Flexible Work Arrangements for All

Mr Speaker, like many of our fellow Singaporeans, including Parliamentarians and political appointment holders alike, we have all witnessed first-hand in the last few years, how transformational flexible work arrangements (FWAs) can be for the better of both employers and employees. That is the reason why it has been one of the key proposals which I have been championing since I entered Parliament more than three years ago.

At the debate on the President’s Address during the Opening of Parliament, I spoke about how a key area of reform to build a stronger and more resilient Singapore society is in relation to support for families. While I recognised then that the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) will support employers to offer FWAs, I called on the Government to give employees the legislative right to FWAs, rather than non-legally binding advisories, and for the Government to lead by example.

More recently, during the 2023 MOM Committee of Supply (COS) debates, I shared in my speech that we had an opportunity to experience what it could look like to have FWAs, but I hope that my worst fears of a return to pre-COVID-19 workplace norms in Singapore will not come true.

I thus had a bit of a rude shock when in August this year, one of our Sengkang residents shared with me her own troubling experience with requesting for FWAs. The gist of it is that she is a mother of two, with one of her children requiring special attention. When she asked if she could retain her current FWA to better care for her children, her boss quipped that her kids are not even dying. If they were, then the company can consider giving more flexibility.

While I recognise that such bosses could be a minority and it may be line manager-specific and may not be representative of the firm’s approach to FWAs, I find such attitudes and the whole "if you are not in the office, how do I know that you are working” mindset very troubling.

Through this Adjournment Motion, I wish to reiterate my call for the Government to legislate the right to FWAs for all workers and go beyond guidelines, advisories and moral suasion.

To begin with, the desire for work-life balance is a key consideration that weighs heavily on the minds of our workers, with over 50% of Singaporeans preferring work-life balance over a higher salary or job role, according to polls done by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) in October 2022. In line with global trends, a LinkedIn report released in 2023 also noted that organisational support to balance work and personal life is one of the key priorities for employees in Singapore.

So, how do we balance things out?

A potential game-changer shone through the COVID-19 storm cloud as a silver lining, with companies adopting FWAs as part of their business continuity plans to tide them through the pandemic. By now, FWAs need no introduction and could take a myriad of forms, including the ability to work from home on a regular or hybrid basis, compressed work schedules, flexi-time, such as agreed start and finish times within agreed limits, and even informal flexibility on an as-needed basis. These may then be implemented according to the varying needs of the different employees and employers.

Post-pandemic, FWAs continue to be desired by our workers as they can better manage their professional and personal lives. In a 2022 white paper by Randstad, 42% of Singaporean respondents would not accept a job that does not provide FWAs, while in a 2023 report by Indeed, 85% of workers in Singapore desire flexibility at work, significantly above the global average of 66%. Additionally, 34% of workers also revealed that they would quit their jobs if the flexibility provided to them is revoked, while another 31% are not sure about it, yet they, too, might end up quitting.

It is thus clear that FWAs are a key aspect of talent attraction and retention at the workplace today and FWAs benefit all workers.

However, a fair number of employers are now summoning their employees back to the office post-pandemic. According to another Randstad survey in August 2022, 60% of respondents reported that their employers allowed them to work flexible hours, while 52% of them are allowed to work remotely. This is despite an overwhelming 94% of respondents who valued work-life balance.

A CNA commentary published in February 2023 suggested as much, with the title being, “After all this talk about flexible work, why are employers insisting on returning to the office full-time?”

Based on statistics from MOM’s Conditions of Employment 2022 report published in May 2023, it appears that the lifting of safe management measures meant the lifting of FWAs for a not insignificant proportion of firms, where the proportion of firms offering at least one scheduled FWA fell from 90.5% in 2021 to 71.4% in 2022, while the number of firms that did not offer any FWAs at all jumped from 9.5% in 2021 to 28.6% in 2022.

While MOM is hopeful that "the provision of FWAs is likely to continue to remain high, above pre-COVID-19 levels", only 50.3% of firms indicated that they are likely to continue to provide FWAs in the next 12 months, with 33.5% somewhat likely and 16.2% of firms not likely to do so, suggesting that the proportion of firms offering FWAs will, in all likelihood, continue to decline post-COVID-19.

