Hansard, Thursday, 4 June 2020

1 Mr Murali Pillai asked the Minister for Health what are the merits of lifting the circuit breaker measures from 1 June 2020 when the rate of infection amongst migrant workers remains in its hundreds and what steps will be taken to ensure that the infection is contained within their residences.

2 Mr Christopher de Souza asked the Minister for Health what lessons can be learnt from other jurisdictions on how to prevent, minimise or manage a second wave of COVID-19 infections as our economy is opened gradually.

3 Mr Chong Kee Hiong asked the Minister for Health in view of the low COVID-19 infection rates within our community presently, whether the Ministry will consider (i) allowing all workers and employees whose workplaces meet safe distancing criteria to return to their workstations (ii) re-opening all outdoor sports facilities such as stadiums and swimming pools; and (iii) re-opening all retail malls and food and beverage outlets as long as they can meet safe distancing measures.

4 Mr Lim Biow Chuan asked the Minister for Health whether the Ministry can consider allowing food and beverage outlets to operate for business on 2 June 2020 on the condition that they implement safe distancing among the diners and limit the number of diners per table to a reasonable number.

5 Mr Chong Kee Hiong asked the Minister for Health (a) of the countries or cities that have recently started relaxing their lockdown or stay at home measures, which ones are Singapore monitoring closely and modelling ourselves after; and (b) what are the lessons that we are learning from them.

Mr Speaker, may I have your permission to take Question Nos 1 to 5, please.

Yes, please.

Thank you. Members will recall that we implemented the circuit breaker from 7 April, just two months ago. I am sure to some, it feels like two years ago. At that time, the number of COVID-19 cases was rising rapidly, with community cases averaging more than 30 a day, compared to just a handful in early March. This is coupled with an outbreak in the migrant workers' dormitories in early April. The circuit breaker imposed strict safe distancing measures, keeping people at home and only allowing basic essential services to continue. The number of community cases then began to decline and we extended the circuit breaker to 1 June in order to slow the infection further.

We understand the impact that the measures have had on people’s lives and livelihoods. The economy practically came to a standstill. Community activities and social interactions ceased. No one went out except for essentials and work. Stress at home went up. Anxiety of seniors from physical isolation grew. We introduced measures to help Singaporeans cope with the circuit breaker but it was nonetheless a challenging two months.

Overall, the circuit breaker was painful but necessary to slow the transmission in the community. Eventually, the daily number of community cases came down to low single digits towards the end of the circuit breaker. While the number of cases in the dormitories remained high, as pointed out by Mr Murali Pillai, it was partly due to proactive screening as part of our plan to clear the dormitories and prepare the workers to return to work. The situation in the dormitories had come under control. The time had come to begin our journey to resume activities, gradually and cautiously. Let me thank all Singaporeans for your patience and cooperation during the circuit breaker.

However, we must be mindful that there are still infections in dormitories, and there are still undetected cases in the community as evidenced from the unlinked cases we discover from time to time. The global situation has also not fully stabilised. Some countries are seeing a second wave of infection, after reopening their economy and allowing social activities, as pointed out by Mr Christopher de Souza. Therefore, we must remain vigilant even as we exit the circuit breaker.

Mr Chong Kee Hiong and Mr Christopher de Souza asked what we can learn from other countries. The Multi-Ministry Task Force has been monitoring the global situation and learning from the experiences of other jurisdictions, including their strategies for opening the economy and the community.

For example, New Zealand had moved from Alert Level 4, which is their highest alert level, to Level 3 on 28 April, and subsequently transitioned to Level 2 about two weeks later. In making these moves, the authorities took into account factors such as the number of daily cases to ensure the situation is under control, healthcare capacity to ensure the system can cope with potential rise in new cases once the restrictions are relaxed and adequacy of safety measures to prevent transmission.

While the situation differs for different jurisdictions, most have taken a cautious and risk-based approach in lifting restrictions. While workplaces have reopened, many authorities have retained measures to limit social interactions and restrict mixing of households in the early stages of opening, as these are known sources of transmission. Hong Kong, for example, limited social gatherings to eight persons and this has just been extended by two more weeks because of a new cluster. The United Kingdom and Germany limited social gatherings to two persons. Singapore has decided to maintain tight restrictions on social gatherings and household visits in Phase One, except for visits to parents and grandparents. We will allow gatherings of up to five persons in Phase Two initially and possibly relaxing this further if the situation remains under control.

Many countries have also continued with basic preventive measures to reduce the risk of transmission in public places and workplaces and we must do the same. These include safe distancing measures and wearing of masks. Taiwan has made mask-wearing mandatory on public transport and we have done so too. New Zealand allows businesses to operate subject to implementation of measures like maintaining safe separation between patrons, keeping contact tracing registers and regularly disinfecting shared surfaces. Likewise, we require workplace premises that are permitted to open to put in place safe management measures.

Digital solutions have been used in many countries as well, such as Australia, China, Israel and South Korea to support the gradual resumption of activities by enabling faster contact tracing and identification of clusters. Singapore has similarly introduced TraceTogether and SafeEntry.

The last and most important lesson we have learnt from other countries is that we cannot be complacent as there is always the risk of a second wave of the virus. We have seen a steady decline in community cases, to four cases per day in the past week.

But we should be mindful that this is probably the effect of the circuit breaker. We expect to see a rise in new community cases as the activity levels and person-to-person interactions increase after the circuit breaker. The Multi-Ministry Task Force has therefore taken a cautious and graduated approach to ensure safe opening in Phase One.

We have decided to first resume economic activities that do not pose high risk of transmission, such as manufacturing and production operations, and work in office settings which have no or minimal interactions with customers. To keep workers safe, employers are required to put in place safe management measures such as enabling employees to telecommute where possible, avoiding face-to-face contact meetings and ensuring regular disinfection of common touch points and equipment at work premises. At work premises, workers should also avoid social interactions with colleagues, including meal times and break times. One of the areas that has a high risk of transmission is at the pantry area where most workers, while taking a break, are likely to let their guard down. At the same time, they remove their masks in order to enjoy a cup of coffee. So, that area is an area of high risk of transmission and we would like to remind everyone to exercise extra caution when you are at the pantry area and enjoying your break times.

We have also worked with the dormitory operators to strengthen management practices, so that workers can live safely in the dormitories. These include tighter control of entry and exit, measures to limit inter-mixing of residents between blocks and levels, and staggered use of common facilities. Only those workers who have recovered or tested negative will be allowed to leave the dormitories. Even then, it would initially only be for the purpose of work, and with tight arrangements to transport them to and from work. We will also strengthen health surveillance by conducting regular testing of the residents and having them report their health conditions daily. Any residents that test positive and their close contacts will be isolated expeditiously.

While the number of cases we detect among the migrant worker population may remain high for some time, some of them may be past infections and are not active cases.

Schools, student care centres and pre-schools will also reopen progressively, with precautionary measures in place. However, social gatherings are still not allowed, and everyone should only leave home for essential activities and should continue wearing a mask when doing so.

The Multi-Ministry Task Force will closely monitor Phase One. If the community transmission rates remain low and stable, and the dormitory situation continues to be under control, we can move to Phase Two.

In Phase Two, a broader range of activities will resume and we expect most of the economy to be able to reopen. In response to Mr Chong Kee Hiong and Mr Lim Biow Chuan’s questions, retail, food and beverage dine-in services, as well as personal, health and wellness and home-based services will resume in Phase Two, subject to safe management measures being in place. Some may start earlier, others may need a bit more time to put in place the necessary safeguards.

We will also allow small groups to meet up in Phase Two, including dining together, so long as they do not exceed five persons. We will also gradually re-open our borders for Singaporeans to conduct essential activities overseas. We will share more details later, nearer the date.

However, to ensure that we do not undo the efforts of the circuit breaker period, we will continue to adopt a more cautious approach for higher risk activities, such as those involving large numbers of people interacting with one another in enclosed spaces for prolonged periods of time. These include religious services, cultural venues such as arts performances, cinemas, museums and libraries. Nightclubs and bars, karaoke outlets and other public entertainment establishments have similar risk factors. Overseas and local experience has indicated that these settings can seed large clusters of transmission. At least 255 cases were linked to a nightclub cluster in South Korea’s Itaewon entertainment district in early May. In Singapore, the Hero’s Bar cluster is another example. Organisers of these activities and business owners would need to convince relevant agencies that they have robust plans to ensure safety, before we let them open.

If community transmissions remain low and well contained, we will continue to ease measures and even increase the pace until we reach a new COVID-safe normal in Phase Three, which we expect to remain in, until an effective vaccine or treatment is developed.

We understand the anxiety that our people are facing and are acutely aware of the economic and social impact of prolonged closure of various sectors. All of us want to get back to normal as soon as possible, as quickly as possible, and to be able to see our friends and family members whom we have not seen for some time. However, if we resume too many activities too quickly, there is a real risk of a resurgence in the number of COVID-19 cases or clusters, which may require us to re-impose strict measures and slow down the pace of resumption.

As restrictions are eased and more activities resume, it becomes even more critical that each of us exercise strong social responsibility to ensure that community transmission remains low. We need everyone to play their part: wear a mask when outside your home, maintain good personal hygiene and observe safe opening measures. Our combined efforts will help smoothen our journey of safe transition, and together, we can keep Singapore COVID-safe.

Mr Pillai.

Mr Speaker, Sir, I thank the hon Minister for Health for his detailed explanation. I have some supplementary questions. In relation to the proactive checking of the migrant workers that he mentioned, how long will it take to complete the checking of the migrant workers in the dormitories? And if the time it takes is long or goes over to the expected time of start of Phase Two or Phase Three, how would it impact the timelines for Phase Two or Phase Three of the reopening of the economy?

The proactive screening of migrant workers in the dormitories will take some time because we have to do it systematically and carefully. They may take up to August or even September. So, we want to do it systematically. But as we do so, when the workers have been cleared through this process, they will then be able to start work. Therefore, we want to make sure that those who are able start work are safe in the community. And therefore, that will allow us to continue the process of opening our economy and if we are safe and remain safe in Phase One, we will then be able to proceed to Phase Two, hopefully – if all goes well – before the end of the month.

Mr Lim Biow Chuan.

Sir, let me just say that I truly appreciate the efforts of MOH in maintaining the safety of our citizens. But I have spoken to various F&B outlets and basically, they are a bit worried and concern whether they are able to sustain the prolong closure of their businesses. So, some of them say, "If you continue like this, we won't be able to open even when you say go ahead and open", because by then they would be insolvent.

I would like to ask the Minister whether MOH can consider bringing forward some of the relaxation of the measures, just like what we did previously when we segregated seats; you label seats that should be left empty to make sure that people would not congregate. I am not asking for nightclubs and bars to be opened because there is where the crowd is, but for some of the F&B outlets to be able to sit a few of the diners. Perhaps, we can look at the examples of Hong Kong, UK and New Zealand and see whether we are able to relax some of our measures, just like they have done.

I thank the Member. We discussed this at length within the Multi-Ministerial Task Force on how we can open safely. There are a lot of requests from different economic sectors and social sectors. We are fully mindful that any prolonged closure of the businesses will have a severe impact. And today, many of the F&B outlets are allowed to do takeaways so they have some ability to sustain a basic level of business activities. But I know that is not enough because they do want to bring back their customers. And there are also F&B outlets that cannot do delivery and so on; it is not economical for them to do so, and therefore they really do want to bring back customers.

But we need to remember that opening F&B is not just allowing the workers to work. It also means that you must allow the customers to go there and eat and dine in. When you allow that, that means you must allow gatherings. And if you allow gathering in the F&B, you must also allow gatherings outside because then it does not make sense to only allow the gatherings in the F&B. Therefore, it will lead to a general opening of the society, of the community and allow social gatherings of certain number of people. This will be a consideration for Phase Two.

Even in Phase Two, we need to look at what are the settings that we will allow earlier opening. As I have mentioned, some of the dining in will probably be earlier, with some safeguards in place. Some of the venues, for example, even religious organisations, we are in discussions with them, we want to engage them to discuss with them what are the safeguards that can be put in place so that they can also open early. But we also understand that because these involve a large number of people in a congregation, and therefore, additional safeguards have to be put in place.

Similarly, for the F&B, we want to reach out and discuss with them what are the measures that we can put in place to ensure safe distancing and minimise mixing. But because it involves the public, consumers in the community, it has to be aligned with the opening of the community, which is generally in Phase Two.

I know everybody wants to be in Phase One, but I need to explain that Phase One is a safe opening phase, which means that it is likely to be very restrictive and we are not prepared to open it up too early, too quickly because that, in fact, may result in more cases emerging and in turn, will require us to re-impose some of the measures and as a result, may differ and slowdown Phase Two.

So, we prefer to keep Phase One safe so that we can open Phase Two safely, and hopefully faster, rather than to delay further because there are cases that will emerge.

We have seen from other countries' experiences. If we open too quickly, the community is not ready, the businesses are not ready, then you will allow infections to seep in and you have to re-introduce some of the measures and as a result, in fact, you will in turn slow down the opening process.

There is a Chinese saying, "欲速则不达". That means we want to make haste but less speed. It is better for us to take a more cautious approach. We fully understand the challenges faced by businesses. We have measures to put in place and we do all we can to make sure that we do not delay the opening so long as we are able to ensure safety.

6 Mr Seah Kian Peng asked the Minister for Manpower whether the Government will consider a temporary reduction of CPF contributions by both employee and employer till after the economy has recovered from the COVID-19 crisis.

7 Ms Anthea Ong asked the Minister for Manpower (a) what measures are undertaken to ensure fair dismissal practices by employers of work permit holders who have been tested positive for COVID-19 and after the circuit breaker period; (b) what is the course of action for work permit holders who (i) have lost their jobs (ii) have salaries unpaid or (iii) wish to return to their countries of origin; (c) how have measures to safeguard employment and payment of salaries been communicated to (i) work permit holders and (ii) their employers; and (d) whether the Ministry will issue an advisory on (i) employment (ii) salaries (iii) fair dismissal practices and (iv) contract termination for all work permit holders and their employers.

8 Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan asked the Minister for Manpower what is being done to better protect, assist and support workers, especially professionals, managers and executives, who face contract termination, disguised retrenchments and other job severance and managing excess manpower arrangements which affect their livelihood during this COVID-19 period.

9 Mr Saktiandi Supaat asked the Minister for Manpower (a) how common is the practice for employers and recruiters to ask job seekers to declare their last drawn salary or to share previous payslips; (b) whether any study has been made to ascertain how such practices affected employability and salary packages of job applicants; and (c) whether such a practice should be stopped so that applicants can move up the wage scale.

10 Mr Ang Hin Kee asked the Minister for Manpower (a) arising from the COVID-19 situation, what is the employment status of Singaporeans who are currently based overseas; and (b) what are the assistance support available for them if they have lost their jobs and would like to return to Singapore to seek employment

11 Mr Liang Eng Hwa asked the Minister for Manpower (a) what is the latest labour market situation and the extent of contraction in local and foreign employment in the last three months; (b) what is the number of job losses expected in the next one year when the Jobs Support Scheme expires; and (c) what are the initiatives to support new job creations.

12 Mr Liang Eng Hwa asked the Minister for Manpower (a) whether the introduction and implementation timeline of the new SkillsFuture Mid-Career Support Package will be impacted by the COVID-19 crisis and can be expedited; and (b) whether the at-risk mid-career workers can be given more transitional support during this steep economic slowdown.

13 Ms Joan Pereira asked the Minister for Manpower whether there are any plans to support employees who have been given notice by their employers to terminate their contracts but who have not received retrenchment benefits for terminations due to redundancies rather than poor performance.

Mr Speaker, may I have your permission to take Question Nos 6 to 13?

Yes, please.

Mr Liang Eng Hwa asked about our labour market situation in light of the COVID-19 outbreak. For the first quarter of 2020, preliminary estimates showed a slight uptick of our unemployment rate and retrenchments compared to the previous quarter, even though they remained lower than peaks experienced during the SARS outbreak and Global Financial Crisis. Total employment, excluding foreign domestic workers, registered its sharpest quarterly contraction since SARS, due primarily to a significant decline in foreign employment.

To Mr Ang Hin Kee's question, there are about 200,000 Singaporeans living, working or studying abroad at any one time. Our employment surveys do not generally cover these overseas Singaporeans. However, given the global impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, we can imagine that some of them may face job losses. As our citizens, they will always be welcome home. We will also do our best to help all Singaporeans, including those who return, and whether they are fresh graduates or mid-career individuals, all the support systems and services will be extended to them.

The Jobs Support Scheme (JSS) and other schemes under the Unity, Resilience and Solidarity Budgets are helping to cushion the impact on the labour market. As Singapore's GDP is expected to contract by between 4% and 7%, we should be prepared for further job displacements. Uncertainty about the future will also moderate hiring. We are therefore making a big push to open up pathways to jobs, including traineeships and skills upgrading programmes. I will speak more on these measures during the debate on the Fortitude Budget.

Given this backdrop, it is understandable that Mr Seah Kian Peng asks if the Government would consider a temporary reduction of CPF contributions. If the objective is to reduce the cost burden to employers, JSS has done so with fewer drawbacks. For example, those who depend on CPF contributions to meet housing and healthcare needs can continue to do so. Singaporeans' ability to save for retirement is also not eroded. As an added advantage, JSS is able to target stronger support at sectors that are more affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Another avenue of support was offered by the National Wages Council (NWC). Guidelines issued in March suggested that employers can consider reducing non-wage costs and making use of Government support measures such as the SkillsFuture Enterprise Credit to train and upskill workers. The guidelines also advise employers to consider using the Monthly Variable Component (MVC) to adjust wages to save jobs. Such a tripartite approach to managing cost pressures is not easily available in many countries.

Nonetheless, we will continue to monitor and assess the situation, and consider whether other measures, including adjusting CPF contribution rates, may be necessary in future.

In these challenging times, there are also heightened sensitivities about fair treatment. For example, when it comes to recruitment, Mr Saktiandi Supaat is concerned if job seekers have been forced to declare their last drawn salaries during job application. In fact, there is no rule that job seekers must comply, and employers cannot insist on it. We should, however, take a practical approach on whether employers are allowed to ask for such information.

The last drawn salary is a relevant input to employers seeking to gauge a candidate's seniority or to make an appropriate job offer. However, if employers use last drawn salary to screen applicants, they risk losing out on good candidates who are prepared to adjust their salary expectations, especially in today's context. It is similarly unwise for employers to overlook the longer track record of the applicant, and make an offer based solely on the last drawn salary especially if the last-held position was an interim one. If a job seeker chooses to provide salary information, employers should use it carefully.

Mr Patrick Tay and Ms Joan Pereira asked about fair treatment of workers when they are retrenched, terminated, or have their wages reduced.

In this challenging period, we recognise that both workers and employers have to make sacrifices to save jobs wherever possible. Besides the NWC's guidelines on the fair approach to adjusting wages, the tripartite partners have issued advisories on managing excess manpower. We have been clear that retrenchment should be a last resort.

On the question of "disguised retrenchments", there are clear guidelines. Even during the COVID-19 period, whatever the termination of employment is called, an employee is presumed to have been retrenched if the employer cannot show a plan to fill the vacancy any time soon. Let me say that again, even during the COVID-19 outbreak, whatever the termination of employment is called, an employee is presumed to have been retrenched if the employer cannot show a plan to fill the vacancy any time soon.

If the retrenchment benefit is spelt out in the employment contract or collective agreement, the employer has a clear obligation to pay. He cannot side-step it by calling the retrenchment something else. If a company is found to have disguised their retrenchments, MOM can and will consider withdrawing Government support like JSS and suspending their work pass privileges.

However, in today's context, the bigger challenge is not that the employer pretends it is not a retrenchment, but that he does not have the means to fulfil his obligations. The tripartite partners have therefore agreed that in instances of genuine financial difficulty for the employer, retrenchment benefit may be re-negotiated or moderated. The norms may have to be set aside in these abnormal times. Nevertheless, businesses should still give some support to retrenched employees, to the extent that they can afford.

To ensure fair and responsible implementation of tripartite advisories, MOM has required employers to submit notifications of cost-saving measures they intend to undertake. Through these notifications, MOM and TAFEP identify companies for further engagement, for example, if their planned wage cuts appear excessive. Following our intervention, many companies reviewed their cost-saving measures to give more wage support to employees.

