Union Leader Suggests Having Quota for E Passes if Measures Still Don’t Work

Do you know that in other countries, unions aren’t remotely affiliated to the Government?

Technically speaking, the unions in Singapore aren’t affiliated as well lah, but we do have MPs ad Ministers as the head of various unions. Take, for example, Ng Chee Meng; before the election, he was the head of NTUC, a labour movement that comprises 59 affiliated trade unions that 5 affiliated trade associations, and he’s also a minister.

After the elections, he continued to be the head of NTUC but ceased to be a minister because Jamus Lim came into the picture.

If you don’t yet know what unions are, just think of them as a “club” that helps workers in that club. For example, if you join the “teaching club”, you should be a teacher and the club should help you should you face any work-related issue, like a sudden retrenchment that’s unfair.

This is why when you read about retrenchments in recent weeks, you’d hear comments by various unions. Some even stepped in before the retrenchment began.

Unlike in other countries, though, the unions in Singapore usually fight for the workers’ rights quietly, and settle any disrupts between the company and the workers without airing their dirty laundry.

Having a minister as the head of the unions would have some benefits, too: he can negotiate for workers during cabinet meetings, and even spoke out for workers in Parliament.

But no worries; even without the head of the unions speaking out for workers, a few of his deputies are still in Parliament, and today, one of them spoke out for Singaporean workers.

Patrick Tay: Do More, Do More, DO MORE!

Lest you’re not aware, the Ministry of Manpower manages manpower in Singapore, but its goals is to ensure that things are done correctly and fairly.

If you want someone to fight for workers’ rights, you’d have to look at NTUC.

No, not that NTUC. This NTUC:

Although its leader has been voted out of Parliament—the first time in 40 years that a labour movement head isn’t from the Government—someone from the labour movement has spoken out to fight for workers’ rights.

Enter Patrick Tay, the one of the Assistant Secretary-Generals of NTUC, and an MP for Pioneer SMC.

Lest you’re not aware, in an organisation, the Secretary-General is the head of the organisation, so Mr Tay is akin to the second-in-command.

Today (31 August 2020), in Parliament, he spoke about what’s on every Singaporean worker’s mind after MOM made the changes to work passes: would it really work for Singaporeans?

After all, employers can still continue to engage foreigners by paying them the minimum salaries and still not provide a fair opportunity for Singaporeans, or even abuse the system by “repackaging” the salary package.

To address that concern, he warned every company in Singapore promised that the unions will closely watch the actions of employers, and urged workers to join a union to protect themselves.

And like what he’s mentioned earlier, he hoped that MOM would release the names of companies that failed to engage Singaporeans first because the “potential loss in reputation would serve as a deterrence.”

Pro tip: don’t mess with this guy.

Laws, Not Guidelines

Mr Tay went even further by suggesting that laws on hiring bias—instead of just guidelines under the Fair Consideration Framework—should be explored.

In other words, a company can be charged in court for discriminatory hiring. He added, “Similarly, fair employment legislation has not stopped the likes of London and New York from being vibrant financial centres.”

Quota & More Measures for E Passes

Lest you’re not aware, there are three types of work passes in Singapore:

The first is work permit; these are for foreign workers from approved source countries working in the construction, manufacturing, marine shipyard, process or services sector. The countries here are pretty limited: they can only be from certain countries like Malaysia, China or Bangladesh, and this depends on your sector. For this, there’s no minimum salary, but there’s a quota.

The second is S Pass, and for this, the foreign workers must be paid a minimum salary of $2,500 from 1 October 2020 and must have at least a diploma. There’s a quota for this, too, but this pass is for all nationalities.

And finally, there’s the Employment Pass, commonly known as E Pass. Some of the workers holding this pass like to hang out in Robertson Quay because these workers must have good academic qualifications and earn at least $4,500 from 1 September (the financial services sector would need to be at least $5,000 from 1 December 2020) For this, there’s no quota at all.

Needless to say, the E Pass is the one that everyone’s talking about since PMETs are losing their jobs.

And Mr Tay said what no one has dared to say: “The disruption brought about by COVID-19 and the resulting economic recession has surfaced ground concerns on the increased competition for jobs and employment.

“I cannot help but wonder if, as a result of unchecked conscious and unconscious bias, there may still be instances of nationality bias in hiring and promotion and in today’s context, retrenchments?

“The reality is, left unchecked, this would exacerbate the glass-ceiling effect and issues relating to job opportunity for our Singaporean PMEs.”

He therefore suggested that other than the higher qualifying salary requirement for the financial services sector, MOM  should also consider raising the minimum salary criteria for the infocomm technology and professional services sectors, since many companies in these sectors have been on the watchlist for discriminatory hiring practices.

He also suggested a quota for E Pass if these measures don’t work. The quota can be of two tiers – one for higher-skilled professionals with significantly bigger salaries, and another for mid-skilled executives whose pay is at the industry’s median salary range.

Reader Bao: Doesn’t that sound like S-Pass and E—

“With this two-tier quota,” Mr Tay said, “companies will still be able to hire foreign talents with specialised skillsets to drive technology-based initiatives.”

Suffice to say, the topic of foreign workers has now been put on overdrive, and people who frequent Robertson Quay should be worried now.

And if you’re a worker, you should also watch this video on the rights that you have (and also subscribe to our YouTube channel for more informative videos, please?):