To be fair, the trends are not unique to Singapore and can also be seen in certain firms overseas. A 2022 Microsoft survey indicated that 50% of the business leaders surveyed plan to, or have, required employees to return to the office full-time. After all, business leaders have a myriad of reasons, stemming from inertia and a conservative mindset, for dragging their feet when it comes to the adoption of FWAs in the post-pandemic workforce.

Such resistance by some still persists despite several studies showing that FWAs have been effective in driving up workplace productivity and improving employee well-being and motivation.

MOM's press release on 22 April 2022 presents such a dilemma, where even though the Ministry hopes for FWAs to be a permanent feature of the workplace, its own recommendations in paragraph 4(c) stated that and I quote, "FWAs are not an entitlement and the requirements of the job take precedence".

I can only imagine many employers saying what my National Service Encik would say when it comes to so-called "welfare" requests, "this is a privilege, not an entitlement!".

If we need another reason to legislate FWAs, we need to look no further than the other aspect of productivity, where our total fertility rate (TFR) is now at a record low of 1.04 for 2022. If COVID-19 is described as the crisis of a generation, then our TFR issue is, to my mind, the crisis of many generations, given the steady and worrying decline in our TFR which could spell an existential crisis for Singapore and Singaporeans.

According to a CNA and YouGov poll published this year, 39% of respondents did not want to have a child as it would have an impact on their career and lifestyle. Many of the respondents that CNA spoke to also lamented that the sheer stress and workload from their job inhibit them from childbearing.

We may have enhanced the Baby Bonus Scheme by a couple of thousand dollars, raised unpaid infant care leave while increasing the number of voluntary paternity leave by two weeks, while, ironically, reducing the Working Mother's Child Relief and making no changes to maternity leave which was last changed 15 years ago in 2008.

But I am not sure these new measures fundamentally address the tension between one's career and one's parental responsibilities. I acknowledge the concerns the Government has around legislating for more leave provisions. But we need to balance not just the short-term implications on the way companies have to redesign work processes, but also the long-term implications on our nation should the issue persist.

Take childcare leave, for example, which many Members have also spoken about. It stands at six days a year, regardless of the number of children one has. Yet, based on the Early Childhood Development Agency's guidelines, preschools can have up to six days of annual closure and three-and-a-half-days on the eve of any of the five stipulated public holidays. A Sengkang resident of mine further shared that there are eight full days and one-half day closure for the childcare centre she sends her kids to.

So, without even having our children fall sick, the existing childcare leave provisions are not even sufficient to deal with the scheduled school closures!

And to this point, I am sure many parents with young children will agree with me that they fall sick too often. And as much as parents want to be socially responsible, not everyone has the flexibility at work to look after their children when they fall sick.

Looking through my own records, I visited the paediatrician 20 times in just the last nine months!

With medical leave durations ranging from three to five days, how can parents cope without additional childcare leave or FWAs?

If the Government believes for some reason that giving parents a couple more days of childcare leave per year to look after their children means employers will be facing severe difficulties, to the extent that their manpower costs and operations will be adversely impacted, as described by Minister Sun Xueling last month, then FWAs could be the key enabler to bridge the gap between employers and employees' needs. This could then help to cultivate an environment that enables parents to look after both their career and their children and reduce the tension that parents face today.

Single parents, especially, would benefit immensely from having greater flexibility at the workplace. They bear a heavier burden as they must single-handedly juggle between their care and work commitments. Therefore, FWAs, such as flexi-shifts and telecommuting, would certainly help to alleviate the burden that our single parents face, by allowing them to flexibly plan their work schedule, thus allowing them to find time for their children.

But regardless, we cannot expect incremental efforts to result in extraordinary results. We need to take bold and decisive steps and provide greater financial and non-financial support to Singaporean families, recognising that the stresses on families and the TFR crisis of generations, if not urgently addressed today, would have significant long-term socio-economic costs on Singapore.

Besides parents, caregivers face the Herculean task of caring for their loved ones while trying to earn a living. According to a 2023 study of 200 family caregivers by the Palliative Care Centre for Excellence in Research and Education, the average caregiver holds a full-time job and, on top of that, spends another 6.7 hours per day on caregiving!