Our interventions also reveal that quite often, the worker suspects he has not been fairly treated because of poor communication with his employer. For example, an employee of a private pre-school operator was aggrieved to be asked to clear 13.5 days of her annual leave during the two-month long circuit breaker period. We found that she continued to get full pay even though her work hours were significantly reduced. The employer had also seen a sharp drop in revenue due to school fee refunds and the JSS payout was insufficient to cover employees' full wages during the period. The employer's request was therefore not unreasonable.

Nevertheless, after MOM's engagement, the employer arranged for this employee to work more days and only clear six days of annual leave. The company also took our advice to improve their communications by explaining their cost-saving measures clearly to all staff.

The cases we reviewed show that in the course of saving the business and preserving jobs, workers and employers need to build trust and maintain open communications. The tripartite partners firmly believe in the principle of shared responsibility, and urge both employers and employees to work together during this difficult time.

The general principles of fair treatment apply equally to all our workers, whether local or foreign. Likewise, when companies have to reduce wages in order to save jobs, both local and foreign employees should be considered. In the unfortunate event of retrenchment, it would certainly not be right to expect employers to favour their foreign employees compared to local workers.

The Government cannot also be expected to provide the same degree of fiscal support to employers to retain their foreign employees compared to their local employees, as Ms Anthea Ong seems to advocate. That is not a question of fairness, but reasonableness.

With respect to disputes involving dismissals, salary payment or repatriation home, there are established processes for handling them. It should not matter whether the worker contracted COVID-19 or not. Employers do not dismiss people because they got the flu or dengue, and they should not do so with COVID-19 either.

We have made clear to employers that even if business is disrupted, they must use the levy rebates that the Government has provided to give salary support to their migrant workers. It has also been a long-standing policy that employers have a duty to upkeep their workers until they have been repatriated home. These obligations remain unchanged in this downturn. It is not new to employers and MOM has not seen an increase in the number of such disputes. In any case, migrant workers with issues can raise them to MOM and the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management through the Migrant Worker Ambassadors and the Forward Assurance and Support Team officers that are currently deployed at the dormitories.

We are very mindful that this period can be stressful to all workers and, of course, to our migrant workers as well, particularly those who are living in dormitories. As detailed in my Ministerial Statement at the 4 May 2020 sitting of Parliament, we have made extensive efforts to disseminate information to them, in their native languages. Many Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) have helped with volunteers manning hotlines and providing additional materials. We are very grateful for their partnership.

The National Jobs Council had our first meeting yesterday. Chaired by Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the Council includes veteran business leaders from industries and union leaders. It will focus on identifying and developing jobs, traineeships and skills training opportunities for Singaporeans amidst the COVID-19 situation.

Mr Speaker, we will open up many more pathways to jobs. As pointed out by Senior Minister Tharman, the scale of our attempt goes beyond any past experience. Complementing these efforts must be a renewed emphasis on fair opportunities for Singaporeans. This is no less important, in my view.

At the start of the year, MOM had identified Fairness at Work as our priority. We strengthened the Fair Consideration Framework (FCF) and stiffened penalties for employers with discriminatory practices, whether for age or gender bias or for not giving qualified Singaporeans serious consideration for jobs.

The COVID-19 outbreak has only strengthened our resolve. In these challenging times, it is all the more critical to give our people the assurance of fair recruitment. Even as we work on opening up more pathways to jobs, we will continue to uphold the Fair Consideration Framework as a commitment to our people.

Mr Seah Kian Peng.

I thank the Minister for her very comprehensive reply. Just one supplementary question. I think all businesses appreciate the Job Support Scheme and other reliefs that have been granted to them to help them reduce their cost and, to the extent possible, to save jobs. But the prospect of more job losses and, in fact, the prospect of wage cuts, is becoming more likely and prevalent. So, that is the genesis behind the question which I asked, whether there could be a temporary reduction of employee's and employer's CPF contributions.

While I appreciate and recognise that CPF indeed is a very important part of our overall financial planning, I would like to ask the Minister whether it is possible — I think on the employer side, fair enough, there is already enough support, but for most employees, the fact is that many of them are bringing back less. Every little bit that we could put on the table for them is something which will certainly help them, particularly in the current climate. It is an important part, I know the Minister had said that she will consider this, this is still on the table, but I think we need to do it a bit more proactively, given the looming and the likelihood of more wage cuts coming onstream. I hope the Minister will put this as a high priority item, something to be activated earlier rather than later.

Mr Speaker, I thank Mr Seah for his supplementary question. Let me say that I completely understand where he is coming from. I appreciate also the fact that he himself, in his capacity as a CEO, is responsible for many employees and he would naturally also want to see if there are ways that he can enable them to continue in employment. So, we are very mindful and at this juncture, we cannot preclude any further moves including the possibility of CPF contribution rate cuts in the future.

But I would say also that for CPF rate cuts, while the intention may be temporary in nature, the loss to a person's ability to accumulate savings for retirement is permanent. Once that savings opportunity is foregone, it cannot easily be reclaimed, and it usually takes a very long time to eventually restore whatever rates that have been cut. And, certainly, for the individual, there is very little likelihood that they can make up for what they were not able to grow in their CPF savings.

So, it is a decision that we have to take very carefully and certainly not lightly at all especially in consideration of the fact that our people will continue to live long lives. If we continue to manage our healthcare well, that must still be the upside to having progress in our society.

Therefore, we have to look at the longer term implications of any moves on the CPF front. It may well come to a stage where we have to do something about it. I take Mr Seah's point very well that if we can be proactive than to be reactive to the situation, that is indeed what we are trying to do.

If you think about not just the Unity, Resilient, Solidarity and Fortitude Budget provisions, which is to try and preserve jobs, we are at the same time not taking for granted that people who will become displaced will be able to move back into jobs easily, given the current situation. That is why there is going to be a big push for many more pathways to jobs, which I will say more about later.

Sir, one reason often cited by the employers why they need to hire foreign EPs or S Passes is the lack of specific skills, workers that they need. Now that we are in an excess labour market situation, can I ask the Minister if we should now focus our skills upgrading, our traineeships in sectors and in companies that traditionally hire more EPs and S Passes?

Mr Speaker, the short answer to Mr Liang's question is yes, indeed, we should. In one particular aspect of the SGUnited Jobs and Skills package, we have identified Professional Conversion Programmes as an area of opportunity that could potentially benefit the employer as well as the job seeker. As Mr Liang correctly points out, there have been areas where, for many years, companies have become quite used to filling actually quite good job positions with Employment Pass holders as well as S Pass holders. In the built environment sector, for example, and I am looking at Minister Desmond Lee who is seated right in front of me, he and I have a joint interest, for example, in ensuring that good quality jobs that the built environment sector is creating, such as for building information modelling, these positions can actually be filled by Singaporeans – whether they are graduating from ITE, Polytechnics or even Universities. With appropriate training, they can actually take up these good jobs. What we need to do now is to work with the employers, work with the trade associations, to create the conversion programmes and then to reach out to suitable job applicants and put the match together. I think that is a very positive and the right way to go about trying to help job seekers and, at the same time, benefiting the employers.

I would like to thank the Minister for her comprehensive response to an entire list of questions. I am particularly heartened that she has answered my question on how we are going to better handle disguised retrenchments including situations where companies who are able to pay retrenchment benefits and execute disguised retrenchments will be taken to task if they do not do so. So, I am glad to hear the various executive measures by MOM as well as even withholding JSS will be enforced where needed against errant employers.

But I thought to further emphasise the point on contractual terminations, although the Employment Act does not prescribe the need for employers to give reasons for contractual terminations, whether with or without notice, whether MOM will want to push this agenda to advise and encourage employers to provide reasons for their termination. I think if the reasons are valid and if there is trust and proper communication with the employees, I am sure the employees themselves will understand the rationale and why they execute the contractual termination.

I understand where Mr Patrick Tay is coming from. MOM is mindful that during these times, we have already been issuing many advisories to employers on a whole range of matters. I would be quite careful and circumspect about issuing more. Frankly, employers themselves are under quite considerable pressure and we certainly do not want to enact more rules than is absolutely necessary.

The point really is this: between employers and employees, there should be good communication. In certain instances where both sides are under pressure, this may break down.

Our approach in handling these disputes is, firstly, to try and establish the facts and, secondly, to try and bring both parties to talk to each other. Quite often, that gets the job done; and quite often, it is due to a misunderstanding of each other's intentions, even more so during such times.

Where there is clear evidence of breach of guidelines or laws on the part of the employer, please be assured that we will take action. But, I am quite mindful not to too easily jump to the conclusion that employers are trying to avoid their obligations. In normal times, perhaps there will be a number of such employers. But in these very, very abnormal times, I think the evidence suggests that it is more due to the fact that the employers are also trying but they themselves face a lot of difficulties.

I thank the Minister for the answer. I am glad to hear her mention about the proactive measures that MOM has taken to address fair consideration given the current situation. What I am suggesting in my Parliamentary Question and also in this supplementary question, is about proactive measures beyond, for the post COVID environment. I will give the example of the US congress. It passed the Bill on Paycheck Fairness Act in 2019 to address the issue about indicating salary in job applications. The reason why I am raising this is because I am worried that, for example, fresh graduates in the post COVID environment are wary of taking up first jobs that pay below the median salary for fear that their salaries will always be pegged to it, particularly, those offered by SMEs.

So, it is the post COVID environment that I am concerned about, whether we could be proactive in taking these steps ahead of this situation arising.

The fresh graduates would rather wait it out if they can rely on their parents, leading to months of post-graduation unemployment. My concern is whether some of the salary or payslip practices by employers will actually lead to further negative externalities in the future, thus exacerbating unemployment numbers.

Sir, Speaker, I thank Mr Saktiandi for his questions. As it turned out, my previous job was as a HR director and in that role, I reviewed hundreds, perhaps thousands of job applications, which of course include information of all kinds: name, gender, last drawn pay, where you used to work, what you did in school, Co-curricular Activities (CCAs), what awards you had won, what membership you have.

I think if I can share from a HR practitioner's perspective, the last drawn pay is really one of many things that is considered when we make a job offer. If a HR practitioner or a firm is so short-sighted as to look rigidly at the last drawn pay as an indication of the candidate's worth to the organisation, then my advice to the applicant is look for another employer, this is not a company that you should spend too much time on. And that would also be my suggestion.

WSG, and actually our partners as well, will be more than happy to work with the job seeker to explore other options. Do not spend too much time and waste your energy with these kinds of employers who cannot see beyond one number.

Ms Anthea Ong.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Before I ask the supplementary questions, can I put on record, given what the Minister had said, there was actually no intention and no implication on my part to say that employers treat local workers better than foreign workers. Especially for myself, I am an employer of local employees. So, I do not think it was fair to infer that was my implication from the question that I asked.

I have two supplementary questions for the Minister. She mentioned TADM and we are aware of it; and given that in-person services for TADM and also that the Employment Claims Tribunal are currently suspended due to safe distancing measures, could I ask the Minister how has the Ministry communicated the online process of filing salary and wrongful dismissal claims to work permit holders. And again, if this communication for the online process is also translated into their native languages.

The second question is, there was a advisory dated 25 April 2020 regarding salary and leave arrangements during circuit breaker, where employers of work permit holders are responsible for their maintenance and upkeep. As we exit the circuit breaker, for work permit holders who cannot work due to COVID-19 or the fact that their dormitories are being gazetted as isolation areas, could the Minister please clarify if employers of work permit holders must continue to pay for: one, their salaries; two, their living arrangements; three, their food expenses and also last but not least, miscellaneous expenses.

Mr Speaker, on Ms Ong's second question, the position has been very clear, from the beginning. Wherever it is that the workers are living and including in the dormitories, the employers have primary responsibility. But as Ms Ong will also be aware, in the gazetted dormitories and subsequently in all the purpose-built dormitories, the Government put together staff teams to support the operations at the dormitories. And that had included a provision of food as well. So, that part of it I think, has been clear. Even during this period of the circuit breaker, the employers have responsibility for salary and for upkeep.

Ms Ong mentioned miscellaneous expenses, I am not entirely sure what other miscellaneous expenses they include, but if it has to do with the upkeep of the workers, then the answer is yes. Outside of that, there is no blanket to say that the employers must cover all of the workers' cost. It depends on what those cost items are.

Back to her first question, on whether the online processes are available in native languages, the online application itself may not be, but then it is also not available in Chinese, in Malay or in Tamil. But what is important is that access to those channels is not impeded by language barriers. For that, we work together with our partners – the Migrant Workers' Centre, for example, has got not just staff but also a very large pool of volunteers and these volunteers can include the migrant workers themselves. In fact, most often, they are the migrant workers themselves. When a worker comes to work in Singapore for the first time, they go through a settling-in programme and the migrant workers' ambassadors are also familiar, or at least we continuously reach out through them, to remind workers of which are the avenues that they have to raise their concerns.

Many Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) also establish links with these workers. Minister of State Zaqy Mohamad, engages these NGOs on a very regular basis. We have worked out a system where regardless of where these workers are housed, they are able to provide feedback and raise their concerns with us so that we can address them properly.

If language turns out to be a barrier, we have no shortage of people who are able to come in to intermediate. The process may take a little bit longer, but it can be done.

And finally, I appreciate Ms Ong's clarification on her intent.

Mr Louis Ng.

Thank you, Sir. I have a question for with regard to the declaration of last drawn salary. I understand that California has banned this, I think in January 2018. In a study that was published in April 2020, it showed that this ban led to a reduction in the gender wage gap in in that state. So, could I ask whether MOM has studied the extent to which this declaration of last drawn salary contributes to the gender wage gap here in Singapore?

Not specifically, Mr Speaker. That is my answer to Mr Ng. Although, I think there are many other contributing factors that are more prominent. We have many priorities. We have a lot of things on our plate. Useful studies, we will take a look at them. But it will not be realistic to chase down every study. We have to just be circumspect about which are the avenues that are worth pursuing.

14 Mr Christopher de Souza asked the Minister for Manpower in relation to the strategy to situate workers from dormitories to less densely populated buildings, whether there will be isolation, quarantine and care arrangements in place at the sites which the workers are resituated to.

15 Mr Dennis Tan Lip Fong asked the Minister for Manpower (a) from February 2020 onwards, whether all foreign workers returning from overseas and all other foreign workers who were served with Stay Home Notices (SHNs) were required to stay in quarantine facilities and safely separated from unaffected workers at all times; and (b) whether any of the foreign workers had served out their SHNs, Leave of Absence or Quarantine Orders in their original dormitory rooms.

Mr Speaker, in early February 2020, Singaporeans and work pass holders returning from certain countries were placed on Leave of Absence (LOA). From 19 February, LOA was ceased and replaced with Stay-Home Notices (SHN). The LOA or SHN were precautionary measures meant for persons who were unlikely to be infected by COVID-19 and could therefore be served at their places of residence.

At the time, temperature screening was conducted at our borders and only those without fever or visible signs of ill health were allowed to proceed to their place of residence by dedicated transport. Dormitory operators were required to house their residents under LOA or SHN, together with others on LOA or SHN, in a section of the dormitory that is separate from other residents, or in dedicated rooms.

Since 10 April, the requirements for SHN have been further tightened to protect the community. Given the widespread transmission of COVID-19 in many countries, SHNs must now be served at dedicated facilities.

From the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, Quarantine Orders (QOs) have been issued to isolate individuals who are close contacts of COVID-19 cases. Ground officers appointed by MOH to serve the quarantine orders are empowered to assess the specific conditions of a person's residence and decide where the QO should be served.

Since 29 January 2020, MOM had proactively informed all dormitories licensed under the Foreign Employee Dormitories Act to set aside isolation facilities and conducted inspections to ensure compliance. The first cluster of COVID-19 among migrant workers was detected in early February and involved five workers, only two of whom lived in separate dormitories. Up until late March, no other clusters were detected. As the numbers of infected workers were relatively small, the close contacts of these confirmed cases were directed to serve their QOs at Government Quarantine Facilities (GQFs) or isolation areas within the dormitories.

Following the emergence of large clusters of infection in certain dormitories, movement in and out of such dormitories was restricted to minimise cross-infections in both directions. The Government set up medical posts to provide medical care to the dormitory residents. For dormitories with limited transmission, close contacts of infected workers continue to be sent to GQFs or Community Care Facilities in centralised locations. In dormitories, spaces within the dormitories were reconfigured to house workers suspected or confirmed to be infected, separately from others and this may or may not have been in the workers' original rooms.

To further control the transmission in the dormitories, the Inter-Agency Task Force (ITF) shifted about 32,000 healthy workers from the dormitories to Government-provided temporary accommodation, such as sports halls, vacant HDB blocks, army camps, floating hotels and private apartments slated for redevelopment. There are on-site isolation areas in these temporary accommodations. Residents who need medical care will be sent to regional medical posts, Public Health Preparedness Clinics (PHPCs) or hospitals in the vicinity, depending on their clinical condition. After medical review, if they do not need medical attention, they may be housed in isolation areas on site until recovery. If they are tested, they will be housed in isolation facilities until the test results are known. If they are tested positive for COVID-19, they will be transferred to an appropriate care facility.

In the medium term, the Government will continue to build up more temporary housing accommodations to reduce the density in the existing dormitories. These new dormitories will similarly set aside sufficient sick bays and isolation rooms to facilitate quick isolation of sick or infected cases.

Regardless of where the infected workers are housed, all migrant workers living in dormitories have access to medical care and attention. As of end of May, out of the 30,000 or so migrant workers residing in dormitories confirmed positive for COVID-19, about half have recovered and, of the remaining half, the vast majority are recovering well with only one requiring intensive hospital care.

Mr Zaqy, for record purposes, I take it that you were replying to both questions.

Yes, both questions, Mr Speaker. Thank you.

16 Mr Patrick Tay Teck Guan asked the Minister for Manpower with more work-from-home arrangements, whether the Ministry can provide greater clarity on the treatment of work injury compensation including scope, coverage, insurance and premium when one's home is the workplace.

17 Mr Melvin Yong Yik Chye asked the Minister for Manpower (a) in 2019, how many hand and finger-related injuries occurred at our workplaces; (b) how many of these workplace accidents resulted in amputations; (c) what were the top three causes for such accidents; and (d) whether the number of such work-related amputations has increased over the past 10 years despite sustained workplace safety campaigns.

Mr Speaker, I will take Question Nos 16 and 17 together.

Yes, please.

Work-from-home arrangements do not change an employer’s responsibility for work injury compensation. The key is to ascertain that the injury arose while doing work at home and not while performing non-work activities at home. This is a fact-finding exercise that is no different from all other WICA claims. Work Injury Compensation (WIC) insurance is purchased by employers and will cover employees who were injured out of and in the course of doing work at home.

Moving on to Mr Melvin Yong’s question. In 2019, there were 149 hand and finger major injuries at work, of which 123 cases resulted in amputation. This translates to 3.5 cases of hand and finger amputations per 100,000 workers. While we remain very concerned and are continuing efforts to reduce the injury rate, we are encouraged by the trend of improvements. Compared to 2012, when the incidence of hand and finger amputations was 4.8 per 100,000 workers, the improvement we can see now is about 30%.

The top three causes for such accidents were: first, lack of effective machine guards; second, lack of adequate safe work procedures, such as lock-out-tag-out procedures to prevent machine activation during servicing; and third, failure to follow safe work procedures due to lack of experience, training or disregard for safety.

To bring down the occurrence of hand and finger injuries, the Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Council has stepped up public education to employers and workers on the safe use of machinery. Since 2017, 41,200 workers had attended the two mandatory WSH Basic Industrial Safety training and Health Course for Supervisors, and the Metalworking Safety Orientation Course. The WSH Council has also widened and deepened its engagement efforts to jointly organise the Safe Hands Campaign and sector-specific WSH workshops with the Singapore Metal and Machinery Association, the Singapore Manufacturing Federation and Singapore Furniture Industries Council since 2018. To date, 850 companies have pledged their commitment to Safe Hands. We will continue to engage more companies to come on board.

We are heartened to note that the industry is taking greater ownership to prevent hand and finger injuries. This year, the Singapore Manufacturing Federation spearheaded the first association Safe Hands Campaign. We will keep expanding the coverage of our outreach programmes through the trade associations and unions.

Mr Patrick Tay.

