Employment Rights of Tertiary Students who Work Part-time

Mr Zainal Sapari asked the Acting Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) what steps are in place to educate students from Institutes of Technical Education, polytechnics and universities, who work as part-timers during their school holidays or after school hours, on their employment rights so that they are not disadvantaged by their employers.

Various measures are taken to educate students on their basic employment rights, especially for those involved in part-time jobs. At the national level, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board have stepped up public education and outreach efforts on the Employment Act and CPF Act via the WorkRight initiative since 2012. Recent efforts include social media videos on Facebook and mobile clinics across 16 locations in the heartlands in January 2016. Both workers and students can also find out and verify their employment rights at the MOM website.

At the institutions level, the Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) have supplemented national efforts with their own initiatives. Some initiatives include ensuring that staff at the Career Guidance Offices are educated on the Employment Act and can provide first-line advice to students, and making resources available to students through their online career resource portals. At the Institute of Technical Education (ITE), basic employment rights under the Employment Act are highlighted to ITE students as part of their 40-hour Education and Career Guidance (ECG) curriculum introduced in January 2015. This covers details such as the maximum number of working hours in a week, and the timeframe within which employers must pay their salaries.

IHLs also use guidebooks provided by WorkRight to educate their graduating students about their employment rights. I look forward to IHLs working even closer with the National Trade Union Congress' Professionals, Managers and Executives Unit and its U-Care Centre, to better educate our students on their employment rights, be it through on-campus talks or roadshows.