A Duke-NUS study in 2021 also pointed out that the disruptions to one's work due to their caregiving needs correlated with increased stress and depression among caregivers.

In addition to seeking employers' understanding of the heavy burden that caregiving carries, the ability for caregivers to better plan and flexibly attend to their work commitments would help to reduce the stress that they face. Furthermore, it would reduce any work disruptions as they attend to their caregiving responsibilities.

This is especially important not solely because of our record low TFR, but it is also important because we are facing a rapidly ageing population and we, too, need to be allowed to care for our ageing parents and be there for them, just as how they were there for us when we were children, too. The same 2023 study also suggested that the average caregiver is a married female aged between 45 and 60.

In my speech on the White Paper on Singapore's Women Development, I noted that Government policies play a vital role in rethinking and redefining long-held beliefs about gender roles in our society. While the labour force participation rate for women has increased over the years to 47% in 2022, this is still in contrast to that for males at 77% in 2022.

FWAs would certainly help to facilitate a paradigm shift in how gender roles are defined by enabling more women to join the workforce or to restart their careers. Moreover, with the increased ability to manage both work and family responsibilities and, hopefully, prevalence of more men taking on greater caregiving responsibilities, this could, in turn, further reduce the stigma of men as caregivers and normalise societal attitudes towards entrenched gender roles.

However, clear action must be taken to prohibit employers from discriminating against employees based on their caregiving and family duties and for workers' performance to be assessed fairly, regardless of whether they take up FWAs or not. This would play a big role in helping to address fears of workers, particularly women at this point in time, on the downside they may face in taking up FWAs to take up caregiving responsibilities.

Although such deeply entrenched gender roles certainly require a reformation of our collective mindset, enhancing Government policies, such as safeguarding the right to request for FWA, would help to give us a leg-up in our journey towards gender equality.

Besides parents and caregivers, persons with disabilities (PWDs) do stand to benefit from FWAs, especially telecommuting. For example, while efforts have been made to improve the accessibility of our physical infrastructure, it is significantly more convenient for our mobility-impaired workers to work from home, as they might require more time and effort in commuting to the workplace.

However, according to the Disabled People's Association, individuals with disabilities have also commented that they fear accessibilities that have been mainstreamed during the pandemic, such as work-from-home accommodations and other hybrid accommodations, such as online meetings, will fade as Singapore recovers from the pandemic.

While I note that there are schemes, such as the ODP Job Redesign Grant which helps employers to redesign their workplaces to make it accessible, the right to request for FWAs would help to elevate the careers of many of our workers with disabilities, whilst empowering more of the 65.7% of PWDs who are outside of the labour force to kickstart their own careers.

Despite the sheer demand for FWAs among employees and the multitude of benefits that it brings to all workers and, in particular, certain groups of workers, such as parents, caregivers and PWDs, there is no legal imperative for employers to offer them, as compliance with the tripartite standard on FWAs is completely voluntary.

Nevertheless, I understand that work has since started on crafting the Tripartite Guidelines on Flexible Work Arrangements, whereby employers must "fairly and properly" consider employee requests for FWAs when it is launched in 2024. While such a move is certainly welcomed, are there any ramifications for employers if they do not adhere to the guidelines?

Back to the case of my resident which I shared briefly at the start of my speech, she shared that while she was looking for another job that would allow her the flexibility to care for her children, many of the job vacancies she saw required her to be in the office five days a week and she felt that even those that were flexible, expressed concern that she was leaving her prior employer because of family commitments. "I was surprised we were going back to pre-COVID days", she said.

While we should educate and encourage employers to fairly and properly consider employee requests for FWAs, it is incumbent on us, as legislators, to protect our fellow citizens against errant employers, through legislation.

We have adopted moral suasion before. The Tripartite Advisory on Flexible Work Arrangements was published some nine years ago back in 2014, and I quote, "The Tripartite Committee on Work-Life Strategy seeks to promote flexible work arrangements (FWAs) as a progressive employment practice in Singapore". Yet, whether it is called a tripartite advisory or the upcoming tripartite guideline, it was not until COVID-19 did we really see FWAs take off.