I thank the Minister of State for his response and answer. I have two supplementary questions. Firstly, now that we are seeing a lot of work-from-home arrangements, particularly the circuit breaker, and, moving forward, the whole regime of the Work Injury Compensation Act and insurance premiums and so on, there would be a significant change because when the home becomes a workplace, I think the burden of proof, the level of control by employers will change drastically.

So, I have two supplementary questions. Firstly, in the circuit breaker period during these past two months, were there cases where MOM had received work injury cases as a result of working from home scenarios? Secondly, how is MOM going to determine such workplace injuries, that is, in a work-from-home scenario?

Sir, the way we evaluate WICA claims, whether it is the workplace or at home will be no different. It is necessary to determine if the injury arose out of work and in the course of work for it to be compensable. So, there should be evidence that the accident occurred in the course of work while in the act of performing work at home. So, if the injury occurred while doing non-work activity, for example, on the day when the employee is working at home, the person was cooking, looking after children or doing laundry, then it does not count.

So far, if you look at all past claims, they have been successfully settled without disputes, and there have been no eligible fatal or permanent incapacity claims. We have seen this trend. So, the Member is right that since the circuit breaker started, given the increased prevalence of remote working arrangements, we have been starting to track some of these injuries at home. So far, we have only recorded two work injuries reported since the start of the circuit breaker on 7 April. But both claims are currently being examined. I cannot give too much detail now until the investigations are over. But so far, if you look at the valid claims in the past, they have been mostly minor injuries and no permanent incapacity or fatal cases.

To the Member's other question on the insurance premium, we have taken a look but we have not seen any WIC insurance premium come down or there have not been any changes so far. This has been a recent development.

Mr Speaker, I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I would like to ask the Minister of State if the Return to Work Programme has been effective for injured workers who have suffered hand and finger amputations.

I thank the Member for his question. From October 2017 to December 2019, there were 38 workers who had hand and finger amputations enrolled in the Return to Work Programme. Of these, 34 out of 38, or approximately 90% of cases successfully returned to work.

18 Mr Liang Eng Hwa asked the Minister for Law what is the number of Notifications for Relief applied for since the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act came into effect and what are the numbers for each category.

Mr Speaker, the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act commenced on 20 April 2020. As at 29 May 2020, which is around five weeks since the Act commenced, 3,943 Notifications for Relief (NFRs) have been served using the online system. Parties may also serve the NFRs in hardcopy on the counter-contracting parties. We are unable to track the number of hardcopy NFRs which parties served to the counter-party.

The vast majority of the NFRs served relate to two types of contracts. First, hire-purchase agreements or conditional sale agreements for commercial plant or machinery, or commercial vehicles, as the case may be; and second, for leases or licences for non-residential properties.

The number of NFRs served as at 29 May 2020 for each category of contract is as follows:

Hire-purchase and conditional sale agreements: 2,107

Leases or licences of non-residential properties: 1,254

Events and tourism-related contracts: 250

Construction contracts and supply contracts: 213

Certain secured loans to SMEs: 97

Options to purchase given by housing developers, or sales and purchase agreements between purchasers and housing developers for housing accommodation, which were only added to the scheduled contracts – Members may wish to note – on 13 May 2020. For that, there were 22 NFRs.

We would like to encourage contracting parties as far as possible to be fair and reasonable to each other, considering that the impact of COVID-19 was an event that no one could expect. In doing so, parties should be better able to reach a mutually acceptable solution.

Mr Liang Eng Hwa.

Sir, I thank the Senior Minister of State for his reply and also the Ministry for being proactive in coming up with these very helpful relief measures. Just two quick questions.

Firstly, I am really happy with the number of reliefs being sought. I would like to ask the Senior Minister of State – some of which he mentioned were related to leases – whether further assistance would be rendered to those that are not able to achieve a resolution, for example, referring them to ESG to follow up on other measures that can assist businesses.

Secondly, would the Ministry step up awareness of these relief measures so that more neighbourhood retailers and so on are aware of these reliefs that they can seek?

Sir, I thank Mr Liang for the comments. In terms of the first question, yes, we try as far as possible to find a solution for the parties that come before the assessors, even if the precise scope of the Act might not well relate to or be able to assist the specific problem. To give an example, in some cases we try and make reference to ESG, as the Member has mentioned. In other cases, the assessors try and find a solution between the disputing parties, for example, through referring them to mediation or even, on occasions, the assessors themselves stepping in to find some common ground between the disputing parties and try and bridge the gap where possible.

On the Member's second point, again, a point well taken and we will do that. The Member may know that we have yesterday filed a notice of intention to put in a supplementary to the Bill. This relates to other aspects of the Bill. But no doubt, together with that, we will step up steps to raise consciousness and public awareness and also public education on the operation of both aspects of the (Temporary Measures) Bill.

19 Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng asked the Minister for Social and Family Development (a) whether persons are eligible for the COVID-19 Support Grant (CSG) even if they have not met the required eligibility of three full months of unemployment; and (b) whether ComCare recipients who may be receiving lower financial support will be disqualified from applying for the CSG.

Mr Speaker, I will address Ms Denise Phua’s question on the eligibility criteria for the COVID-19 Support Grant (CSG) in this reply, as well as the question by Mr Liang Eng Hwa1, which was filed for tomorrow.

Sir, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the livelihoods of many Singaporeans, causing job and income loss. CSG was initially designed to support lower to middle income households facing unemployment due to retrenchment or contract termination after 23 January 2020, when the first case of COVID-19 was detected in Singapore. Ms Denise Phua asks whether persons are eligible for CSG if they have not met the required eligibility of three full months of unemployment. Allow me to clarify that for applicants in this group, there is no requirement for them to be unemployed for three months before applying.

Beyond supporting those who are unemployed, MSF has expanded the scheme to help employees who have been placed on involuntary no-pay-leave (NPL) for three or more consecutive months, as well as those who have lost at least 30% of their monthly salary for three or more consecutive months. The "three or more consecutive months" requirement for NPL and income loss scenarios is to ensure that help is channelled to those who have greater needs.

Affected employees need not wait till they are affected for three consecutive months to apply. They are eligible for CSG now if they provide supporting documents, such as a letter from their employer, showing that they will be affected for at least three consecutive months. Individuals who are ineligible for CSG but require further support can apply for ComCare assistance.

Those who are receiving ComCare assistance and who have been further impacted by the pandemic, should be assessed for further assistance under the ComCare scheme and not the CSG. ComCare provides monthly cash assistance to low-income households who need help to cover their daily living expenses, including food and other basic living needs. ComCare also provides assistance with household bills and medical expenses. Based on the families’ needs and circumstances, MSF’s Social Service Offices or SSOs, also facilitate their access to other relevant services and support by government agencies and community partners.

To further assist ComCare beneficiaries, those whose assistance would end between May and July 2020 have had their support automatically extended for a further six months. ComCare beneficiaries are invited to approach the SSOs for a review of their current support if their circumstances have changed, for instance, if they have lost their jobs or faced a reduction in income because of the COVID-19 pandemic. While reviewing their ComCare support, SSOs can also provide them with interim assistance if they have urgent financial needs.

Those who are newly placed on ComCare will receive at least six months of assistance, providing them with a longer runway to regain stability.

The Government will continue to review how we can better support those who have been adversely impacted due to COVID-19.

Ms Denise Phua.

I thank the Minister for his comprehensive response regarding the CSG. Clearly, the Government has covered many grounds to assist citizens and Permanent Residents (PRs) affected by the pandemic. Just one supplementary question. The different schemes are administered by different organisations – for example, ComCare applicantions will be administered by MSF, help for the self-employed persons will be by NTUC and I think the drivers who are affected are supported by MOT. Is there a way by which there is a one-stop clearing house so that a person who is affected will not need to know where to go but they can be directed by the respective personnel who are supporting them, so they know where to go to. I also want to know if MSF then would exercise flexibility. For example, if a self-employed person technically does not meet the eligibility criteria for the Self-employed Person Income Relief Scheme (SIRS) programme, will MSF be flexible enough to at least advise or support them so that they can get help, anyhow.

Sir, when people apply for certain schemes at the SSOs and my officers identify that they are self-employed and would qualify or would potentially qualify, or should apply for SIRS, then they will make the necessary referrals across. I have also seen situations where the team that administers SIRS also refers cases over to the SSOs. Essentially, we need to ensure that agenices who have deep knowledge in the schemes that they administer, to be able to focus on their schemes but also have good awareness about related schemes and programmes that are beneficial to Singaporeans at this time, to be able to make the necessary referrals, link-ups and to also point people in the right direction.

It is also very important to have good communications to make sure that Singaporeans know where to go to, whom to call, what the eligibility criteria of the different schemes are. And that is as much an important exercise in offering assistance, as is the actual administration of the scheme itself.

So, in this regard, especially for those who are more vulnerable, low-income households, MSF, People's Association (PA) and MCCY will be strengthening of our SG Cares community networks where, in phases and stages, we will bring together the community of volunteers and staff to proactively reach out to lower income, more vulnerable households, beginning with those living in rental flats – just to check in on them, find out how they are doing. Because of their situation, they tend to be more vulnerable.

In order to do so, it is not just to offer them assistance within the stable of programmes that MSF or PA or MCCY have, but to be able to understand what their needs are holistically and then, pull in the relevant schemes and programmes from other agencies, and indeed, from the local community as well. Through much better coordination, integration, data-sharing, that will allow us to provide a more seamless, integrated social safety net for those who are very hard hit by the on-going crisis.

20 Mr Lim Biow Chuan asked the Minister for Trade and Industry (a) whether there will be any restrictions imposed on international travellers entering Singapore; and (b) what are the measures to prevent imported COVID-19 cases.

Mr Speaker, Sir, restrictions on short-term travel into Singapore have been in place since 22 March this year to prevent the import of COVID-19 cases from abroad. In line with our phased resumption of activities safely from 2 June after circuit breaker, we will also gradually reopen our borders to safe international travel.

This will initially comprise green lane arrangements with countries that have low numbers of cases and rates of transmission. These countries should have in place effective systems to test and isolate cases, as well as detect and stop any transmission chains.

We will start on a limited scale, focusing on essential travel for businesses to function and for purposes such as maintaining critical infrastructure and providing needed services. As global conditions improve, we will gradually expand such arrangements to include more groups of travellers. Besides pre-departure checks, incoming international travellers will have to comply with safety protocols on arrival. These include testing and the use of devices for contact tracing.

As announced on 3 June, the first green lane arrangement will be launched on 8 June between Singapore and six Chinese provinces or municipalities, namely Chongqing, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Tianjin and Zhejiang. We intend to progressively expand this list to include other Chinese provinces as well as other countries, taking into account public health and safety considerations.

As a key transport and business hub, it is critical for Singapore to re-establish and strengthen our connectivity with the world. We will do so in a safe and calibrated manner, so that we can continue to protect lives and livelihoods.

Mr Lim Biow Chuan.

Sir, I just wanted to ask the Senior Minister of State how we deal with countries where the numbers are low and they seem to have no community spread, and the reason is because they do not do sufficient testing. We understand that there are some countries that do not have enough test kits and they do not do sufficient testing.

The other question I have is that last month, the Minister for Health did say that we are not doing widespread community testing because the yield is very low for asymptomatic testing. To be effective, it needs to be done repeatedly because being tested negative does not reflect immunity and those who had been tested can be infected after the test. So, how do we reconcile that? Even if they are tested okay and they come over, they may still be COVID-positive.

Mr Speaker, I thank Mr Lim Biow Chuan for his questions. We do not just look at one number to decide which countries are safe for us to establish green lane arrangements. It is a holistic assessment of the situation in that country. Various factors have to be taken into account including their testing capacity and how well they have kept infections within the community in that country under control. So, it is a holistic assessment before we decide which are the countries that are safe enough for us to have these green lane arrangements. The other countries are making the same assessment about us. So, it has to be a bilateral, mutual agreement before we can establish such channels.

On Mr Lim's second question, this is why we have more than just one test. For the individual, based on the current arrangements with China, before you travel to China, you would have to take a PCR test within 48 hours of departure. And you must be tested negative to have a SafeTravel pass, which you must show before you are allowed to board the plane. Next, when you arrive in China, there will also be another test done, and pending the results of the test, the individual would have to stay in a pre-identified location. Only when the test is negative, then that person is allowed to resume business activities. The same is true for travellers coming from China into Singapore. There will also be two tests: one test before departure and another test upon arrival.

Other safeguards include not being allowed to roam around on their own, not allowed to take public transport as there would have to be arrangements made by the sponsoring organisation or company. The itinerary of the business traveller would be something that has to be controlled as well.

So, there are additional safeguards on top of a PCR test – multiple layers of checks. The important prerequisite for green lane to be established is that the community cases in both countries must be kept low and under control.

Order. End of Question Time.

[Pursuant to Standing Order No 22(3), Written Answers to Question Nos 22, 24, 26-28, 30-36, 38-40, 43 and 47 on the Order Paper are reproduced in the Appendix. Question Nos 21, 23, 25, 29, 37, 41-42, 44-46, 48-49 have been postponed to the sitting of Parliament on 05 June 2020.]

[(proc text) "to make supplementary provision to meet additional expenditure for the financial year 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021", (proc text)]

[(proc text) recommendation of President signified; presented by the Second Minister for Finance (Ms Indranee Rajah); read the First time; to be read a Second time immediately after the conclusion of proceedings on the Second Supplementary Estimates of Expenditure for FY2020/21, and to be printed. (proc text)]

[(proc text) "to amend the Environmental Public Health Act (Chapter 95 of the 2002 Revised Edition)", (proc text)]

[(proc text) presented by the Senior Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources (Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan) on behalf of the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources; read the First time; to be read a Second time on the next available Sitting of Parliament, and to be printed. (proc text)]

[(proc text) Order read for Resumption of Debate on Question [26 May 2020], (proc text)]

[(proc text) "That the Ministerial Statement made by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance on the Government's Plans in Our Continuing Fight Against COVID-19 Pandemic be considered by Parliament." – [Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance.] (proc text)]

[(proc text) Question again proposed. (proc text)]

Mr Liang Eng Hwa.

Mr Speaker, Sir, I thank the Finance Minister, the Government and the President for this fourth Budget in three months as we continue to navigate in unchartered territory.

Never in our wildest dream would we imagine the House to scrutinise a Budget that project an overall deficit of $74.3 billion, drawing on our past reserves for a total of $52 billion and utilising almost all our current term's reserves. Given the uncertainties that are still ahead of us, a further additional $13 billion is set aside in the Contingencies Fund.

In total, $92.9 billion or almost 20% of our GDP is dedicated to support our people to fight the pandemic.

Sir, the pandemic threatened lives and well-being of Singaporeans and has inflicted severe economic damages to businesses and Singaporeans' livelihoods. The global situation remains uncertain and we have to expect further twists and turns.

Besides taking care of the health of our people, jobs are our next foremost concerns. We know that the human costs would enormous if there are massive job losses. And having a direct bearing on jobs, are business survivability. We must prevent large number of businesses failing as it can lead to permanent damage to our economic capabilities, which will have longer term ramifications on livelihoods.

So, in view of the imperatives to save lives, save jobs and save businesses and to also pivot into seizing new opportunities ahead of us, I support the overall allocation of this fourth Budget.

Sir, the distinct focus in this fourth Budget is to shore up employment. Here, we are talking about both saving current jobs as well as creating new jobs and traineeship opportunities. This would be an uphill task, given the dire global economic circumstance and that the risk of local infections still restrict the normal function of economic activities. Understandably, businesses will take a cautious stance in new hiring. We can also expect some job loses as more companies run into financial difficulties.

The Government responded swiftly and in each of the four Budgets extended timely support and assistances to businesses, in areas of cash flow, credit and cost. The hope is that these relief measures can help buy time for companies and save jobs. And to a very large extent, this has been effective; the situation would have been worst otherwise.

Of course, all these measures also come with a very high fiscal price tag and difficult to sustain in the long run. For example, the Jobs Support Scheme (JSS) itself alone accounts for about $23.5 billion of the entire $92 billion fiscal package. The JSS incentivises companies to hold on to their employees. In return, they received cash subsidies from the Government for up to 75% of most wages. By receiving direct wage support from the Government, it also obliges the company to do their part to hold on their employees which is the clear intent of the JSS.

It is commendable that some companies have come forward to return the JSS back to the Government. Others may use the wage subsidy to hire more manpower, which is also as important as it helps to absorb the excess labour in the market.

We hope those companies that can afford to hire, hire more, be it just marginally. All these add up to keep up the overall employment. Already, we have read news of companies committing to hiring more workers, some done out of corporate social responsibility.

Sir, in this very weak economic environment, we have to watch closely the employment and employability of two groups – the mid-career workers and the first-time young job seekers. We have to do whatever it takes to avoid structural unemployment from creeping up and taking root within our economy. Also, we must avoid a situation of a lost generation in the making, where young graduates are unable to find employment or being underemployed at this young age. Hence, we need a whole-of-eco-system effort to create new jobs and opportunities.

And I am glad that this fourth Budget further introduced a massive $2 billion SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package where the Government commits to a further stretched target of creating about 100,000 opportunities, 40,000 jobs, 25,000 traineeships and 30,000 skills training. The public sector will lead by example by creating 15,000 new openings and the Government will help businesses create another 25,000 with a series support measures including hiring incentives.

Sir, creating jobs is only one side of the equation. The other side is to find workers with the required skills sets that can do the job. Here is where we often run into difficulties, matching jobs to the workers with the required skills, especially for PMETs.

During the Unity Budget debate, I spoke about the inherent friction a mid-career jobseeker has to go through to make mid-career job changes. It is often a strenuous journey that comes with lots of pain points. The jobseekers often have to contend with employers' biasness or specific preferences, whether it is experience, age and others.

The other more complex challenge is a situation where there is no direct match between the jobs that are presently available versus the skills the workers currently have. We would need to train and right-skills the workers so as to match to the jobs that are available or in demand. This is, of course, a timing issue and also whether we have the ability anticipate the specific skillsets that are needed and set up the relevant training ahead of time.

The other hurdle is work experience. Employers naturally want to hire workers with the relevant experience so that the employees can ideally be productive on day one. Not an easy problem to solve but the workaround here is to offer on-the-job training by way of subsidised traineeships and programmes such as Attach-and-Train.

And I am glad the Finance Minister has noted this problem and in the fourth Budget, introduced further support and funding for traineeships and training for both recent graduates and mid-career jobseekers. Of course, this would also require employers to be open-minded about workers with no relevant experience and to take a more enlightened and a bigger picture view in the development of their workforce.

There are now a whole range of new and existing schemes helping workers to enhance employment and employability. There are also a series of initiatives for businesses to help train workers, job redesign, improve productivity and so on.

For all these efforts yield the right outcomes, the stakeholders need to work well together. whether it is their businesses, unions, Government agencies and others and the work cut across different industry, sectors and ITMs. So, this is clearly a complex and daunting undertaking – enter the National Jobs Council.

I cannot think of a better person than Senior Minister Tharman to helm this mammoth task. Senior Miniser Tharman has been instrumental in building up the SkillsFuture movement. He has in-depth knowledge and experience on the economy and the markets and certainly, the strategic wisdom, gravitas and respect to get the system going. So, I am so happy with the choice by the Deputy Prime Minister.

Mr Speaker, Sir, although the pandemic has injected unpleasant shocks to our lives and livelihoods, there are, however, a few silver linings that bode well for us post-COVID.

Safe distancing measures and minimising of physical contacts has changed our way of life and going forward, will change the way we live, work, learn and socialise.

For many years, businesses and governments have been talking about flexi-work arrangements, working from home and BCPs. It has never really gain tractions. Some even said that employers are mostly lip-servicing and the vision can never be realised.

However, COVID-19 has game-changed this in one stroke. Organisations are thrown into the deep end as governments introduced lockdowns and restrict human gathering and movements. Businesses are forced to quickly re-configure their operations and workflows and many have to hastily brush up their BCPs so that most of their employees, including management can work from home and alternate sites.

Digital connectivity becomes the life blood to keep businesses and operations going. And the good news is, offices and operations continue to function despite the tight circuit breaker measures. By and large, companies and employees have adjusted and adapted to the "new normal" of work. In fact, some companies are now looking to retain many of the telecommute arrangements so that a significant number of their employees can continue to work from home even after COVID-19. So, there are now more legs for an even more extensive flexi-work arrangements going forward.

