Strengthening Singaporean Core in the Workforce

Mr Yeo Guat Kwang asked the Acting Minister for Manpower how will the Ministry ensure that the Singaporean Core will not be eroded in an economic downturn or during significant downsizing of companies, especially for job areas where there are no dependency ratio ceilings for foreign PMETs.

Mdm Speaker, if the Member does not mind, I will be addressing this issue fully in the Committee of Supply (COS) debates next week, but I will provide an overview of how we are addressing the question raised by the Member.

Our focus, clearly, is to look after the interests of all Singaporeans. In the process, we take a multi-pronged approach to build a Singaporean Core in the workforce. The critical issue in the long term is how do we develop and raise the capabilities of Singaporeans and calibrate our Work Pass framework to ensure that foreign workers complement and not just substitute Singaporean workers. That is important. We essentially have two broad strategies, and I will sketch them out.

Firstly, it is how we develop a core of Singaporeans in our workforce. First and foremost, training coming in the form of Pre-Employment Training (PET) and Continuing Education and Training (CET) forms an important pillar in this process. We will continue to strengthen this and enhance the initiatives in this framework. For example, we are strengthening Workfare Training Support (WTS) for the low-wage workers. We also have in place Skills Training for Excellence Programme (STEP) which is largely geared towards the Professionals, Managers and Executives (PMEs).

Secondly, we develop a Singaporean Core also by working with agencies. For example, MAS works with the financial institutions to co-fund programmes to nurture young Singaporeans in that sector.

Thirdly, we also look at developing a Singaporean Core by employment facilitation. So we strengthen Government-funded employment facilitation and

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career conversion programmes to help unemployed Singaporeans and Singaporeans who wish to change careers, including PMEs, of which CaliberLink, which we talked about last year, was an important step in that direction.

The second part in our effort lies with how we structure our Work Pass and foreign manpower framework. As we are all familiar, we have put in place a series of changes in terms of the foreign worker levy (FWL) as well as changes to the Dependency Ratio Ceilings (DRCs). Changes are being made at the Work Permit, S Pass and Employment Pass levels. The S Pass and Employment Pass levels, particularly, will have an impact on our PMEs. The idea, as I said earlier, is how we structure it so that it complements our workforce and ensure that there is a level playing field. This is something that I will be addressing fully next week in the COS.

At the Employment Pass (EP) level, we have already taken some steps last year in terms of restructuring the EP framework where we factor in not just the entry-level pay, but also tiering it to take into account experience. This is important because it also ensures a more level playing field for Singaporeans. And we have extended this change into the S Pass framework as well.

A new area that we are looking at would be to look at the way other countries also implement some of their entry for foreign talent at the EP level category. So we want to look at how to make sure that Singaporeans are given fair consideration in the hiring process. The principle of not discriminating against Singaporean workers should similarly apply in downsizing exercises.

The Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices (TAFEP) requires firms to make reasonable efforts to train and develop a Singaporean Core. As mentioned during the White Paper debate on population, we are already putting in place a process where we will investigate non-compliance with the Guidelines and, if proven, we will curtail work pass privileges.

The Tripartite Guidelines on Managing Excess Manpower also urge companies to consider other alternative to managing excess manpower and retrench only as a last resort. And if retrenchment is still necessary after considering other options, the company concerned should carry out the retrenchment exercise responsibly. This includes consulting the relevant union and the affected workers, as well as helping the workers look for alternative jobs. In previous downturns, employers have cut back more sharply on foreign workers as compared to the local ones. Over the 2009 downturn, foreign

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employment levels fell while resident employment levels continued to grow, although more gradually. This same trend was seen in previous downturns in 2001, which is post-911, and 2003, during the SARS period.

During the last downturn, there were also steps that were put in place to assist our workers to stay employed. The Government launched the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR) to help employers manage their manpower costs and save jobs through providing high levels of support for employers to send their local workers for training. These also helped companies to upgrade their workers during the downturn and build capabilities for them to search for jobs when the economic conditions recover. In addition, there was also the important Jobs Credit scheme (JCS) where they received a cash grant for workers on their CPF payroll. Both SPUR and JCS, during that period, were particularly important initiatives in helping to make sure that our workers at all levels stayed employed.

So, these are tools in our toolbox that we can draw on, or a variance of that as the case may be, depending on our economic situation in the years to come. But the most important point to emphasise is that the best way to ensure that Singaporean PMEs remain meaningfully employed is to make sure that our economy remains healthy and vibrant, and Singaporeans are also equipped with the right attitudes, aptitudes and skills. Strengthening the Singaporean Core will be one of the key focus for our Ministry in this coming year, and this is something that, as I mentioned earlier, we will be talking in greater details at the MOM COS debate.

I thank the Acting Minister for the answer as well as the assurance that more will be in the pipeline to help our PMEs and to ensure that we build up a strong Singaporean Core in our workforce.

I would also like to ask the Minister whether he would consider upgrading the TAFEP guidelines to make them more effective so that it would be able to strengthen compliance among the employers.

I would like to thank the Member for the supplementary question. TAFEP is an important institution. It is still relatively new by all counts, but I think it is beginning to get really involved in dealing with companies on a range of issues. Strengthening TAFEP is something that we are looking at. As I mentioned earlier, one of the key initiatives that we are going to do is that TAFEP will be investigating more thoroughly in terms of

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discrimination practices. Where companies are not responding, TAFEP refer the cases to MOM and we will also take the necessary steps to investigate and take actions to restrict the privileges accorded to companies, as the case may be.

In short, I would agree with the Member that TAFEP is an organisation that we can strengthen in the years to come.