There have been many jurisdictions that have since passed legislation governing the right to request for FWAs or provide for a legal framework to support the rights of employees under FWAs. This includes the UK with its Flexible Working Act; Australia with its "Secure Jobs, Better Pay" Act; and, closer to home, the Philippines with its Telecommuting Act and Thailand with its "Work from Home Bill", among others.

Even if, ultimately, the employer decides in a fair and transparent manner that this is simply not possible for various reasons, such circumstances can be addressed through the necessary legislative protections for both employers and, especially, employees.

If it truly is the case where all of us – the Government, legislators, employers and employees – are on the same page, in terms of wanting to enhance the agility of our workforce and strengthen our social and economic resilience as a nation, then let us not shy away from making the right decision on legislating for FWAs for all workers. Before I conclude, Mr Speaker, let me say a few words in Mandarin.

(In Mandarin): Through this Adjournment Motion, I would like to call on the Government to enact legislation to provide for FWAs for all employees and to go beyond the use of general guidelines, announcements and moral admonitions in the implementation process.

During COVID-19, we have had the opportunity to experience FWAs. But I am afraid we are returning to the unhealthy work norm before COVID-19.

In 2021, the proportion of companies offering at least one FWA fell from 90.5% to 71.4% in 2022.

Over the next 12 months, as COVID-19 passes, I believe the proportion of companies offering FWAs will continue to decline.

If we need a reason to legalise FWAs, our fertility rate is the best testimony.

In 2022, our birth rate fell to a new low of 1.04. Moreover, as our population ages, we also need to make it easier for Singaporeans to take care of both their work and families.

FWAs will benefit all employees and employers, especially parents of young children and employees with caregiving responsibilities and PWDs.

If the Government, legislators, employers and employees share the same vision of making our society and economy more resilient and our workforce more nimble, we must face FWAs squarely and make an informed decision to legalise FWAs.

(In English): Mr Speaker, let us take bold and decisive steps to enshrine FWAs in law and send a strong signal to the world that our economy, workplace and workforce are ready for the future economy.

Mr Speaker, I thank Mr Louis Chua for agreeing with the Government and the tripartite partners that FWAs are important for helping employees better manage work and family demands.

Many Members of this House also recognise this and have given useful suggestions over the years on how we could support greater adoption of FWAs, including ex-Member of Parliament Dr Lily Neo and Members of Parliament, Mr Yip Hon Weng, Mr Louis Ng, Dr Wan Rizal, Ms Yeo Wan Ling and many more. And I think some of them were already in Parliament before Mr Louis Chua was here.

For more than a decade, the Labour Movement has also championed for FWAs to better support working caregivers and to help caregivers return to work. In fact, this is one of the recommendations in NTUC's renewed Workers' Compact which was released last week.

Clearly, FWAs are an important issue that many of us are concerned about, as it affects all of us.

During the pandemic, many of us also had to explore alternative ways of working and many more employers and employees have realised that FWAs can bring about benefits, if done sensibly.

Workplace flexibility has become an increasingly important factor influencing employees' decisions on whether to stay in their jobs. In 2022, a survey by Randstad Singapore found that over four in 10 local employees said that they would consider changing their jobs for better flexibility.

Many enlightened employers are thus thinking hard about how they can make FWAs work for their companies, to recruit talent and to retain talent. We are seeing good progress. The proportion of employers offering FWAs on a sustained, regular basis in 2022 was 71%, much higher than 53% in 2019.

To support FWAs, the Government has been working closely with the tripartite partners to introduce various initiatives. As early as 2007, former President Mdm Halimah Yacob, who was then-Deputy Secretary-General of NTUC, chaired the Tripartite Workgroup on Enhancing Employment Choices for Women, which developed some of our earliest measures to support FWAs at the workplace. The importance of FWAs as a progressive employment practice was further elevated in 2017 when the Tripartite Standard on FWAs was launched. The Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) and the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) have also been running monthly workshops to guide employers in implementing FWAs.

While different stakeholders may have different perspectives, we share a common desire to make workplaces more inclusive and help employees achieve better work-life harmony. From various initiatives, such as the Citizens’ Panel on Work-Life Harmony in 2019 and the Alliance for Action on Work-Life Harmony in 2021, we have heard consistent feedback on the importance of building organisational and HR capabilities to support the adoption of FWAs.