In area of sales and services, those businesses and retailers with online transactional and service capabilities are able to continue doing businesses despite the circuit breaker measures. Those who have yet to adopt digitalisation, now felt more compelled to gear up their capabilities and devise new digital operating models and solutions.

So, this is the perfect timing and opportunity to mount a further home-run push for digitalisation for our small businesses. It is a case of all-stars aligned or in Chinese, they called it, 天时，地理，人和, the right time, right place and the right consensus to push for all out digital transformation.

Indeed, this what the fourth Budget has also set out to do, such as the $300 per month bonus over five months to encourage stallholders in the neigbourhood to adopt e-payments and to avoid cash handling. There is also the enhancing the SMEs Go Digital package to include a $5,000 Digital Resilience Bonus to help businesses with entry level upgrades, such as payroll, e-invoicing, e-payments and other e-commerce solutions.

This digital push should go beyond businesses and into the social spaces like the neighbourhoods, schools, homes and individuals. For digitalisation to be part of our lives, everyone should be digitally enabled so that entire eco-system can realise its full potential and to reap the benefits of scale. Here is a case where we must go down right to the last 5% and get everyone onboard. And I am very glad that MCI is doubling down on these efforts, with the announcement to recruit 1,000 Digital Ambassadors to help seniors and local stallholders be digitally enabled.

In particular, the seniors deserved our utmost attention and our concerted effort. Their quality of life can improve if they are also digitally connected. I salute MCI for setting the ambitious target of reaching out and raising the digital skills of 100,000 seniors by March 2021, in less than one year, through one-on-one efforts.

Recently, I organised e-chit chat with my grassroots seniors' group. We set up a call link and invited the seniors to join the video call. They were initially apprehensive and worried that they cannot handle the e-link up. But come the day of the meeting, I was very pleased to see almost everyone in the call. Of course, many have their children and their grandchildren by their side to help them to connect, to mute and unmute when they speak. The seniors told me they thoroughly enjoyed the session as they have not met each other for quite some time and were very glad to see the happy faces around. They were thrilled that they can speak to each other, see each other at their homes, and even took a group picture. Importantly, it helps them to overcome the mental barrier about technology and it is not as difficult as they previously thought.

Sir, while the Digital Ambassadors can help seniors overcome the mental barrier, I hope that the Government can also help the seniors lower the cost barrier, such as making available an affordable data plan and the subsidy for the necessary hardware. And this is part of the last 5% that I talked about.

Mr Speaker, Singaporeans have been in the lockdown mode for the past two months. It has not been easy for everyone. Many are looking forward to the reopening and exiting the circuit breaker measures in the coming weeks. But we must always bear in mind that the virus is still out there and there is still no vaccine yet to protect ourselves. So, every personal measure that we take to protect ourselves and others must continue.

There may well be new cases as we open up. But I believe that now, we are much better prepared. Of course, thanks to all our frontline warriors and the Multi-Ministry Task Force.

I want to specifically mention those that have worked very hard in the last few months to manage and contain the outbreak at the migrant workers' dormitories. It is a gigantic task to take care of the health and well-being of 400,000 migrant workers – a massive and complex operation that require both scale and speed of response.

While we would rather not have so many cases of infections at the dormitories, the expeditious and extensive response by the Government, which includes MOM, SAF, other stakeholders as well as volunteers to stabilise the outbreak demonstrates the strength, the versatility and the tenacity of Team Singapore.

In a way, there is now certain comfort that we do have the capability and capacity to cope with a steepened infection curve with very low fatality, although we really hope not to be stress-tested again. So, thank you to our frontline colleagues for persevering and battling on, in the most difficult circumstance and for keeping the workers and Singaporeans safe.

Sir, we are facing huge uncertainty ahead of us and not knowing how bad the situation can further develop. It is in this uncertain times and very troubling situation that all the more we need a steady hand to steer the ship and a strong leadership that unite us to overcome and forge forward. I thank the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance for his resolute effort and his decisiveness and steady handling and the leadership to help Singapore through this adversity.

I work in the financial sector and I have seen firsthand how the Deputy Prime Minister, when he was helming MAS during the Global Financial Crisis, calmly steered Singapore out of the Global Financial Crisis and in the process, strengthened our position as the premier financial hub. Hence, I am most reassured that he is now leading the charge with this comprehensive and bold response to overcome the crisis that we are now facing.

Before I end, I would like to ask the Deputy Prime Minister a question. He mentioned about the $16 billion contingency fund. I would like to ask if he can give us an indication of how the $16 billion contingency fund would be used potentially. What is the scope of the usage of the fund? Sir, with that, I support the Fortitude Budget.

Ms Sylvia Lim.

Mr Speaker, this is the Government's fourth Budget in four months. While there is a need to focus on pumping oxygen into the economy, we must squarely face what the crisis has taught us if we are to truly emerge stronger. I would like to focus my speech today on what the COVID-19 virus has shown us about blind spots and the implications for long-term recovery. I will then comment on two specific Government measures.

First, blind spots and recovery. As the COVID-19 situation wears on, we are beginning to understand more about the different impact it has on the various segments of society. In Singapore, we see how the mantra of "stay home and save lives" may actually harm some who are forced to stay home. Homes that are small or overcrowded are unpleasant environments to remain in for most of the day. It was reported that domestic violence cases recorded by the Singapore Police rose by 22% since the circuit breaker measures started while the NGO, AWARE, disclosed that calls about family violence in April this year were more than double those of April last year. As far as work is concerned, we see essential workers outside battling the virus while highly paid persons stay safe at home, being classified "non-essential". Singapore's foreign workers dormitories have become "ground zero" for the battle. And the fight is not over.

Globally, evidence has emerged that women are disproportionately affected by COVID-19. For instance, a United Nations report on 9 April concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic has a "shadow pandemic" exacerbating gender inequality. How so? Domestic violence has spiked in other countries as well. In terms of economic impact, there has been significant employment loss for women, who hold the majority of insecure, informal and lower-paying jobs. The global health workforce is estimated to comprise 67% women, with many women in roles most exposed to the virus. Unpaid work by women has also increased during this period.

Women are disproportionately affected in other ways too. For instance, there is growing evidence that female academics are publishing less than male academics during the COVID-19 lockdowns as they are bearing the brunt of family care responsibilities. This would clearly impact their careers where publications are a key performance indicator. Anecdotally, if one looks at Singapore's home-based learning for students, mothers on the whole appear to be spending much more time with their children than fathers, who may also be at home during this period. With everyone at home all day, foreign domestic workers face overwork and having inadequate rest.

While men appear more prone to succumb to the virus, it is women and girls who pay the social and economic toll. The UN urges governments to ensure that their response to the COVID-19 crisis does not intensify the gender inequality crisis. To that end, one of the UN's key recommendations is to ensure women's equal representation in all COVID-19 response planning and decision-making. In order to build future resilience for the next crisis, there is a need to study gender-aggregated data in all fields from public health to economics to communications.

Besides gender, any agency looking at long-term recovery should include diverse voices. It is especially necessary to include those familiar with segments that bore a disproportionate brunt of the virus. To that end, the Government has put together an Emerging Stronger Task Force consisting of 17 eminent persons. However, the membership of the Task Force has a gender imbalance with only two women out of 17 – a dismal 11%. This may be a missed opportunity, especially when it has been noted that management of the COVID-19 crisis has been particularly successful so far in Taiwan and New Zealand, with women at the helm. In my view, the task force could benefit from having more women, especially women who understand gender issues.

Also, there seems to be a weak representation of multiracial voices as there is no Malay member on the task force. It also does not seem that there is any representation for SMEs as well. With inadequate balance, will the final report and recommendations risk having blind spots that will prevent us from truly emerging stronger as a nation?

Finally, on this point, I hope that the task force will not be shackled by models from the past. The ways of the past may be inadequate or inappropriate today. For instance, is it time to include more stabilisers in the system? If there had been schemes such as redundancy or unemployment insurance, the Government may not need to spend as much as it is doing today to support workers. If, for instance, CPF members have some access to their excess CPF funds even before they reach 55, some would not be facing the cliff-edge today. These are just two examples of what I mean by the task force not being shackled by the models of the past.

Sir, next, I move on to two particular Government schemes which residents have asked me to speak on – the Self-Employed Persons Income Relief Scheme (SIRS) and the Seniors Go Digital movement.

First, SIRS. SIRS was announced in the Resilience Budget, promising nine months of income support to eligible self-employed persons at $1,000 per month. While it was an auto-inclusion scheme, it was announced that NTUC would be helping the Government administer appeals from those who were not auto-included. Since then, as SIRS has been rolled out, we were told that more than 60,000 appeals had been received. Questions from the ground have now emerged about the purpose and fairness of the scheme.

As pointed out by my colleague Dennis Tan during the Resilience Budget debate, one issue is what the annual value of the property one lives in has got to do with whether the person has suffered serious income disruption. It is all the more so for those who do not own the properties they live in. To illustrate, I have several residents who are disqualified from SIRS due to this criterion because they are living in their parents' homes. Others are renting. Some of their incomes have dropped to zero as they are service providers for weddings and other events, and will likely not be able to resume their work for months. Others include freelance music teachers who are unable to conduct physical classes even on a one-to-one basis.

On the other hand, SIRS is an auto-inclusion scheme that does not require the self-employed person to show income loss. The design of SIRS has thus also resulted in full SIRS payments being made to self-employed persons whose incomes are unaffected by COVID-19.

For those who appealed for SIRS, NTUC has partially allowed some appeals. In some cases, appeals resulted in payment of a reduced amount, at $800 per month instead of $1,000 per month. Others have been rejected outright. Suffice to say, these disparate outcomes have caused frustration and feelings of arbitrariness and unfairness. Questions asked include: how does NTUC decide? What are the criteria for allowing or rejecting appeals?

Speaker, SIRS involves public funds – to be exact, SIRS involves the use of past reserves. Who should be in charge of the scheme? The Government has stated that MOM oversees the scheme but NTUC helps administer appeals for those who do not automatically qualify. From the cases we have seen, it is NTUC that is fronting all communications in appeals while the role of MOM is not visible.

From a governance perspective, why was there a need to outsource the administration of SIRS appeals to NTUC in the first place? Was this done due to a lack of manpower or other reasons? Will this set a precedent for the Government to outsource its schemes to external parties to manage? What does this mean for Government accountability?

Finally, Sir, I move on to the Seniors Go Digital movement. It was announced in the Fortitude Budget that the Infocomm Media Authority (IMDA) would launch a Seniors Go Digital movement to support seniors to adopt digital channels and hone digital skills. It was highlighted that the inability to connect digitally during the circuit breaker would lead to isolation, which could affect health.

For some years now, well before COVID-19 emerged, the push for a Smart Nation had seen huge efficiencies but also costs. Everyone was channeled towards more and more digital modes of transacting with the Government, whether it be the CPF Board, LTA, or the Traffic Police. As systems got more sophisticated, citizens were required not only to log in but also to receive one-time passwords or use tokens for added security. The now default mode of needing SingPass to transact has alienated those who either cannot afford the necessary devices, who do not have the required language skills or who simply cannot wrap their heads around IT environments.

To illustrate, I visited a CPF branch office some weeks ago. I observed the typical scenario of an elderly person with his daughter. She told him in Mandarin, "爸爸，我们现在去楼上拿SingPass", meaning they had to go to another section to arrange for SingPass. The elderly man looked totally helpless as he quietly obeyed his daughter's instructions. In this case, the man is fortunate to have a caring daughter to help him navigate an unfamiliar frontier. But what about those who do not have anyone to rely on? Or worse, those who place their trust in the wrong people and become victims of crime? Has technology, instead of empowering them, disempowered them instead?

Sir, a resident wrote to me recently about SingPass difficulties for the elderly. He described the struggles of those who were illiterate or did not have a mobile phone or computer. For persons with no income, maintaining a mobile phone subscription is a financial outlay. Furthermore, even if family members were willing to assist, each SingPass could only be tied to one phone number. This is understandable for security reasons but it also means that children could not use their phone lines to transact for their elderly parents, thus requiring more purchases of items simply to transact with the Government.

To avoid being misunderstood, let me say that the Seniors Go Digital movement is well-intentioned and I support it. However, I hope it will not be approached from the perspective that seniors are somehow "falling behind" and need to "catch up", which would stress them even further. How will the Government initiatives adapt or customise digital solutions, to design them to be friendly to those who cannot see or hear well, or whose command of English is not strong? Will seniors have low-cost options that are basic in nature? Finally, I believe we all know of some seniors who simply do not wish to transact digitally for one reason or another. Can we not simply respect their choice in their old age and always have an option for counter service?

Sir, let me conclude. Currently, we are preoccupied, almost bogged down, by the health and economic fall-out of the virus. Nevertheless, it is necessary to look to building for the future, and to that end, we need to learn from the blind spots that the virus has uncovered, with humility and grace. Let us not waste this opportunity to amplify the voices of those most affected by the pandemic, in our search for a sustainable recovery. May we emerge stronger.

Mr Speaker, I want to start by thanking everyone for doing your part to contain the transmission of COVID-19 as this has enabled us to start the easing of circuit breaker this week.

With the easing of circuit breaker measures, some of us are returning to work and school. But we are certainly not going back to the way things used to be pre-circuit breaker, as COVID-19 is still not behind us. In the last two months, the priority was to keep everyone safe and ensure that we are able to take care of those who did fall ill.

The need to minimise the risk of transmission and safe distancing has changed the way we work, live and even socialise. Businesses have not been able to operate as usual with some completely not able to operate at all. This has affected jobs. Many have not had work as business operations slowed or had to stop during the circuit breaker and others had to take lower pay due to the drop in business demand, while others had to be redeployed and some have lost their jobs.

The various measures with the Unity, Resilience and Solidarity Budgets have been focused on supporting businesses with operating and wage costs with the objective to protect jobs.

The phrase that thes are “unprecedented times” has been used often these last few months. Indeed, what we are facing is not something any of us could have imagined. Everyone of us, young and old have had to make painful adjustments. While we understand the need for these adjustments to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe, they have been tough and for many, jobs and livelihoods have been impacted. While still low, unemployment has risen to 3.3% and the economic impact is not trivial with the latest revised GDP for Singapore forecasted to be between -7% and -4%. Many are concerned about the future.

While the $33 billion Fortitude Budget extends more help to support individuals and households in the fight against COVID-19, the emphasis of the Fortitude Budget is on measures to enable our people and businesses to get ready for what lies ahead and to save and create jobs.

There is much in the Fortitude Budget – I will be touching on two points which is jobs and digitalisation.

Businesses large and small, across all industries have been impacted with demand and supply disruptions. This has had a direct impact on jobs and the very nature of how work is done. Anxiety over employment is felt not just by those whose jobs or incomes have been impacted but even for those who are in employment. There is a fear of further job losses as some businesses have had to close especially in sectors like F&B, retail, hospitality and tourism-related industries. While some jobs will go away, I do hope that we do not lose heart because new jobs will be created. But new skills will also be needed.

The $2 billion SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package with 40,000 jobs, 25,000 traineeships and 30,000 training places and hiring incentives is much needed and will provide quality jobs and programmes for those seeking employment. With the current economic conditions, the traineeship schemes will help new graduates entering the workforce find opportunities in emerging and growing sectors and this will allow them to gain valuable industry experience.

I am glad that the Budget has given specific attention to providing traineeship opportunities for mid-career workers who have lost their jobs as we all recognise this group of workers find it even tougher, not just in COVID times but even in ordinary times, they find it tougher and they take longer to be able to find employment after they lose their jobs.

What is key is connecting these mid-career workers who have lost their jobs with the opportunities. I hope that Deputy Prime Minister can share more on how mid-career workers can access these opportunities. While the jobs are there, there is lots of information and we need to ensure that the people who need these jobs are well-connected.

While having jobs and opportunities is critical, we must also pay attention to how work is done as the nature of work has changed, given the COVID situation. For example, the circuit breaker measures have required more companies to adopt telecommuting and although the jury is out, we can expect more jobs to adopt flexible work arrangements as a norm rather than an option even after circuit breaker.

This will mean that as we prepare workers for new opportunities, beyond just upgrading skills, attention needs to be given in terms of how to adopt new ways of working and being productive working remotely. For some, their first day of work and meeting their new bosses and colleagues will be virtually. Effectively communicating and collaborating will require skills for one to be effective in their jobs and to be successful. Even how performance is being measured needs to be taken into consideration.

I do want to highlight an area that I think needs attention. With businesses resuming operations there will be also adjustments for safe distancing measures as well as dealing with the challenges of demand, supply and in some cases manpower disruptions.

Attention needs to be paid to working conditions including work hours and workplace arrangements. Especially for essential services and front-line services, manpower supply may not have fully resumed leading to constraint on manpower. This could lead workers to have to take on longer working hours. With requirements for safe distancing measures, businesses must pay attention to also things that ordinarily they would not have to which is even providing places for their workers to have a meal properly in their short break times. This was not something that employers needed to pay attention to but all this, may be difficult for some companies and the workers' welfare may be compromised.

In the recent Straits Times report on a survey conducted by Engagerocket, 90% of the respondents indicated that they wished to continue working from home in some capacity even after the circuit breaker ends. But despite this willingness, more than half indicated their productivity had dropped and was lower. The reasons cited, of course, were practical ones that included unable to access resources as well as having family members in the house and having to share resources and space constraints. One of the factors that was highlighted was also longer working hours. I think attention needs to be paid also to the nature of work and how work is being done because the work environment now is not just in the work place but it is also virtually.

Let me now touch on digitalisation. In the last two months, COVID-19 and the circuit breaker measures have accelerated digitalisation faster than one could ever imagine. There has been a lot of push back of all the areas of digitalisation, both by users, by organisations in terms of policies. But individuals and businesses have had to leverage digital platforms to continue to be able to access services, connect and continue operations. And this has created new habits and new ways of doing things. Painful as some of it may have been, I think many have seen the benefits. And so it is a real plus point that digitalisation this COVID-19 has enabled some people and organisations to get past that barrier.

An important priority of the Fortitude Budget is digital inclusion with attention on students from lower income families, seniors and the smaller businesses and hawkers. I think this is so important to ensure that no one is left behind and more importantly to be able to meaningfully engage and connect to the services and the opportunities.

While funding and support is required to go digital, digitalisation has to be more than just about technology. Going digital is also more than just mirroring traditional ways of doing things. It is an opportunity to reimagine, improve improve and redesign how we do things and enable more to be done. So, let us not waste this opportunity and ensure that this benefit of doing things differently and doing things better through digitalisation is realised for every segment of the population.

Digitalisation, as I have mentioned, entails new behaviours whether for individuals, families, businesses large or small, as we have witnessed. So, it is indeed a brilliant move and I really must say that it is indeed a brilliant move and a commitment to invest in the Senior Go Digital Movement to support digital adoption for seniors. It is not just about teaching seniors digital skills. It is about enabling them to connect, enabling them to stay engaged and all the other groups to be able to do the same thing. I really am very happy and very supportive of this programme because, as we all know, while devices are important, funds are important, to drive change you need support, you need engagement and having that with a thousand Digital Ambassadors doing that will make that big difference and will help us get past this, and allow our seniors as well as our hawkers to really fully come on board and be digitalised.

While the funding from the Fortitude Budget is needed and welcomed, we have to also recognise that it cannot go on indefinitely. We are fortunate with prudent management that our Government has built up on our reserves and we did not have to borrow to fund such a significant support package.

How and when we beat COVID-19 is not certain. But I do not think it has to necessarily be only when a vaccine is found. During these last few months, we have witnessed many examples of the Singapore spirit, generosity as well as our resilience. I believe that all of us working together as SGUnited will allow us to overcome this crisis and emerge stronger. The Government must provide the leadership, the right programmes and the right policies to build for our future. Our businesses must rebuild, recover and invest to stay relevant. Our people will need to stay positive because it is tough, what everyone is going through is tough, but we must stay positive and work together to overcome current challenges and continue to reskill and be ready for the future. I support the Fortitude Budget.

Minister Ng Chee Meng.

Mr Speaker, we have eased out of the circuit breaker. We have stabilised the COVID spread in our community, but we still have much to do to overcome significant economic challenges. Many companies are at breaking point and many workers are struggling to cope.

I support the Fortitude Budget, as I have the previous three, because it will keep companies afloat and it will keep Singaporeans in their jobs. Without these Budgets, many more companies would fold and many more workers would be retrenched. And frankly, we would all be in deeper dire straits.

