Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis (Sengkang): Chairman, CPF has been able to maintain its interest rates at 2.5% for Ordinary Accounts and 4% for Special MediSave and Retirement Accounts. The interest helps our CPF members to grow closer to their time and goals, which is to meet or exceed the minimum retirement sum. Now, even thoughContinue reading “COS 2021: Enhancing CPF Returns”
Category Archives: Ministry of Manpower
COS 2021: Flexible Work Arrangements
Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis: In 2019, about 85% of employers offered some form of formal or ad-hoc flexible work arrangement in the workplace. However, flexible work arrangements come in a spectrum and, clearly, the level of flexibility that was in place pre-COVID-19 is dramatically different from what you have seen in 2020 and today, withContinue reading “COS 2021: Flexible Work Arrangements”
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: 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: 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: 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”
COS 2021: Underpayment of Foreign Workers
Mr Pritam Singh (Aljunied): Chairman, the underpayment of foreign workers and Pass holders is not just a travesty against foreign workers; it sabotages Singaporean workers by undercutting their wage competitiveness. Unscrupulous employers take advantage of the significantly imbalanced negotiating position of foreign workers and coerce them to return a portion of their salaries in cash.Continue reading “COS 2021: Underpayment of Foreign Workers”
Office of the Leader of the Opposition 