam asked for comprehensive protection for PwDs, while Mr Leong Mun Wai suggested to cover sexual orientation in the legislation. They both can be assured that all forms of discrimination are not tolerated. This is our national policy and it is reflected in the Tripartite Guidelines for Fair Employment Practices (TGFEP) today. The Tripartite Committee has recommended that the new legislation provide stronger protection against discrimination on the grounds of nationality, age, sex, race, religion, disability and mental health conditions. Stronger protection against discrimination in the proposed areas also supports Singapore's key social and economic objectives. For instance, protecting against discrimination on the grounds of age helps to support the employment of mature workers, which is critical for our ageing society. These characteristics are the common and familiar forms of workplace discrimination in Singapore. Together they account for more than 95% of discrimination complaints received by Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) and MOM in the past five years. We have experienced dealing with these cases and we are confident to mediate them effectively. Tripartite partners will work with relevant stakeholders to ensure that there is clarity on issues, such as definitions and scope of employers' responsibilities to enable the legislation to achieve its intended effect. Some Members have raised suggestions on the legislation. Mr Leong asked how the legislation will address job security for Singaporeans. Legislation will benefit Singaporeans by better protecting them against workplace discrimination.”
“Mr Deputy Chairman, I would like to make two clarifications with respect to the first segment of my speech. First, I had said that the nominal median income of full-time employment residents grew by 8.3% in 2021. I wish to clarify that this was the growth rate in 2022. Second, I had said that the Silver Support Scheme was enhanced in 2011. I wish to clarify that it was enhanced in 2021. Senior Minister of State Koh, Senior Minister of State Zaqy, Minister of State Gan and I have shared about the Ministry of Manpower (MOM)'s three themes for this Committee of Supply (COS): (a) seizing opportunities, (b) strengthening support for you and (c) securing better workplaces with you. I have earlier covered the first two themes and I will now touch on the third – how we stand in solidarity to secure safer, fairer and more progressive workplaces with you. We are doing so in a couple of ways. Minister of State Gan has shared details on our efforts to support our women at work and help persons with disabilities (PwDs) and ex-offenders find employment. Senior Minister of State Zaqy has also elaborated on our efforts to ensure safety in the workplace. Let me now share about the Workplace Fairness Legislation, which is a significant step towards ensuring a level playing field. Members will have seen the 20 interim recommendations by the Tripartite Committee on Workplace Fairness, which I co-chair with Brothers Ng Chee Meng and Dr Robert Yap. Calls for legislation date back to 1998, with various parties, including Labour Members, proposing for legislation to strengthen our efforts in tackling discrimination. Indeed, this significant move is going to strengthen our overall framework to uphold workplace fairness.”