Even with the $100 billion total Budget, we need to be realistic. This money certainly helps but it cannot replace the economic activities to sustain our livelihoods. We must therefore brace ourselves for tougher times: wage cuts and inevitable job losses.

Indeed, union leaders and workers know that. But they do tell me that they have conflicting concerns: one, is of course on their jobs and their job security but the other is how can they be safe when they go back to work? I can sense their anxieties even across the cyber domain when I chat with them on the different media.

So, what can we do? There are three things we can and must do to protect our jobs and keep our workers safe.

One, keep the economy open, help the economy re-open and, importantly, keep our economy open by diligently practising safe management measures on the ground. This is the most obvious and the most important thing to do for protecting workers' lives and for opening up the lifeline towards livelihoods.

Two, while we get our economy back into shape, we need to preserve jobs. We need to create jobs, temporary ones even; and match workers to these new jobs when old jobs are lost. Make sure that at-risk groups are taken care of. This is the immediate track of things that we must do.

Three, we must make use of the current crisis to push economic transformation. Ironically, as Mr Liang Eng Hwa has mentioned, COVID-19 has sped up disruption and moved us towards Industry 4.0 in double quick time. Businesses are on a burning platform – it is now "adopt new business models, new technologies" or die. Workers have taken to digital technology to do their work, order their food and even to keep in touch with family at a faster rate that what was previously not possible. We must use this transformative track to redesign jobs and create new, Industry 4.0, jobs so that workers, with the appropriate training, can take up these new jobs.

Mr Speaker, the Government has a good guiding strategy to safeguard lives and livelihoods. We have stabilised the community infection and safeguarded lives. We are now restarting the economy with $100 billion worth of financial muscle on the table. The key now, really is to implement this strategy well. It is not sufficient for us to simply know what to do, but to do it well. Doing so is not only the Government's responsibility alone. Every business owner and every worker has a shared responsibility and an important role to play.

NTUC, too, will also play our part.

Ms Slyvia Lim spoke about the Self-Employed Persons Income Relief Scheme (SIRS) that NTUC helps to administer. But, maybe she does not quite remember the history of why we stepped into SIRS in the first place. Back in January, February, when COVID-19 started to hit. NTUC, with our National Taxi Association noticed that taxi drivers' incomes were dropping like a rock. I remember going to Newton Circle hawker centre with Minister Khaw to talk to taxi drivers, because their incomes were impacted, at that time, by already 50% or more.

We set up a quick reaction small group and put up $77 million to help our drivers cope with the initial hit of COVID-19.

So, why is NTUC in this space? Simply because, we care. Why are we in this space? Because we have some capabilities to augment the Government in extending this help to taxi drivers or freelancers as quickly as possible. Well, are there things that we can do better? I think, in time to come when we can settle the immediate issues that we have to deal with with COVID-19 and the transformative things NTUC is embarking on, I will humbly say that, "Yes, we will look at areas where we can do better".

But, as it stands now, NTUC has extended a care fund to help all workers and likewise, we would like to do our part to help freelancers or self-employed persons deal with the current situation as well. We have put up a Self-Employed Person (SEP) training fund, besides SIRS, to help as SEPs and freelancers upgrade themselves and get into some training in dealing with COVID-19.

We think that this is important. In the course of the three Budgets, NTUC provided feedback to the Government that these are needed things to do. And I recall, it was a late evening, when MOF called me up and I went to the Treasury Building and was told of the request of the Government to administer SIRS. I gladly informed MOF that NTUC will take up this role – not because we want to be at the centre of things, but because we thought we had the capability to do our part as a tripartite partner.

If we look at the National Jobs Council that is set up, should NTUC not be in it? Should the Singapore Business Federation, the Singapore National Employers' Federation not be in it? If all of us are not together in this fight against COVID-19 as a team, then I think we would have lost a capability unique to Singapore. Yes, the Government has put up the $100 billion Budget, but I think there is space for business owners, NTUC and the workers to play a part.

Tripartism is a strength. We should ride on this strength to execute this strategy that I mentioned, well and to the extent possible remain adaptive and learn lessons along the way.

I am humble enough to say that NTUC could have done better in some of the SIRS things that we have done. But let us draw those lessons when the time comes. Immediately, now, we want to extend assistance to as many as possible.

So, NTUC, as I have said, will do our part. As the economy reopens, workplaces must adapt and change to prevent new infections so that importantly, businesses can continue to stay open under Phase One or in the future, Phase Two conditions. To date, we had played another part to lead in terms of training over 1,800 union leaders, our management partners and staff on Safe Management Measures so that we can partner employers in companies to implement Safe Management Measures to keep workers safe and importantly, to keep businesses open. If we aggregate over the whole world economy, hopefully we can keep infection rates low and manageable, so that Singaporeans can resume some form of normalcy, some form of new economic life. This is critical to protecting lives and importantly, as COVID-19 drags on, to protecting livelihoods.

With this ability to ensure the health of workers, then we can work towards jobs preservation. The Government's Job Support Scheme (JSS) has helped many businesses manage part of the wage cost. As the Secretary-General, I thank the Government for responding to NTUC's feedback to expand JSS in more severely impacted industries. Many leaders, across different sectors, told me that without JSS, they really would not be able to keep workers on the payroll, even if workers were willing to do their part to help cut costs to save jobs.

Besides JSS, NTUC is also helping businesses access other tools to keep business costs as manageable as possible. These tools are actually already on the table but are often less well-known and utilised. In the hotel industry where the impact is very serious, the Food, Drinks and Allied Workers Union worked with Shangri-La's Rasa Sentosa Resort & Spa to send workers for training under the Enhanced Training Support Package.

A staff, Ms Pohleena, previously worked in the back-of-house in service performance management. But during this challenging period, she was needed in a front-facing role to take care of Stay-Home Notice guests. For this role, Ms Pohleena went for training at NTUC LearningHub, topped up on her people skills such as communications, so that she can do her new role. Ms Pohleena remained employed, increased her hospitality skill set and upped her value to her employer as a worker. The hotel also benefited – not only in having a more skilled worker but enjoyed absentee payroll support as well.

We also see companies elsewhere benefit. Singapore Aero Engine Services was very proactive in working with the Singapore Industrial & Services Employees' Union early on to make use of the training support. Aerospace by then was already impacted and they could foresee the further impact of COVID-19 on the industry, so they sent their workers for training. Mr Sahim Bin Anwar is one of the Technicians who was sent for digital training with NTUC LearningHub. Mr Sahim's digital knowledge has improved and this helps the company take one more step towards Industry 4.0.

In May alone, NTUC LearningHub helped more than 500 companies who sent their workers for over 20,000 days' worth of training, these companies received up to $80 a day in absentee payroll for each worker they sent. This support adds up. If you do the mathematics, it will add up to about $1.6 million in terms of absentee payroll support for these companies.

This is a win-win situation for both workers and companies. Ultimately, workers get to stay in their jobs, preserve their jobs and companies get help with the payroll and have better skilled workers on hand, poised for the eventual upturn.

Mr Speaker, in spite of all these efforts, unfortunately, there will be job losses. In the last three to four months, NTUC Job Security Council has been working hard to match at-risk and displaced workers into available jobs. At the earlier stages, we moved quickly to partner badly hit aviation companies to match workers to new jobs – some into community work, some into healthcare and some even into our own NTUC FairPrice Group – without the workers having to go through retrenchment anxieties.

So far, NTUC's Job Security Council has been able to match more than 10,000 workers, both rank-and-file and PMEs, into new jobs – easing workers' anxiety and most importantly, helping them earn a wage to sustain livelihood.

Ms Gina Ng is one beneficiary of the Job Security Council. She is a Senior Admin Assistant, working at Fairmont Singapore & Swissotel The Stamford for many years. But due to COVID-19, hotel work was drying up. The threat of losing her job was real. Our union and the Job Security Council worked with the hotel and found her an immediate match to an organisation that was employing. Gina was job-matched on a three-month secondment to NTUC FairPrice. She is now in the middle of her redeployment, gainfully employed while keeping her salary and job title in the hotel.

As we facilitate job matching, workers must also be willing to adapt and acquire new skills too. Before Gina was redeployed, she went for training in food hygiene and preparation which brought relevant skill sets and value to NTUC FairPrice. While the initial transition was challenging, Gina understood the need to be nimble and was willing to do her part to reskill and upskill. Gina is 59 years old. I am happy she has the ability and the agility to adopt a new mindset, adapt to new circumstances and importantly took action to acquire new skills so that she can stay in the workforce.

I spoke to Gina when writing my speech last night. I asked her if she had anything to tell fellow Singaporeans. She said with an audible chirp in her voice, "Stay positive, never give up! I am learning new things in NTUC. We are in this together. We will overcome." Gina will return to the hotel at the end of her secondment on 13 July, keeping her job, getting a secondment out, staying in the workforce.

But we, in NTUC, also understand the looming challenges ahead and are realistic that there is much more to do to help workers. This is why I fully support the Government's move to set up the National Jobs Council. The Council will have very important work to drive tripartite efforts to help Singaporeans.

Foremost, the Government and employers' role to create 40,000 jobs is critical, not easy. And where companies are not able to do so, the 25,000 SGUnited Traineeships programme will be helpful to expose both new graduates and mid-career PMEs to the new workplace, gain useful experience and be ready when the economy recovers.

The 30,000 training spaces under the SGUnited Skills Programme will be helpful to top up skills for workers looking for jobs. It is also useful for companies to co-design the training to support business restructuring and redevelopment for Industry 4.0 so that they can be poised for new and more productive Industry 4.0 ways of doing things. NTUC, as I had said, will fully support the National Jobs Council. So, for those workers that are at-risk or those workers seeking a job, there is practical help for you.

Besides the immediate task of securing jobs to protect workers, NTUC will continue to partner companies that have the capacity and vision to seize opportunities emerging from the COVID-19. Even before COVID-19 hit us, our economy was already embarking on industry transformation brought about by technological disruption. COVID-19 has accelerated this disruption and it is clear that those who started transformation early, in fact, are coping better with the COVID-19 challenges today.

"Transformation" is not just a buzzword. And, in fact, COVID-19 has made it even more apparent, more plain that businesses will need to work towards digitalisation and Industry 4.0 practices more urgently. This will help them position themselves and their workers for new opportunities post-COVID.

NTUC has been working closely with Temasek companies, amongst some 350-plus companies, to push the Company Training Committees, or CTCs, to move businesses and prepare workers for Industry 4.

0. I want to thank Temasek for this support over the last two years.

NTUC will redouble our efforts to partner companies through the CTC platform, to embark on Operations and Technology Roadmapping, or OTR, to transform. This will not only help companies chart a course to recovery from COVID-19, it will, importantly, help them identify new growth areas for business, exploit new technologies and create new jobs, better jobs, more productive jobs, even starting now.

This is an involved process but companies such as Energizer, amongst quite a few, show how the benefits of the OTR can translate on the ground.

Energizer is bringing in advanced, better technologies for its line machines to increase the precision and the quality of their products. These machines need better skilled operators who are familiar with the new system overall. Energizer and the United Workers of Electronics & Electrical Industries worked with one of our Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) to curate a specific training programme for their Operators to upskill in this technology and work with these new machines. These steps helped sustain the Energizer business and, importanly, keep workers gainfully employed in the short term. But in the transformative track, this will put Energizer on a trajectory ready for Industry 4.0 and for our workers to have more productive jobs, better work prospects emerging from COVID-19.

Ultimately, we in NTUC want to take the best care of our workers, whether they are freelancers or unionised workers, and the best way to do so is for the companies to have better business or economy to be able to generate growth, and for workers to have the necessary training and skills to access these jobs. So, it is not just for the immediate things that NTUC is busy with; even as we are helping workers cope with COVID-19, we are casting our vision further ahead and doing practical things to help companies transform to benefit workers now and in the future. Mr Speaker, in Mandarin, please.

(In Mandarin): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.] I announced in February this year that we are setting up the NTUC Job Security Council to match workers, who are at-risk of losing jobs, to companies that are hiring. We had over 4,000 companies on board the Job Security Council then.

Over the past four months, the number of companies in the Job Security Council has increased to over 7,000. More importantly, we have successfully matched 10,000 workers to new jobs. Companies in the Job Security Council are still hiring, from sectors such as the Healthcare, Transport and Logistics, Built Environment, as well as Electronics and Transport Engineering. We are redoubling our efforts to help these companies find new employees; and more importantly, match our workers to these companies and earn an income.

The National Jobs Council, with Senior Minister Tharman as Chairman and Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat as Advisor, held its first meeting yesterday to discuss how we will help Singaporeans benefit from the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package.

I am happy that NTUC is a close partner of the National Jobs Council in providing employment-related assistance to our people. NTUC will help all workers, whether you are a fresh graduate or mid-career professional, to take advantage of these nearly 100,000 jobs and training opportunities so that you will not only earn an income but gain from training and work experiences.

The Chinese word "危机" (for "crisis") consists both "danger" ("危") and "opportunity" ("机"). The most important thing is that we must remain positive and be nimble. I believe that if we stay united, we will be able to sustain our businesses, protect our workers and secure our future!

(In English) Mr Speaker, I will conclude. We have a strategy in place, backed up by a series of robust Budgets, making the necessary resources available. The key now is to implement this plan well. In the immediate term – preserve jobs, create jobs and match workers to these jobs.

But we must keep an eye out too on strengthening our economy post-COVID. We must make use of this crisis to push for industry transformation and continue developing quality jobs for quality workers and quality busineses that can out-compete in the new economy forward. These are not easy tasks but we will do our very best.

NTUC will continue to work with our tripartite partners to support our workers, our freelancers, our self-employed people – because every worker matters, every job matters. And only if we can continue the trust and the solidarity of tripartism, then we can overcome. Mr Speaker, I support the Budget.

Ms Sylvia Lim.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I have clarification for Minister Ng Chee Meng. Earlier in his response to my query, he basically said that it made sense for NTUC to be involved in SIRS because it has some understanding of the issues faced by self-employed persons. Could he clarify in this SIRS appeal process, were the appeal criteria – what factors are relevant to grant or partially grant appeals – decided by NTUC? That means NTUC came up with appeals criteria?

Mr Speaker, NTUC work within the policy framework given to us by MOM. So, for the policy questions, the criteria, we have certain guidelines that we worked within. And Minister Josephine Teo in the right time can answer this arrangement.

Mr Patrick Tay.

Mr Speaker, Sir, I rise in support of the Fortitude Budget. Just to chime in on what Secretary-General Ng Chee Meng shared earlier, I cannot help but emphasise that this Budget, I particularly like and applaud it because of its focus on workers – the actual focus on the lives and livelihoods of our workers. That is something that struck me very hard. But I thought to use my speech to highlight three important areas, which we should look at.

Firstly, I will use this opportunity to share some of the horror stories that we hear in the workplaces in light of COVID-19 circuit breaker and all the measures that I have been seeing the past couple of weeks. Secondly, to share a bit about the Singaporean Core. And thirdly, to highlight the plight of mid-career workers, in particular, the Professionals, Managers and Executives.

Firstly, on some of the horror stories. I wrote an opinion piece, which was published last Saturday in The Straits Times. This opinion piece came about and these horror stories came about because of the many engagements I had in the last eight weeks of circuit breaker with many union leaders, unionists, residents including fellow workers, through various platforms. In fact, it is quite a learning journey. I have been using Zoom, Webex, BigMarker, Microsoft Teams and through various platforms including Facebook Live and LinkedIn Live. It was a good opportunity to learn those skills but also a fantastic opportunity to engage a lot of workers that I have never had the opportunity to do during normal times because of various constraints and situations. So, it was great opportunity.

Just to share some of these horror stories that I have heard from many of these workers during this past eight weeks and moving forward. Firstly, we hear of workers being short-changed in the sense that, unilaterally, employers have reduced their work hours and even reduced their salaries. This is a stark wake-up call, particularly because in situations where this has happened, it is a situation where there was no consultation with the worker and no agreement with the worker. That is one example – a unilateral withdrawal or reduction of salaries and work hours.

A second horror story that often plays out that I hear from workers is a situation where a worker, suddenly, during this particular period, gets a very poor performance rating, and previously, he had always had a satisfactory or better rating in the past couple of years. Therefore, his exit from the company is expedited.

The third scenario or story that I hear about is also a situation where employee is given a new job scope, do something very different from what he used to do, or sometimes, even excluded for meetings and important company events. And, therefore, in a way, the worker is forced to exit the company.

The fourth scenario happens, as I shared earlier during Question Time, where workers are being contractually terminated, whether with or without notice. Sometimes, the reason happens because of a disguised retrenchment scenario, that is, the worker may be contractually terminated without reason, and subsequently, after he or she has left the company, realised that that particular slot was left vacant, totally vacant, and not filled up, which means there was a redundancy situation and they were not adequately compensated with retrenchment benefit or severance pay.

Another scenario or horror story we hear is also of safe workplaces. Just as recent as we reopened a couple of days ago, I also hear of workers who actually, in their course of work, can or are able to work from home, but are forced to go back to the companies by the management or employers. That is another horror story.

Finally, another horror story would be a situation where employers, although after they have terminated workers in March, April or even earlier, are still contributing employer's CPF to workers resulting in workers enjoying the employer's CPF and, of course, abusing public funds, in that while they contribute the employer's CPF, the companies enjoy the Job Support Scheme.

These are some of the horror stories we have come across. Fortunately, these are not rampant and many of these cases that workers shared about, whether through various platforms, private messages, emails or even conversations that I had in various platforms, most of these happened in many of the non-unionised companies. In unionised companies, we have the collective agreement as well as a lot of negotiation and discussion with companies. So, we do see quite a bit of these scenarios happening.

My suggestion is three-fold. Firstly, I am glad that Minister Josephine Teo earlier on, during Question Time, has addressed this point on some of the unfair workplace practices and some abuse in the treatment of workers. I am glad that MOM, where they detect such cases, would take resolute steps to enforce against such errant or recalcitrant employers. So, I am glad that is happening.

Secondly, I think it is important that the employers are aware of the various tripartite advisories and guidelines that have been issued. There is a few that have been rolled out, in particular, to address the COVID-19 scenarios. Of course, as we reopen and as we go into Phase One, Phase Two, Phase Three, the various scenarios and new normal or next normal, so to speak, that will happen.

I urge employers, in particular, to watch out for all these various advisories to ensure our workplaces are safe for their workers as well as for their customers and clients that visit the workplaces or offices. More importantly, the tripartite partners really should use this opportunity and will use this opportunity to work even more closely together because this is an opportunity. It is a great time, particularly, with all these practices, and a lot of rules and advisories are coming out hard and fast for everyone to work very, very closely together.

At the company level, the trust between employer and employee is very important. I cannot emphasise more the importance of regular open, transparent communication between employers and employees. I think this is the best time to build that trust because, not just the affected workers, but those who are not affected, are actually looking at how the employer is treating their employees. I think that is one area.

Secondly, employers, I hope, will work doubly hard, in particular, looking out for these various schemes, latching on them and, of course, not flouting any of the rules and advisories that had already been fleshed out and promulgated.

And thirdly, I think I cannot emphasise more, as what Secretary-General Ng Chee Meng mentioned earlier, the need for tripartism and the ability to work as a tripartite front and as a tripartite relationship. I cannot emphasise more the importance for us to work together, in particular, in reviewing some of these advisories. It could be the National Wages Council's recommendations or some advisories and guidelines to ensure and, even perhaps moving ahead, to review some of the employment laws because of the "new normal" that we are having to operate in and some of the new rules and more people working from home. So, that is one area – sharing some of these horror stories that are happening at workplace which I hope will be eradicated.

Secondly, with this Fortitude Budget and with the past three Budgets as well, I think it is a good time for us to reinforce the message of forging and strengthening the Singaporean Core. I am glad that through the SGUnited programme and the whole plethora of programmes that we have had. The fact that we are faced with challenges – with global lockdowns across various parts of the world and even with our neighbours – it is very important for us to relook not just self-sufficiency in many fronts, but also building and strengthening the Singaporean Core. It is a great opportunity for us to work together, to build and strengthen and hire and develop Singapore Core – which has always been our agenda in the last couple of years.

We have rolled out a series of measures in this area. We have the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP). We will continue those efforts. But it is important for employers to keep their minds open and be open to strengthening the Singaporean Core in all areas, in particular, in that space where there are a lot of professionals, managers and executives (PMETs).