The tripartite partners have since broadened our partnerships with more stakeholders with the relevant expertise. For example, we have partnered the Institute of Human Resource Professionals (IHRP) to develop implementation resources, such as a Playbook for Hybrid Workplaces, as well as sector-specific resources. Companies can also tap on the Productivity Solutions Grant to redesign jobs and make FWAs part of the company’s strategy to improve overall productivity.

While we step up efforts to make FWAs more accessible, we need to resist the simplistic tendency to think that all forms of FWAs can be implemented for every job. After all, every worker and every team’s needs differ and the nature of work differs across sectors. Let us take a broader view of FWAs. Apart from work-from-home, FWAs also include options, such as staggered work hours, flexi-shift, part-time work and others.

For FWAs to be sustainable, we also need to consider the impact on individual productivity and team productivity. More international literature on the business impact of FWAs has emerged recently and they have found that the impact of FWAs on productivity differs across sectors and job roles. The key is to make sure that we identify the right forms of FWAs for different job needs and ensure that communication between management and employees, and within teams, remains strong. There is just no one-size-fits-all approach for this.

FWAs, if implemented well, can help companies retain and attract workers amidst a tight labour market. Turning FWAs into something rigid could be detrimental to businesses, and even to workers themselves. We have seen that happen elsewhere, such as in Apple and Amazon in the United States.

We encourage employers to see how FWAs can benefit their businesses as a competitive advantage, facilitate employer-employee communication so that mutually beneficial arrangements can be found and, most importantly, maintain workplace trust.

It is in this spirit that we are introducing the Tripartite Guidelines on FWA Requests in 2024, which will set norms and expectations on how employees can make requests for FWAs and use them responsibly, and how employers can manage requests for FWAs properly and fairly.

The tripartite workgroup will study international practices and consult widely with employers, HR practitioners and employees in the upcoming months as we formulate the Guidelines. The workgroup will also develop recommendations on how to equip employers, HR, line managers and employees with the necessary skills to implement FWAs in an effective and sustainable manner.

We believe this is the right approach to take and will help more workers access the FWAs that they require in a sustained manner. Even for jurisdictions that Members of this House often compare us to, such as the United Kingdom and New Zealand, the objective is not to guarantee that every worker will have FWAs, but rather, to establish a process for employers and employees to shape the right balance of workplace flexibility. And while they have introduced legislation to achieve this objective, it is not yet clear to us that this is the best approach to take.

As an op-ed by SNEF Council Members Dr Bicky Bhangu and Ms Rachel Eng have cautioned, we have to be mindful of the risk of creating a more acrimonious workplace culture, if both parties can easily take their FWA disputes to Court or tribunal, instead of working out mutually suitable arrangements amicably. In the case of the UK, which implemented a right-to-request FWA legislation since 2003, the actual take-up of FWAs did not change significantly in the past decade, with the exception of telecommuting during the pandemic.

Even as we rally tripartite efforts to make FWAs more accessible at the workplace, FWAs, on their own, are not the silver bullet to achieving the larger goal of work-life harmony. It is merely one aspect of a more supportive ecosystem that we seek to build in helping employees manage both their work and family responsibilities. Other initiatives, such as subsidised care services and caregiver support networks, are also important. The Government will work with employers and other community partners to strengthen these.

Each of us also has a role to play in showing understanding and support to our co-workers who may need FWAs so that they can give their best both at work and to their families. At the same time, those who take up FWAs should do so responsibly to maintain trust with employers and fellow co-workers. This will help to create the truly inclusive workplace culture that we all hope to build.

Mr Speaker, we take pride that, in Singapore, employees and employers seek to understand each other’s perspectives and co-create solutions to resolve issues. If we want to help employees have access to FWAs, we need a practical, enabling approach that addresses barriers at each workplace. The Government will continue to work closely with the Tripartite Partners and other stakeholders to make FWAs a win-win for all.

*Question put, and agreed to.*

*Resolved, "That Parliament do now adjourn."*

Adjourned accordingly at 5.38 pm.