leaderopposition

COS 2021: Childcare and Parental Care Leave

Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis: Mr Chairman, while eligible working parents of Singapore citizen children are entitled to six days of paid childcare leave a year, this only applies to children below the age of seven. Parents whose youngest child is between seven and 12 are only eligible for two days of extended childcare leave aContinue reading “COS 2021: Childcare and Parental Care Leave”

COS 2021: Own-account Workers’ Welfare

Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis: Mr Chairman, based on the MOM’s latest 2020 labour statistics, own-account workers, defined as persons who operate their own business or trade without employing any workers – this includes taxi drivers, property agents, tour guides, freelance artists – account for 9.7% of the total workforce, or 228,000 workers, up from 8.8% inContinue reading “COS 2021: Own-account Workers’ Welfare”

COS 2021: Work Passes for Foreigners

Mr Leon Perera (Aljunied): Mr Chairman, in October 2020, I called for a mix of fixed-term and non-fixed term work passes for foreigners, to attract investments in next-generation industries and stave off job displacements. Such a mix could be offered to investors for specific projects, especially in highly desirable future-ready industries where Singapore has competitiveContinue reading “COS 2021: Work Passes for Foreigners”

COS 2021: Job Advertisements for Migrant Workers

Mr Leon Perera: Mr Chairman, migrant workers currently pay hefty agency fees to secure a job in Singapore. In 2019 migrant worker NGO TWC2 found that, for the first-timers, the average agency fee paid, especially for Bangladeshi workers, was $7,606 and the median was $7,750. For repeat workers, the average was $4,733 and the medianContinue reading “COS 2021: Job Advertisements for Migrant Workers”

COS 2021: Calibrating Incentives to MNCs and SMEs

Mr Leon Perera (Aljunied): Mr Chairman, Singapore provides amongst other things tax incentives for MNCs to set up regional headquarters and other investments because they contribute towards our economy. SMEs, which are the backbone of our economy, making up 72% of employment and 44% of added nominal value in 2019, also received support. But theContinue reading “COS 2021: Calibrating Incentives to MNCs and SMEs”

COS 2021: Re-skilling and the Promise of Re-employment

Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim (Sengkang): Chairman, currently, WSG offers a Professional Conversion Programme, or PCP, that seeks to enable mid-career PMETs to undergo skills conversion into new occupations or sectors; as well as SkillsFuture credits for all Singaporeans to prepare themselves for potential career transitions. SkillsFuture and the PCP received a further boost under theContinue reading “COS 2021: Re-skilling and the Promise of Re-employment”

COS 2021: Spending Wisely on National R&D

Assoc Prof Jamus Jerome Lim (Sengkang): Chairman, I wish to declare that I work at a research-oriented Institution of Higher Learning. In 2017, our national expenditure on research and expenditure, as a share of national output, amounted to a low shy of 2%. This amount is actually below the global average of 2.3% and, perhaps, moreContinue reading “COS 2021: Spending Wisely on National R&D”

COS 2021: Progressive Wage Model

Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song (Aljunied): The Progressive Wage Model currently covers three industry sectors – cleaning, security and landscaping. It will cover the lift and escalator maintenance sector by 2022, and there are now discussions to implement PWM in six more sectors. Based on MOM labour force data, apart from the aforementioned sectors, thereContinue reading “COS 2021: Progressive Wage Model”

COS 2021: Helping SMEs Attract Local Talent

Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song (Aljunied): Mr Chairman, I declare that I am a director of a local SME providing technology consulting services. SMEs face many challenges in attracting and retaining local talent. There is sometimes a bias against working for SMEs in favour of MNCs, GLCs or the Civil Service. Many SMEs try theirContinue reading “COS 2021: Helping SMEs Attract Local Talent”

COS 2021: Verifying Qualifications of Pass Holders

Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong (Hougang): Mr Chairman, while the Workers’ Party welcomes the recent tightening of work pass requirements, there remains a need to review other aspects of these requirements. One aspect is the issue of unaccredited certifications, which has been in the news again of late. Holders of certificates from degree mills and unaccreditedContinue reading “COS 2021: Verifying Qualifications of Pass Holders”