At this point, I would just like to highlight the plight, anxieties and fears of many of our mid-career workers, in particular, the PMETs. If you look at the global financial crises, be it SARS and even before this entire COVID-19 saga, if you look at the labour market statistics, in terms of the increase in unemployment rate, this particular group, the mid-career workers, including PMETs, are the most vulnerable and most affected. The increase has been highest in both crises. And therefore, I cannot emphasise more the many fears and anxieties. Even prior to COVID-19, they were already a very vulnerable and susceptible group of workers. With this whole game-change and "next normal", I really fear and worry for them. I am glad that in the Fortitude Budget – and not just in this Fortitude Budget, even at the first Budget that we had – we focused a lot on mid-career workers, in particular the PMETs – through the Career Support Programme, Adapt-and-Grow and a whole slew of measures.

But in this Fortitude Budget, I just like to give my thanks and support for some of the things that have been rolled out. Besides the SGUnited Traineeships and SkillsFuture Traineeships, also the hiring of local workers. In terms of helping mid-career workers – 20% for six months, the 40% for six months for those above 40. These are good and resolute measures to help and encourage those companies.

Not all companies are laying off people. I think those that are, are a small group. Though they are a small group but there are still opportunities. And I hope that through this Budget and all these measures and, of course, with a close partnership amongst the tripartite partners and the newly formed National Jobs Council, we hope more employers will step forward to embrace some of these schemes – not just the traineeship programmes but, at the same time, if they have openings, if they have opportunities, to latch on some of these useful schemes and support.

I urge the Government as well, for those companies that have this strong hiring or strengthening of Singaporean Core, at the same time, a strong support of some of these schemes and good practices, not just good, not just fair, not just responsible, but progressive practices, I hope the Government can give these companies a pat on the back and also more and greater support so that they will be encouraged to do even more.

Finally, in conclusion, I cannot emphasise more during this particular period, as we overcome COVID-19 and all the ramifications, be it from the economy, from the labour market and in particular, workers, I hope we can eradicate some of these horror stories, one by one. I hope we can build the Singaporean Core. I hope also that we can pay particular attention to the mid-career workers – even before this entire saga, they were already very vulnerable. I hope for more emphasis and more support for this particular group so that they will be able to rise up to the challenge.

As we all slowly reopen, like they say, the many "Rs" – as we renew, as we restart, as we refresh, as we rejuvenate ourselves during circuit breaker for some – let us reinvent ourselves, let us reinvigorate, rejuvenate ourselves so that we are able to reposition ourselves and ensure that in all things that we do, we reforge that trust between the employee and employer; not just an employee-employer, but the employer and his industry; the industry needs to work together and hunt as a pack.

At the bigger picture, on the national front, how we, as tripartite partners, can work together – Government, NTUC and all the employers – so that we are able to pivot, rise to the challenge and at same time, also grab the new opportunities that come before us. And on this note, I cannot emphasise more – every worker matters, every job counts. I support the Budget. [Applause.]

Mr Melvin Yong.

Mr Speaker, I stand in support of the Fortitude Budget. My fellow Labour Members of Parliament have touched on – and others will continue to emphasise – the importance of job creation, job matching and the need to save jobs during this unprecedented period. My speech will focus on keeping our jobs and our workplaces safe because failing to do so may result in another unwelcome spike in COVID-19 cases and undo all our efforts and the billions of dollars that we have committed and are committing to tide our nation through this crisis.

Mr Speaker, we must tread carefully as we ease the circuit breaker measures. In China, over a 100 million people face renewed lockdown in the northeastern region. In Japan, Hokkaido suffered a second wave of coronavirus infections after lifting lockdown measures while in South Korea, new clusters have formed quickly after lockdown restrictions were eased, forcing closures of more than 250 schools last week, just days after they reopened. Is this a case of too much, too soon? Or too little, too late? With lives and livelihoods at stake, it is not an easy balance to make. But I would like to urge that we take a more careful and more calibrated approach to prevent this from happening in Singapore.

Let me first highlight the challenges on the ground that threaten to derail our efforts towards a safe reopening, and propose some suggestions on how we can address them.

Many businesses and their workers have been facing different requirements and different sets of instructions from different Government agencies over the past months. Sometimes, new requirements are issued just days after an earlier set of instructions; while other times, they see other businesses implementing these rules quite differently from them.

The mandatory use of SafeEntry is one such example. Most companies practise the check-in function but, as we know, some do not require you to check out when leaving the premises. Others provide a barcode reader to allow visitors to scan their NRIC as an alternative, but this is not practised universally.

Should safe management measures be implemented based on principles or should they be prescriptive? On the ground, it seems that bosses prefer to implement based on principles while staff who are tasked to implement the measures prefer a more prescriptive set of instructions for clarity and ease of implementation.

Whichever the approach, safe management measures must not inadvertently cause poor safety at the workplace. While we can understand that the aim of these measures is to minimise unnecessary social gatherings at the workplace, some types of work do require clear communication and coordinated teamwork. Keeping a "safety distance" and speaking through a mask could result in unclear communication, which may lead to heightened risks of workplace accidents. For manual work that requires heavy lifting, for example, in the construction or marine engineering sectors, wearing a mask could affect their physically demanding work.

Mr Speaker, poor implementation could also lead to risky outcomes. For example, we read last month that the safe distancing dividers on a lorry transport for workers were deemed "not sturdy enough" and could have caused more harm in the event of a traffic accident! I hope MOM can conduct regular reviews and inspections, especially for high risk sectors, and ensure that the safe management measures are working as intended.

Mr Speaker, cost may also be a factor for poor implementation of safe management practices. Many businesses are already reeling from the increasing costs of putting in place the ever-evolving set of protective measures to keep our workplaces safe – providing thermometers and masks, increasing the frequency of cleaning and disinfection, employing additional staff to control access and to monitor temperatures, even increasing the number of trips to ferry workers because of safe distancing requirements. Coupled with a sharp decline in revenue, our businesses are hit with a double whammy!

Many employers that I spoke to are now concerned about the costs of having to send their workers for swab tests as we continue to ramp up community testing. Today, construction workers are required to be tested every two weeks, while pre-school and nursing home staff have taken a precautionary test before returning to work. They tell me that the cost of a swab test seems to vary significantly. Online checks reveal that a swab test can range between US$1 in Senegal to more than US$3,000 in America!

To manage costs, many businesses are leveraging technology to make our workplaces safer during this pandemic. In China, AI-powered thermal cameras are used to identify those in a crowd who have a fever and facial-recognition systems are deployed widely to identify those not wearing masks. Some isolation wards in China are entirely manned by robots that take the patient's temperature, deliver food and medicine and perform disinfection tasks. We too have deployed similar robots in our community isolation facilities and elsewhere in Singapore.

However, I am deeply concerned that some businesses are marketing products that may end up doing more harm than good. For example, we read that the use of disinfectant tunnels can cause serious harm to those walking through them. Experts have cautioned against atomising and spraying copious amount of disinfectant on a person as this may cause irritation and potentially irreversible damage to the cornea, skin and even our respiratory system. Other products, which could cause prolonged UV light exposure, are also harmful to the human body. I therefore urge the Government to review and where necessary, stop the use of such unsafe interventions at our workplaces.

Mr Speaker, until we find a vaccine or an effective treatment for COVID-19, we should incentivise our companies to embrace remote working solutions. Many have adapted to working from home in the past two months and I encourage companies to use this opportunity to reinvent their business operations and where possible, embrace work-from-home arrangements permanently and seize the new opportunities that come with this new normal.

Our hawkers and wet market stallholders have shown that this is possible. During the circuit breaker, many hawkers have united to embrace e-commerce and food delivery. IMDA also taught stallholders from Tekka Market how to sell their produce using Facebook live-stream. Today, many stallholders have started to live-stream on their own and have been successful in selling their produce. The reinvention of our wet market stallholders to become "web market superstars" shows us that we can all adapt to and seize opportunities in this new normal.

Mr Speaker, beyond employers, workers too are facing increased levels of stress. Graduating students and retrenched workers are finding it hard to find a job. Matured workers are worried about keeping their jobs, while frontline workers fear getting an infection from prolonged exposure during work. Even young parents are struggling between balancing their work, helping their energetic children with home-based learning and taking care of their restless elderly parents.

Having a mentally healthy workforce is important as compliance to safety at the workplace may be compromised if workers are not able to focus at work. The total expenditure on mental health makes up less than 5% of MOH's annual operating expenditure. Within the population, Singapore has an estimated average of 4.4 psychiatrists for every 100,000 people. This figure is much lower than the 15 psychiatrists per 100,000 recorded by most OECD countries. I therefore urge the Government to invest more resources on mental healthcare as insufficient support in this area could lead to dire consequences, especially in this prolonged period of uncertainty, anxiety and fear.

Mr Speaker, COVID-19 has shone the spotlight on good workplace safety and health (WSH) practices. Companies are now required to appoint Safe Management Officers (SMOs) before they can resume work and NTUC has already trained over 1,700 to be SMOs. We aim to double that number in the coming months. I hope that the Government could revisit my numerous proposals to mandate a WSH representative in every company. Let us retain and expand the role of these mandatory SMOs beyond the pandemic so that our workplaces can be safer and our workers healthier.

Mr Speaker, to conclude, we are only as strong as our weakest link. To tide through this pandemic and emerge stronger, we need to rally together as one people. The Government has done much to protect lives and livelihoods through an unprecedented series of four Budgets over four months. Businesses are also doing their part to put in place measures to keep our workplaces and our workers safe. The onus is on each of us to take care of ourselves and to take care of each other as we resume "Business Unusual".

I call on the Government, all employers and workers to continue to partner with the Labour Movement so that together, we can save jobs and keep jobs safe, because every worker matters. I support the Budget.

Mr Douglas Foo.

Thank you, Mr Speaker, Sir, for the opportunity. Mr Speaker, Sir, please allow me to declare my interest as chairman of Sakae Holdings Ltd, president of the Singapore Manufacturing Federation (SMF), vice-chairman of the Singapore Business Federation (SBF) and vice-president of the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF).

I rise to affirm my support for the recently delivered Singapore Fortitude Budget Statement and to provide a response from the business and manufacturing community.

As we prepare to exit the circuit breaker, it is again very reassuring to the business community that the central focus of the Fortitude Budget is the protection and creation of jobs. With the additional $33 billion in relief measures, the Government has now set aside close to $100 billion to support Singaporeans in our fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. This unprecedented level of financial relief continues to demonstrate the Government's unwavering commitment to support our enterprises.

As I stated before in my response to the earlier Budget Statements, businesses cannot take these support measures for granted and must actively take steps to continuously examine and tweak their business models and explore how new improvements can be incorporated sustainably.

Manufacturers here are generally very appreciative of the relief measures that will help to ease commercial financial challenges. Ranging from sustained foreign worker levy rebates and waivers as well as more robust rental relief measures to training of employees and upgrading of equipment, the SMF is thankful that the Government has largely taken on board the feedback of our members in announcing a progressively more comprehensive relief package.

Our members are also heartened that on a government-to-government level, Singapore is working with other countries to keep supply chain disruptions as minimal as possible during this time. This has significantly helped businesses continue operations during the circuit breaker.

As we take the required steps to exit the circuit breaker and work towards the new normal, I would like to share some feedback on challenges faced by businesses and encourage sustained and greater collaboration within the tripartite alliance.

On safe distancing and shop floor hygiene – Singapore first became acquainted with the COVID-19 virus early this year and since then, most companies have had to adapt processes significantly to safeguard the health of employees while they struggle with the numerous external impacts on their businesses. I would like to recognise and applaud this collective effort from businesses to place safety and health above commercial concerns. In fact, in a recent survey of members of the SMF, 62% of the members surveyed ranked safety and health as their top concern as they prepare for the reopening of more businesses after the circuit breaker.

Some members have even indicated an almost four-fold increase in monthly cleaning expenses to ensure a clean environment for their workers and products. In addition to cleaning costs, companies are now maintaining their own inventory of personal protective equipment (PPE) that is likely to be required in daily operations for an extended period of time. As such, manufacturers largely expect these costs to be permanent additions to their operational costs.

In addition, the current necessity of remote work also presented significant costs for businesses to introduce mobility into their business models such as required laptops, setting up of remote servers, cloud access and so on. In addition, we have seen a number of companies modifying their shop floor to comply with safe distancing guidelines. All of these costs give rise to genuine concerns of the manufacturing community as to how Singapore can continue to be competitive globally as different countries practise different precautionary measures.

One of Singapore's advantage has always been speed and efficiency. While businesses understand that there is an ever important need to care for the safety and health of our people, businesses here hope that law and policy makers take into careful consideration the need not to be overly prescriptive and at the same time, ensure that regulatory bodies are sufficiently resourced and staffed so that required approvals do not become the bottleneck to efficiency.

On manpower concerns – the circuit breaker has also presented a wide number of manpower challenges to companies. Key among which is the uncertainty of the permitted workers' quota, which changes day to day for some companies.

The feedback from member companies is that such fluctuations are an added form of disruption as they are unable to plan ahead and schedule production schedules. This also has resulted in a core group of the workforce being stretched during this time as many find themselves taking up dual roles. Such also has a serious impact on manufacturers as they abide by safety standards and regulations, but staff fatigue is always an ever present danger.

Finally, companies are also eagerly awaiting the normalising of the human traffic between Singapore and Malaysia. Aside from being a key part of the workforce, some Malaysian workers who have chosen to remain in Singapore have been apart from their families for an extended period of time and these form mental welfare concerns for employers. Businesses know that this is not dependent on Singapore alone. Accordingly, businesses wish for the governments of both countries to expeditiously reach an agreement to facilitate trade. One area is the 14-day quarantine or Stay-Home Notice that workers going to and returning from either country face on each side, making it a total of 28 days that the worker is not able to work.

On overseas contractual obligations – another key concern for businesses is their inability to fully fulfill their contractual obligations to overseas clients due to circuit breaker measures. Many are worried that the longstanding relationships they have built over the years with customers and suppliers, especially those from overseas, lost during the circuit breaker, may be difficult to woo back.

Many of our members who trade internationally are especially concerned regarding their contractual obligations to overseas clients and that failure to fulfill the same could mean exposure to financial and reputational damages. In this regard, the SMF would like to advocate for the Government to take the lead and work towards getting agreement from other countries on a legal framework that transcends jurisdictional boundaries, much along the lines of the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act.

Mr Speaker, Sir, the above are concerns and feedback from the business community – genuine and from the ground. I hope that the relevant Ministries can assist to see how some of these issues can be even more quickly resolved. I will now like to move on to the next part of my speech – that of digitalisation and training.

On protecting livelihoods, transforming businesses – as president of the SMF, a common refrain when I engage with our members is the need for digitalisation. While the challenges presented by the measures to combat COVID-19 have indeed spurred on digitalisation and transformation for businesses, there is still much to be done.

The SMF administers the Digital Project Management Services programme as part of the SMEs Go Digital initiative. Since the circuit breaker, we have seen almost the same number of expressions of interest as in the months from August 2018 to April 2020, when the programme was launched. However, the adoption rate is still low. While many companies understand the need to transform, a number of concerns still hinder the adoption process. In a survey of the members of SMF conducted in early 2020, members cited uncertain return of investment, lack of technical capabilities as well as concerns on cybersecurity as key reasons holding them back from adopting digital technologies.

In this regard, the SMF is really glad and heartened that the Fortitude Budget pays importance towards incentivising and encouraging businesses to digitalise. We believe that the measures will go some way to pushing companies to take the plunge. The SMF will also be doing its part to complement that of Government's efforts to push for our members to take up digital solutions on an expedited basis.

Similarly, companies seeking to send employees for training during this period have also encountered some challenges that warrant some attention. One of the new initiatives under the Fortitude Budget is provision of training opportunities for the older workforce. Members have since highlighted that there is a challenge in upskilling their workforce in this age group as most courses are conducted in English and there is a relative scarcity of courses conducted in Chinese, Malay or Tamil that this age group of workers may be more comfortable with.

For the manufacturing sector, the transformation journey is one we are committed to and while the change will not be overnight, I strongly believe that our continued efforts as a community will set us on the right path.

On importance of the tripartite alliance – Mr Speaker, Sir, as I close my speech today, I would like to invite the hon Members of this House to spend some time to ponder on the delicate balance of our labour relations in Singapore.

I have, in my previous speeches, always made it a point to drive awareness and encourage the strengthening of our unique tripartite labour alliance. Yet, it is in trying times like these that the true work and importance of this alliance shines more brightly than ever before.

Amid the massive global economic upheaval, with the strength of our labour relations built up over decades, our workers are able to keep faith with their employers and employers are able to keep faith in the Government. This foundation has provided important stability for our economy during this crisis. It is therefore critical and timely, that as hon Members of this House, we remember and keep this delicate balance in view even as we canvass the interests and views of the organisations we represent. During such times of heightened uncertainty and anxiety, it is easy for a statement, though innocuously made, and, perhaps in support of one stakeholder, to engender feelings of negativity or suspicion in another.

It is therefore important that in the current circumstances, that we keep communication channels open and transparent between workers, employers and the Government. After all, we are all working collectively towards a common goal of emerging stronger as a nation after this pandemic. It is therefore exceedingly crucial that we continue to be ever mindful of how we can continue to build up such relations.

Mr Speaker, Sir, in conclusion, by promoting continuous innovation, advancement and adaptation, and with the relief the different Budget Statements have provided for businesses, I believe we can overcome.

As a partner in nation building, the SMF is committed to stand in Solidarity and Unity with our members and the Government, increase business Resilience and surmount this difficulty with Fortitude. May we be in the best possible position to better seize opportunities presented when the effects of COVID-19 recede globally. I stand in unequivocal support of the Fortitude Budget Statement.

Mr Speaker, Sir, this is the darkest of times. COVID-19 has taken a heavy toll on the economies of many countries. In Singapore, the recent circuit breaker has affected many businesses. We all have friends who have lost their jobs, or their businesses or are struggling in some way. We are certainly in this together.

This is a battle not just against COVID-19 but against some of the toughest enemies of any small state – despair, poverty, haplessness, an overwhelming sense of pessimism.

Large states have deeper resources, a stronger pull on world affairs and a sense of control and destiny. Singapore has always been a price-taker in world affairs and remains vulnerable to all the ugly forces that have come to the fore in this pandemic and we have seen this played out in many countries including Singapore.

What has come out quite starkly is the fact – a fact that we have always known, but perhaps forgotten – that we ourselves must defend Singapore, defend our laws, our rules, our way of life.

We ourselves must call out rule breakers who mock us and write home to invite their countrymen to do the same; we must think of solutions when countries where we locate our assets count their own interests above ours; in times of trouble, we must call our own home from all over the world – as our universities did to thousands of students overseas. Some of them did bring home the virus and were rightly cared for in our hospitals.

We are our best hope, and we must stand together. If we break, this dark time will not end and it will be sometime before we see more sunny days and blue skies.

We are slowly but surely emerging out of the circuit breaker.

In my speech at the debate on the Solidarity Budget, I shared how NTUC FairPrice Group proactively responded at the onset of COVID-19 to assure consumers and public on the availability and affordability of essentials. Today, I would like to share the efforts of our other various entities at NTUC Enterprise who are continuing to address the key concerns of job security and opportunity, and initiatives to moderate the cost of living. I declare my interest as the Group CEO of NTUC Enterprise and NTUC FairPrice.

First, building a resilient workforce. FairPrice Group has continued to operate our supermarket branches – on line and off line; our hawker centres, foodcourts and coffeeshops; as well as at our warehouses and central kitchens – working hard to meet consumers’ food and grocery needs and adapting to the evolving circumstances daily. These efforts help to ensure that the public have access to their daily essentials.

On a side note, I must declare that Fairprice Group has a food services division through our Kopitiam and FoodFare outlets. I wish to make a call out for all those in the F&B sector. In fact, earlier hon Member Mr Lim Biow Chuan made the same call. Those in the F&B sector have indeed been very badly hit in this crisis because the dining in crowd is a very, very important component of their overall business model.

So, whilst the various support schemes by Government have been indeed very helpful, this is but a stop-gap measure and so the earlier we can provide guidance and clarity for the F&B sector, and in particular to ensure that the various measures and reliefs that Government has announced that they accrue and are received by the F&B operators in its entirety. As is, we can expect more F&B firms to exit this industry and with it, a lot more job losses.

Of course, there will be businesses which are less affected by COVID-19. For such organisations, they should always remember to recognise the people that make up the organisation. So, like others in the essential services, FairPrice group has given special monetary awards and incentives to our colleagues, especially those working at the frontline. Many customers have also joined us in appreciating our service staff through testimonies on social media as well as through personal cards and letters of encouragement.

Over the last two months, FairPrice group has provided employment opportunities for an additional 4,000 staff – full time, part-time and temporary workers – to support operations and the high transaction volume that we experience and this includes people like Ms Gina Ng, a lady that Mr Ng Chee Meng referred to just now and, indeed, this was arranged though the Job Security Council. Ms Ng was from the Fairmont Singapore and Swissotel. Besides Fairmont, we at FairPrice group also managed to get staff from Grand Hyatt, Orchard Hotel, Ritz Carlton, Changi Airport Group, Wildlife Reserves and several others to help us out. Their stints will end some in July and some in August. We are currently looking to fill another 300 more positions and working with other agencies to provide employment for workers, especially those who have been displaced.

NTUC Enterprise group will certainly be supporting the SGUnited Traineeships Scheme and offer 300 training places to help trainees in exposure and experience in the various areas of business.

Next, let me cover what we have done in terms of commitment to learning. NTUC LearningHub continues to make learning accessible during this period. To encourage all our workers to make good use of time to upgrade their skillsets, NTUC LearningHub has provided access to online courses that covers both Adaptive Skills and Technological Skills.

In addition, LearningHub has provided opportunities for self-employed persons to earn as they train to deepen or acquire new competencies, all this in preparation for when the economy picks up and new opportunities arise.

During this circuit breaker period, two of our NTUC Social Enterprises quickly pivoted and launched new digital initiatives:

LearningHub introduced free online courses, which received close to 70,000 sign-ups. Completion rates of these courses were very encouraging and significantly higher than the industry benchmark.

On the other hand, our NTUC First Campus also launched “Kidzmatters” for parents, and this received 90,000 sign-ups. For the last two months, I think these have all been very well used by parents of such children.

Our MoneyOwl too conducted more online webinars and e-learning to educate the public on financial planning and management.

Whilst jobs continue to be a major concern for all, we were also kept busy keeping our operations running and services accessible, and at the same time, doing our best to keep cost of living in check.

During the circuit breaker period, to cope with the continued surge in demand and provide greater convenience to customers, FairPrice had to develop various solutions and initiatives. They include the setting up of pop-up and atrium stores, increasing online capacity, and instituting a "priority shopping hour" for the Pioneer Generation and vulnerables. And, in fact, this week we started a priority queue for healthcare workers. And then there were the mobile grocery vans which brought essential products to residents in selected areas without them having to venture too far away from home. FairPrice on Wheels is now in eight locations and growing to grow.

Our sourcing teams continued in overdrive mode as we strengthened our network of suppliers across the globe to mitigate any disruptions in supply especially that of essential items.

Efforts to contain COVID-19 will be a long and protracted one. The Labour Movement has always looked after workers and their welfare. For today, I am highlighting two areas only – jobs and cost of living. We pledge to ensure stable jobs, affordable groceries, quality and value meals. As a group, we will continue to do our part for the community through our corporate giving, whether it is donations to vulnerable and community groups or providing more relief to needy families and workers during this difficult period.

The NTUC Enterprise group of social enterprises led by FairPrice will be putting together a package to help Singaporeans and families address this for the services that we are involved. This is very much part of our DNA and what the public has grown to expect and can expect the NTUC group of Social Enterprises to continue to do so. We are finalising these measures and will share with the public soon. Secretary-General Mr Ng Chee Meng indeed will be the one, together with a few of us, to launch this.

Yes, in the best of times, we cared less for bread and butter – opting for sashimi and salmon. We aim for high pay and long holidays. Today, travel, dining out and shopping seem like a dream from the past.

But Singapore was born on dreams. We made a nation out of nothing but gumption and a Separation Agreement. Our first meals were from lean tables; and we can today, endure and grow from these hard times to strength and prosperity. The sun will shine on Singapore again, but we must ourselves first break through the darkness. Sir, I support the Fortitude Budget.

Senior Minister of State Koh Poh Koon.

Mr Speaker, Sir, I rise to speak in support of the Fortitude Budget as Deputy Secretary-General of NTUC.

Sir, COVID-19 has transformed our world drastically and the past few months had been challenging for everybody. Since MTI’s last review in March, the disruptions to economic activity in major economies around the world have been more severe than expected due to the stringent containment measures taken by various governments to slow the spread of COVID-19. Most of the major advanced economies as well as the emerging economies are now projected to see full-year recessions in 2020.

Against this backdrop, the outlook for the Singapore economy has weakened further.

As a small and open economy, Singapore’s GDP growth is expected to come in at -7% to -4%. Sectors such as manufacturing, wholesale trade and transportation and storage will be adversely affected by the sharper-than-expected slowdown in many of Singapore’s key markets and there will be prolonged uncertainties as well disruptions in the global supply chains.

The implementation of circuit breaker measures to contain the COVID-19 virus in Singapore was necessary but it has also created an impact on our economy – business operations were disrupted and non-essential business services were forced to close during the circuit breaker period; workers have to make alternative arrangements to work from home.

While we have managed to flatten the epidemic curve, we must now shift our focus to tackle the "unemployment" curve as retrenchment and job losses will inevitably rise. As the Executive Secretary of the Metal Industries Workers’ Union (MIWU), I had the chance to speak with many of our employer partners as well as our workers on the ground. They were seeing reduced work hours, shorter work weeks and even no-pay leave is becoming more frequent now in many of our branches and our partner companies. So, naturally, I understand that our union leaders and workers are concerned about their job security in the immediate and longer term.

Therefore, the Labour Movement welcomes the Fortitude Budget that supports the gradual reopening of our economy. The enhancement to the Jobs Support Scheme will help to sustain companies in the early phase of reopening and reduce the pressure to retrench workers.

PMETs and workers, aged in the 40s to 50s, are expected to be more impacted by any retrenchments. They are more likely to face difficulties in finding jobs in this distressed job market. To help workers stay employed and employable, the new SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package will create close to 100,000 placement opportunities in the three areas of jobs, traineeships and training. This is very much welcomed by union leaders and workers that I spoke to.

The National Jobs Council chaired by Senior Minister Tharman will oversee this effort. NTUC hopes that the NJC will leverage the NTUC Job Security Council set up earlier in February this year to pre-emptively match at-risk and soon-to-be displaced workers into available job opportunities. NTUC JSC, as Secretary-General Ng Chee Meng has shared earlier, has more than 7,000 companies in our network and has emplaced more than 10,000 workers into job opportunities. These jobs were mainly in essential services or to support COVID-19 efforts, especially in sectors such as healthcare, retail and logistics.

Through this, and with the help of many of our unions and the various Company Training Committees (CTCs), NTUC stands ready to support the Government in the National Jobs Council, leveraging our existing capabilities and our network to help match workers to new jobs and also to equip them with deeper skills at the national level.

I hope policy incentives being considered by National Jobs Council can further support the early success of NTUC Job Security Council and encourage more companies to join us in this network to create more traineeship placements and more job opportunities.

One of the key enablers to allow better job matching is skills training to ensure our workers acquire future-ready and industry relevant skills. During this economic slowdown, NTUC has been working closely with our unions to encourage companies to send their workers for training and to take advantage of the various schemes, like absentee payroll, for example, to help defray wage costs when the workers are away on training. Companies should also leverage on the CTCs to identify skills and training needs to better upskill their workers.

One example is Diethelm Keller Aviation (DKA). This is an unionised company under Metal Industries Workers Union (MIWU). Together with the union, the company set up a CTC in 2019, with the aim of furthering workers' career prospects through relevant skills training. The company engaged NTUC's e2i or the Employment and Employability Institute, to redesign the jobs and raised productivity of their workers. While DKA's business in the aviation sector has been affected by COVID-19, they will be using this downtime to cross-skill workers through structured on-the-job training so that they have flexibility to re-deploy workers to areas of need and emerge stronger from the crisis.

Many companies like DKA in the manufacturing sector has been impacted by disruption to the Malaysian workers commuting across from the Causeway due to the lockdowns and the situation in Malaysia. And by cross-skilling their workers, they are able to respond to this transient manpower shortages and cope with the skill gaps that they may have.

Some companies have pivoted to other business segments with growth opportunities and accelerated their business transformation during this period. One example is Certact Engineering, a unionised company under MIWU as well. This company has recently transformed their business from a plastic and aluminum manufacturing company, to manufacture medical equipment components like the COVID-19 test kits and ventilator component parts. To support the new business requirements, Certact had to remodel their business processes, redesign existing jobs and send their workers for training to operate their new manufacturing lines. So, even as I speak today, Certact is partnering NTUC to leverage the CTC and Operations Technology Roadmapping (OTR) process to implement their new business model and strengthen their workforce capabilities.

Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, physical OTR sessions cannot be conducted. Hence, NTUC worked with A*STAR to develop a virtual-OTR methodology and we embarked on this virtual OTR process with Certact Engineering recently. They have given good feedback. It is a useful process. It allows us to conduct such processes even with circuit breaker measures. We will be conducting more virtual-OTRs with the various CTCs using online platforms to ensure that companies' transformation needs and workers' training needs continue to be served by the virtual-OTR during this pandemic.

Workers have also shared with me that training-related costs may deter their employers facing cashflow challenges during COVID-19 pandemic from undertaking skills upgrading for their workers. NTUC introduced the NTUC-Education and Training Fund (NETF) Collaborative Fund (NCF) in March 2019 to provide training-related funding support to our unionised companies who send their unionised employees for training programmes.

To help the increasing number of affected workers and to ensure that training costs to companies are further reduced during this COVID-19 period, I am glad to share that NTUC has increased the training support funding cap of this NCF from S$30,000 to S$50,000 per unionised company. To speed up business recovery, we will also introduce NETF Collaborative Fund Lite or NCF-Lite, for non-unionised companies with 50 or more NTUC union members in their workforce, with training support of up to $8,000 per company.

I want to encourage more companies, both unionised and non-unionised, to approach NTUC to set up CTCs and tap into the additional funding support to send their workers for training.

Sir, Singapore is not immune to the disruptions brought about by COVID-19. We have in place structures and initiatives to help the Singapore economy recover. The Government has set aside nearly $100 billion through the four Budgets to support both businesses and workers. The Labour Movement also stands ready to journey with our tripartite partners through this challenging period.

We will continue to work closely with our tripartite partners to keep our workers in jobs, to enhance job matching and job creation for our workers, to encourage skills training so that we can collectively navigate through the new post-COVID era. Tough times do not last but tough people do. And I believe that if we continue to stay united, band together, face the challenges head-on as One United Singapore, we will be able to go through this global pandemic together and be ready when the upturn comes. With that, Sir, I stand in support of the Budget.

Ang Hin Kee.

Mr Speaker, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the livelihood of over 200,000 freelancers and self-employed persons (SEPs). Thankfully, many received support in various forms during this period. Unfortunately, their income continues to be severely affected. To assist SEPs cover their immediate and future needs, I have three proposals to make. These are: support to mitigate income drop, support for licensing and accreditation and support in finding new income sources.

Firstly, we need solutions to help them deal with a sudden and likely prolonged drop in income. This is a most pressing need. A case in point is with the two largest groups of SEPs in Singapore, namely, taxi and private hire drivers. Together, the National Taxi Association and the National Private Hire Vehicles Association, the Point-to-Point operators and MOT worked out several solutions to deal with a severe drop in passenger numbers and earnings.

Mr Speaker, in the past, in this House and outside this House, I have debated actively with the Ministry and the operators on things to improve and tackle challenges faced by drivers. But this is a time where we collaborate and work together. And, as a result, we were able to pool our resources and swiftly rolled out rental rebates and financial aids to drivers. We, in the NTUC, were also able to extend further assistance to those who were union members.

On their part, I am very grateful to the Point-to-Point operators who gave additional support such as rental waiver, which means they did not collect a single dollar in rental during the circuit breaker period from the taxi drivers and rental reductions even after the circuit breaker period has ended. Drivers I spoke too are deeply appreciative of the various support given.

Mr Speaker, during this whole entire period of COVID impact, our union leaders also went down to the ground to gather with the operator staff, the officials from the Ministry, to hand out masks, take temperature, give out food packs and bentos to the drivers in need. This is indeed tripartism in action.

MOT has also supported not just full-time drivers but part-time drivers as well. Part-time private hire drivers who do not qualify for the daily rental rebates under the Special Relief Fund was given a $300 Driver Care Fund which the Ministry provides for part-time driver. NTUC helped administered the Fund and over 3,500 drivers have benefited from that scheme. We handled the administration because we know the ground and could handle the appeal process swiftly.

As takings are unlikely to return to pre-COVID levels anytime soon, the Ministry has extended the Special Relief Fund to help full-time drivers with rental costs. But the Driver Care Fund has not been extended for part-time drivers who are also struggling. I hope MOT and MOF can consider giving part-time private hire drivers a second tranche of Driver Care Fund and to review the eligibility criteria and allow more drivers to qualify.

Secondly, the second support I would like to propose is in licensing and accreditation for SEPs. To help them deal with a sudden drop in income, we heard earlier about the $9,000 Self-employed Person Income Relief Scheme (SIRS). SIRS, based on eligibility criteria, benefited 130,000 SEPs who are auto-qualify to benefit. Those who do not meet the criteria have submitted applications. Understandably, many SEPs who are not in the auto-qualify group are anxious.

One common issue they face is the lack of a licensing regime to verify if they are SEPs and whether they are struggling with a severe drop in income. Many also had not been diligent in contributing to their MediSave or filing their income tax returns. This added to the lack of information to verify their status.

Previously, in this House, I have appealed for more groups of SEPs to be issued with a licence. I have also called upon the Government to offer co-contributions to help them contribute to their MediSave. I would like to repeat that call today.

For instance, SEPs, such as private hire drivers and tour guides hold a vocational licence and are contracted with an operator. That allowed accurate identification of those who have suffered a severe drop in income. Furthermore, those SEPs who are registered with the unions could grant and gain immediate access to help offered by the NTUC. This covers people such as those who in the National Instructors and Coaches Association who are dealing mainly with people who are sports instructors and coaches offering services.

However, we do not yet have a licensing regime for people such as tuition teachers, photographers, performers, dancers, riggers, sound system men in the self-employed group. Whether it is to offer financial assistance or training help, much effort is needed to ensure that genuine freelancers in need are identified and assisted.

MOM had earlier launched the Contribute-As-You-Earn initiative to help SEPs contribute regularly into their MediSave account. However, it is only in its early stage and has not reached many of the 200,000 SEPs in Singapore.

It is a useful scheme. Therefore, I would like to propose that MOM spearhead a whole-of-Government approach to have more groups of SEPs issued with a vocation licence or to form accredited professional guilds or join the union. This will allow for proper assessment of their professional needs and provide them with support during a downturn.

The NTUC has, in the past, formed unions for different groups of SEPs and we stand ready to work with the Government to do more.

Mr Speaker, there is a need to do more for this group but we need the recognition by the industry and the Government agencies in order for the guilds and the unions to take work. Only then will guilds be effective and more SEPs see a need to join.

This has been my experience as an advisor with the union, working together with the Point-to-Point Operators and MOT. Because of the strong tripartite relationship, we were able to deliver strong support swiftly to many taxi and private hire drivers. My other union colleagues shared the same experience when they work with the travel operators and MTI to help our tour guides. Moving forward, we must ensure that more SEPs can benefit from such a tripartite arrangement.

Furthermore, I would like to repeat my call for a one-off co-funding by the Government to self-employed persons who make voluntary contributions to their MediSave. This will also go towards ensuring that more of them will be able to save up for their immediate and future medical needs.

And finally, we also need to look at ways to help self-employed persons find new sources of income. Many lost their income when their clients stopped buying services from them because of restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The NTUC's Employment & Employability Institute has been conducting job-matching for self-employed persons who would like to consider temporary jobs or make a career switch. The recently announced National Jobs Council is indeed a further boost to this effort.

There are sectors that are still hiring and the most pressing task now is to quickly acquire the skills needed and match workers to those vacancies. But are our self-employed persons ready and have the appropriate mindset to make such switches? I have spoken to many drivers, taxi drivers and private hire drivers, who have changed career tracks and become bus captains as well as event emcees and tour guides, who have taken on temporary roles as temperature screeners or swabbers.

Also, we read recently that over 10,000 taxi and private hire drivers have moved from serving commuters to delivering food, groceries and parcels – this is thanks to the MOT's help to liberalise the current point-to-point regulations. The drivers learnt the skills of engaging customers on delivery matters, use cashless payment and even made adjustments to their daily routine – no more do they queue outside at the airport, but outside of restaurants or supermarkets in order to collect the delivery on time. Our workers are indeed adaptable.

To support them, I hope that the National Jobs Council can look at enabling more self-employed persons attain more vocational skills and to earn income from various channels. This way, our scarce manpower can be better deployed across various industries. It will also support self-employed persons reduce their downtime through matching them with various assignments. There may be concern that this multi-skilling of self-employed persons would eat into the domain of other trades. But the COVID-19 pandemic has already compelled even countries to relook at their longstanding economic strategy and even geared up to becoming less reliant on others.

Similarly, we must help reduce the risks self-employed persons face, support them to acquire new skills and leverage on digital tools to optimise their access to work assignments. Due to the pandemic, more of us have begun to better understand the needs of the over 200,000 self-employed persons in Singapore. All businesses and service buyers, and yes, including Government as buyers, can help by looking beyond the boundaries of contractual relationships and support our self-employed persons.

It is imperative that we work towards ensuring that the self-employed persons workforce that contributes significantly to the development of many sectors remain viable and intact even after the pandemic has ended. Mr Speaker, I support the Budget.

Mr Speaker, COVID-19 has caused massive disruptions in our way of life. Experts are predicting that the way we live, work and play will be very much different post COVID-19. There will be a new normal. We experienced some of this possible new normal during the circuit breaker period. As a nation, we were united, we showed resilience, we fought in solidarity, we strengthened our fortitude.

But this crisis also revealed our vulnerabilities. We know we need to reduce our dependence in some areas and at the same time, develop new mindset and capabilities for us to live, work and play in the new normal.

This current crisis has forced many to re-think on the value that our society has placed on essential service workers. The services provided by these workers are truly useful, necessary and the impact will be felt if the work is not done. Unfortunately, in many societies, the more useful the work is, the less they pay you. However, this crisis has caused some to change their attitude and behaviour, and we have witnessed many more people who are being gracious, generous and grateful for the work of our essential service workers.

NTUC, together with our affiliated unions and associations, have long championed the cause of our low-wage essential service workers. To us, every worker matters and every job counts. While I am heartened that we have made good progress in terms of pushing for better wages and skills, there is much more to be done. In post COVID-19, what would be the new normal for essential service workers in the outsourced sectors that keep Singapore safe, clean and green?

Currently, most of the companies in the outsourced industries where the Progressive Wage Model is made mandatory, are characterised by an older workforce, limited use of technology, relatively low productivity, heavy reliance on foreign manpower, and their salaries hover at the bottom fifth percentile of the resident workforce in terms of gross monthly salary.

This situation cannot persist in post COVID-19. As a society, if we truly value the work of our essential service workers, then it is time for all stakeholders to be bold and embrace change in the new normal.

In the new normal, we must change how we treat our essential service workers. We must continue to find ways to narrow the income gap and ensure their average wage growth continue to be higher than the median. Currently, under the mandatory Progessive Wage Model (PWM), our cleaners and landscape workers are given only two weeks of PWM bonus but, there is none for the security officers. Simply giving them an annual bonus of one month would increase the percentage of wage increment by about 8%. The tripartite committees overseeing these essential services must work together to enhance the skills and wage ladders to ensure our workers continue to remain relevant and due recognition be given for the importance of their work.

In the new normal, we need a PWM where these essential services would be anchored by a skillful and productive workforce, balanced with both the young and old. Attracting a younger or more skillful workforce has always been a key outcome desired under PWM and to achieve this, we must change how we do things by leveraging technology and digitalisation to support higher productivity and sustain higher wages to attract younger Singaporeans to be essential service workers.

As there will be older workers in these sectors, we also need to drive a change in our mindset. We must inculcate in all workers a growth mindset where one is never too old to learn new things. We need to encourage them to embrace technology to make the work safer and smarter.

Changing the way we do things for the future is already mapped out in the different Industry Transformation Maps for the respective essential services industries. This plan must be reviewed for the new normal. We need to change the assumptions when these plans were developed to accelerate the transformation of the industry for the new normal where we drive productivity increase through technology and digitalisation. All of this require a highly skilled workforce and the new PWM must reflect the changes in skills and productivity required to justify higher salaries.

In the new normal, we must change how we classify occupations. This crisis has shown the importance of the work of these essential service workers. With higher skills and greater productivity, these environmental services workers, security officers and landscape specialists should be regarded as specialists in their own respective areas and would not be seen or regarded as low-wage workers. Only then perhaps, younger Singaporeans will see this as a viable career.

In the new normal, we need to change consumers' and service buyers' behaviour where we demand higher standards of procurement practices. Outcome-based Contracting must be the norm for procuring services and service buyers should only award contracts to companies with progressive employment practices that reward and recognise their workers right. It is important that every socially responsible service buyer leads by example and reject service providers that provide services at low cost but always at the expense of the welfare of these essential service workers.

This crisis has also forced us to reflect our core values and principles to fellow human beings and highlighted our unseen class system. At the same time, it also showed that we can rise to the occasion to put things right. I would like to take this opportunity to applaud all those who have played a part to help, protect and support our migrant workers.

In the new normal, we must change how we regard the migrant workers and welcome them in our community. We must realise that they are the ones who keep Singapore going; cleaners and maintenance workers who keep our neighbourhoods clean and hygienic, workers who keep our transport running so we can get our essential supplies, workers who keep electricity and water flowing to our homes, and workers who provide other services in our neighbourhoods.

Some of these migrant workers will be housed in vacated school sites to ensure that the safety and welfare of our migrant workers as they continue working during this crisis. In my constituency, I am heartened that many of my residents demonstrated understanding for the need to have this arrangement but, what if these temporary dormitories must remain for a much longer period? Do we then adopt the perverse attitude of resisting them again because we do not want them in our backyard? I hope the new normal for our foreign friends will see them being accepted as a fellow human being who has the right to enjoy the surrounding that they helped to maintain and build.

I see the changes needed for the new normal will complement our efforts to create better jobs, better wages and better welfare for our workers regardless of collar, age, nationalities and sector. Mr Speaker, in Malay.

(In Malay): [Please refer to Vernacular Speech.]: In our efforts to change to the new normal, it is important that we take cognizance of the challenge faced by workers currently as they can be in financial distress due to the crisis now. In a recent survey conducted by OCBC, it was shared that 70% of working adults do not have enough funds to last them beyond six months if they were to lose their jobs now. I would not be surprised if many low-wage workers would fall into this group as they have very little savings. Hence, I would like the Government to consider reviewing the criteria for Short to Mid-Term ComCare Assistance to enable more households to be eligible.

Many WIS recipients welcome the $3000 one-off special cash payment which will be paid over two equal payments of $1,500 each, in July and October 2020. I hope that should the crisis be prolonged, the Government could consider another one-off special payment but perhaps in smaller amount spread over a longer period.

(In English): In conclusion, the road ahead will be a long one, but hard times create strong people. Every one of us must play our part to create a new normal. This will require a shift in mindset for many, but we must also not lose sight of the opportunities ahead. If the $100 billion we have spent in this crisis does not lead us to a future where we can be more progressive, more equitable and more enlightened, then indeed it would be a tragedy if the only thing we did was just trying to survive, rather than coming out stronger as a society. I support the Budget.

Mr Speaker, COVID-19 has impacted economies worldwide. Singapore is also not spared. With supply chains being impacted, the transport and logistic sector will also be affected. As the General Secretary of the Singapore Port Workers' Union, I too, am worried for my brothers and sisters in the sector.

As compared to the four sectors worst hit by COVID-19, the impact on the transport and logistics sectors are not as pronounced yet. However, workers are concerned that they might soon be the "next in line" as they see telling signs of businesses slowing down, a reduction in overtime and incentive earnings as well as being asked to clear their vocational leave due to the low activities. It is not just our local workers who are worried about losing their jobs or having a reduction in their take-home pay; our migrant workers in the transport and logistics sectors are also concerned. It is in the time of crisis where we must leverage the existing labour-management relations or LMR in short, to help workers and companies through this challenging period.

I recall when Malaysia first announced the Movement Control Order, the union and PSA management quickly came together to make arrangements to house our Malaysian counterparts in PSA-operated dormitories. Issues raised by these members were resolved quickly and amicably. When the Singapore Government imposed movement restrictions on workers staying at the dormitories, once again, the union and the management partners moved quickly to ensure that the workers' needs are taken care of. Union leaders and members volunteered their help to support the management in the distribution of meals and daily essentials to these workers in the dormitories. Some even stepped up to be safe distancing ambassadors at the dormitories and the workplaces.

These are just some of my personal experiences of how LMR has come to play an essential role during this challenging period. Even as Singapore gradually reopens our economy, LMR can continue to play a crucial role to ensure that workers can return to work safely and businesses can continue to operate.

For companies to resume operations, safe management measures must be put in place to minimise the re-emergence of COVID-19 community cases. While it might bring about some inconveniences, we all know that these measures are necessary. Due to this necessity, NTUC has worked with Ong Teng Cheong Labour Leadership Institute and NTUC LearningHub to facilitate the training of union leaders, management partners and union staff as Safe Management Officers. Having knowledge of safe management measures, union leaders will then be able to work with their management partners to coordinate and implement these measures on the ground. Each one of us must do our part in adhering to these measures, and I hope that more companies can come on board and get trained so that businesses can continue to operate safely and workers can work in a safe environment.

Another area that we can leverage LMR is in workers’ training. Compared to pre-COVID times, business activity might not be as high during this period, and we should make use of this time to retrain workers. In the port sector, our unions are working with the company to train workers to have dual skills so that they can be cross-deployed across roles. One example is how we are encouraging our crane operators and drivers to be reskilled as reefer and equipment maintenance technicians. This will not only give the company the flexibility to deploy these workers but also increase the value-add the workers bring to the company. I believe we can also explore similar cross-training opportunities in other sectors.

Our unions and management must work even more closely during this challenging period to give confidence to our workers. In areas, such as workers’ safety and workers’ training, we should take proactive steps to reassure our workers that we are still doing our utmost best to improve their wages, welfare and work prospects.

Moving forward, what else can we do to keep our workers' jobs and livelihoods? At a recent dialogue with PSA Group CEO Tan Chong Meng, our union leaders and PSA’s senior management partners, he shared with us four steps which we can take to help the organisation move forward in post-COVID times. Taking a page out of that, I feel that these steps are very much relevant to us as a nation.

First, be prepared for recession. In the most recent estimate by MTI, Singapore’s GDP is projected to be -7% to -4%. Job losses and retrenchments are inevitable. In a typical business environment, it takes a retrenched worker about three to six months to secure a new job. But the current climate has exacerbated these norms.

In light of this possible impact on workers, can the Government explore making COVID-19 Support Grant a long-term help to provide workers facing short-term unemployment? For example, can the Government consider extending the length of support beyond three months, with each applicant reassessed every three months based on their past training and job search efforts? Can we also increase the quantum of assistance to $1,000 per month, aligning with Self-Employed Person Income Relief Scheme (SIRS) because both employees and the self-employed face the same pressure during the period of unemployment? Can the scheme be more favourable to workers who are sole breadwinners of their families, as they would be under greater financial pressure compared to dual-income families?

Second, be resilient. As a country, we need to be resilient. Businesses can use this time to relook at work processes and business strategies while workers can review their training needs. Take this opportunity to reflect and learn from our past experiences and, hopefully, this will bring about new and innovative solutions which we can leverage when the economy recovers. Let us work together as a country to develop more win-win solutions for both companies and workers to enable us to be more resilient in the face of future adversities.

While there might be some short-term pains, it is not all doom and gloom as the recovery will eventually come. Therefore, we must use this downtime strategically to transform our economy and accelerate the push for Industry 4.0 in the various sectors. If we can take this period to leverage and adopt technology, increase productivity, reduce our reliance on foreign workforce and reskill our workers to take up new jobs, I believe Singapore is well-poised to take advantage of the new opportunities when the global economy recovers.

Third, be prepared to go regional. As supply chain and global manufacturing start to shift away from China, we need to refocus on regional manufacturing zones, such as Central and Eastern Europe (or CEE) for Europe, Mexico for the Americas, as well as India and South-East Asia countries for Asia. These shifts in the supply chain will cause inter-regional trade to slow down but intra-regional trade will likely grow at a faster pace. We must support our businesses to venture into these countries and prepare our workforce to work in these regions.

Fourth, prepare to reform. While Singapore has embarked on transforming our economy and our businesses to adopt Industry 4.0 technological advances, the progress is not as fast as we had expected it to be. However, with COVID-19, it has accelerated some of these transformations, particularly in the area of digital transformation. Adoption of digital solutions has increased exponentially. This calls for reformation, a change in our convictions or perhaps a rewiring of our professional DNA to open up to transformation or reforms. Within the last six weeks, we have learnt how to work and study from home, shop online, pay via e-payment, entertain and socially interact online. Online shopping, ordering of food and services via apps, telecommuting and virtual meetings have become the new norm. It has changed the way we look at everything, including the way we transform and the speed of transformation. Thus, I applaud the Government for sustaining the momentum of digitalisation. But can we do more by extending this support to all sectors?

Sir, in conclusion, never in the history of this nation has this House approved four Budgets within four months. So, let us not let these efforts go to waste and press ahead with the transformation. Let us be prepared for recession, be resilient, be prepared to go regional and be prepared to reform.

This assistance cannot go on indefinitely and we cannot keep drawing down on our Reserves. Whether you are a worker, business owner or even just a citizen of Singapore, let us all do our part to support one another through this challenging period. Let us unite in solidarity as one people, one nation, one Singapore. With resilience and fortitude, we shall prevail. I support the Budget.

Mr Speaker, the COVID-19 pandemic and the circuit breaker have gotten many of our families to experience first-hand and, more than ever before, the maniacal task of balancing work, household and childcare duties. Of course, this juggling act is nothing new to many women. After all, they had and still assumed the bulk of care-giving duties. For many men like myself, we are getting a really close first-row view of the Herculean effort needed to work from home, get through the work calls while participating in home-based learning (HBL), attending to potty calls and getting food on the table. The circuit breaker is perhaps also called the “Grand Resocialisation of the Working Men”. It would have been clear to many by now that juggling work and family should never have been just a women's thing. It is a family's thing.

For many of my male friends with young children and had the chance to work from home, this was the golden age of family togetherness. We are mindful that not all families could do that, especially those in essential services and needed at the frontlines. We are fortunate that we get to participate deeper than ever in our children's lives. We learned how they learn. We learned how they like to be loved. We learned how to love all over again. And amidst this strengthened bedrock of family, we discovered working without ostensibly losing productivity. We saw how work and family can thrive if only we work together.

In taking on more care-giving duties, we were forced to probe and challenge the fallacies of gendered norms. There might be a sea change in gendered norms creating a wave of gender equality greater than that experienced before. It is an important change that a progressive society must embrace. And we would do well to keep this momentum going. As we ought not to let a good crisis go to waste, we should not let this revival of family togetherness go to waste.

For a very long time – even now – we have often framed flexible work arrangement (FWA) as a support to care-givers, especially women on maternity or with young children. We have framed it such that women needed more support. COVID-19 has torn up such a frame. It is still true that they need more support. But that support must be a family-based one, with men strongly leaning in and making that change. For the first time since the advent of work have we seen so many people on FWA. But it is also evident that FWA can only work if (a) there is a strong care-giving infrastructure, and (b) FWA must be pervasive. For example, wherein FWA is unable to apply for essential workers needed in hospitals, a good childcare is critical for those workers. For those who can work from home, both parents really need to be around and both of them will need FWA.

The post-circuit breaker and COVID-19 workplace will not and must not be the same. FWA is, after all, no longer just a mark of a progressive employer but the enabler of a safer workplace. Many companies, such as Facebook, Twitter and larger banks, are preparing for some of their workforce to be telecommuting permanently. It is their way of building resilience within their workforce and, perhaps, also reap savings from reducing city office rentals and lost productivity through commuting.

Thus, the pandemic has shown employers that employees cannot be productive without accommodating their family responsibilities. We must now consider institutionalising the right to FWA for families. Such a right was previously denied to workers because companies found it impossible to adjust their business processes. Where CEOs have failed, COVID-19 has succeeded. Even traditional companies are conducting their work via Zoom. Employers should have a better idea now of how to successfully operationalise telecommuting and even other types of FWA. COVID-19 will bring down the last bastion of industrial era workplace practices.

As much as it is difficult to look beyond the next few months on how deep this crisis might be, some forward-looking companies are already looking at the scale and structure of their workforce. This is critical to emerging stronger from this crisis. We will need to consider changing the traditional work structure which is incompatible with the modern workforce. The traditional work structure assumes that there is a spouse at home or a childcare centre that allows that employee to work nine to 12 hours at the shopfloor or office. The new work structure prioritises care-giving and equips an employee to work away from the office.

On the other hand, we do acknowledge that not all businesses have the resources to allow for full telecommuting or FWA. With so many of our workers in SMEs, it is an important obstacle to overcome and we must do more to help them. The WorkPro Grant has been instrumental. Can we also consider enhancing this so that we can entrench telecommuting and FWA for the smaller companies?

Also, even though schools and childcare centres are slowly reopening, we need to be prepared for the possibility that we may have to close them again, should a second wave occur. We must explore how childcare or student care can be better provided if the whole family needs to remain at home. I have heard of some who even provided babysitting services and entertainment over Zoom for slightly older children.

The next thing is that the pandemic has also forced us to re-examine breadwinning vs care-giving. Breadwinning has always occupied primacy roles. After all, it generates economic output. Care-giving is that supporting enabler of breadwinning. This crisis has shown that we need both to be as important if we want to evolve to a higher form of the workforce. Thus, we will need to change our mindset on a couple of things.

One, valuing care-giving and unpaid work correctly. We have usually given higher childcare subsidies to working women. There are good reasons for doing this. Firstly, it encourages a higher workforce participation rate and, secondly, perhaps only those who work need childcare. But what if one of them has another family member that needs care-giving? And does keeping a family or household going require as much effort as working? A shorter duration of child or student care service is needed even by the best of homemakers at times. I hope that we can value unpaid work more accurately and provide greater support to our homemakers.

This crisis has illustrated that we need a care-giving infrastructure as much as building tunnels and data networks. This infrastructure should help families to better cope with family care-giving such as balancing the costs of child and elder care-giving. In addition, with added medical checks and costs of running childcare and eldercare facilities, fees might increase and increase the burden on families. How, then, can the Government reassure families?

Lastly, as I was hopelessly trying to attend to home-based learning or HBL and work calls as I was this morning, it dawned on me how lucky I was to have my wife to rotate HBL duties. Many families have that type of arrangement. But what about single parent families? The support for them is even more needed.

Next, I would like to turn our attention to support for younger Singaporeans.

With no end in sight to the spread of COVID-19, most companies have put off hiring if they have not already reduced excess manpower. For the graduating class of 2020 and some graduates in 2019, job prospects are not rosy. Many of them are concerned about getting jobs, let alone getting one of their preferred ones. One resident even told me that her University internship has been shortened to part-time because the company's workload had reduced drastically. This would affect her industrial learning and training exposure.

It is not surprising that many of our younger Singaporeans are anxious, having to worry about job prospects on top of the need to pay off their student loans. Since the pandemic started, Young NTUC, the youth wing of NTUC, has been actively engaging younger Singaporeans to help them secure jobs, upgrade their skills and build up resilience in the face of this unprecedented crisis. We have extended a series of career programmes to provide timely support and career guidance to help fresh graduates and young workers navigate in a post COVID-19 world.

The Resilience Budget's student loan repayment relief is a huge relief for graduating students. We also hope that in this Budget, that the Government can work with private education institutions and banks to provide similar relief for our private education institute (PEI) students. Their tuition fees are unsubsidised and the amount owed can be substantial.

Some studies have suggested that students graduating in a recession year earn less than their peers graduating in non-recession years, and that effect continues for a few years. This is primarily because new hires have scant bargaining powers and companies have reduced manpower budget during dire times, and pay increases will not jump dramatically post-recession. I would like to suggest a couple of ways to help them. The SGUnited Traineeship programme is very useful. We should also consider incentivising companies to convert these into full-time hires and support.

Even with the additional traineeships, it might not be possible to absorb so many new graduates. For some younger Singaporeans, it might be better to stay in school, further their studies or pick up new skills. I suggest that we can help to provide subsidies and loans for second diplomas, degrees or masters to give them the option to do so. For National Servicemen (NSFs) who are going to have their Operationally Ready Date (ORD) this year, could the uniformed services consider giving them the option to extend their National Service (NS) and deepen their skills since training has been compromised due to COVID-19 and that paramedic and security functions, for example, have continued to be in acute supply? Notwithstanding my suggestions on the Fortitude Budget, I support the Bill.

Order. I propose to take a break now. I suspend the Sitting and will take the Chair at 4.40 pm.

Sitting accordingly suspended

at 4.19 pm until 4.40 pm.

Sitting resumed at 4.40 pm.

[Deputy Speaker (Mr Charles Chong) in the Chair]

[(proc text) Debate resumed. (proc text)]

Senior Minister of State Heng Chee How.

Mr Deputy Speaker, thank you for allowing me to join this debate. I stand in support of the Budget.

In late July 2019, MOM estimated that there were 60,000 vacancies in our economy waiting to be filled. Now, less than a year later, we are staring at an annual GDP shrinkage of between -4% and -7%. Before the year 2020 began, the global economy was already feeling the effects of the US-China trade war. And then COVID-19 struck. The world became a totally different place for everyone.

If the projected shrinkage of the national pie materialises, it would be the worst since Singapore’s Independence. It reflects the serious anxiety we see on the ground – businesses worrying about survival, workers worrying about their jobs. This is why the Government has had to roll out four Budgets totalling $93 billion in as many months, and which entails drawing $52 billion from our national reserves – all unprecedented moves.

Even so, we cannot realistically expect the cushioning to completely counter what COVID-19 has done or will do – hitting both supply and demand at the same time. Not all businesses will survive this. Neither can all jobs be saved from this tsunami.

When push comes to shove, and beyond what the very important Jobs Support Scheme (JSS) can do for businesses and to save the jobs for all local workers, what specificaly will happen to the older segment of our workforce?

Over the past weeks, I have had discussions with union leaders and also with employers' representatives over the subject of older workers, in the context of COVID-19 and our economy. They shared their views candidly with me and I have put them together and will share some of their views here, and to make some recommendations.

First, on saving jobs. We know from experience and studies that older workers are at greater risk of being retrenched than younger workers. We also know that when an older worker loses his job, he will take longer than a younger worker of an otherwise similar profile to find new work, and even then, would in all likelihood take a substantial pay cut. Therefore, the most merciful thing to do for older workers is to minimise the risk of retrenchment.

The tripartite agreement to delay the CPF contribution rate changes from January 2020 to January 2022, the original proposed increases, that agreement to delay is a step in this direction, a step taken in order not to inadvertently raise the risk of retrenchment for older workers aged 55 and above.

In delaying the change of the increase, Government also decided to remove the corresponding wage offset which was meant to help employers shoulder half the cost of that CPF increase.

I hope that Government can consider re-channelling the $80 million originally earmarked for that transitional offset into strengthening the Senior Employment Credit for the next one year. This Senior Employment Credit, which was announced in the Unity Budget, incentivises companies to hire older workers aged 55 and above. So, it is paying for an outcome and every percentage help to companies is helpful towards inventivising employment and employability of workers. I believe that if Government is prepared to do so, it will send a strong and visible signal to both employers and older workers that it is resolute in wanting to save jobs for older workers in this difficult time.

In the Unity Budget 2020, Government also announced a new Part-time Re-employment Grant, or PTRG, for employers who offer it to re-employed workers aged 62 and above, who request for it. I hope that Government can apply this incentive to a slightly younger age group from age 55 and above, those who would be employed on that basis for the next one year, because this one year is a critical period.

I make this call not only to lower the cost of such workers to their employers who respond positively to suchrequest, but also in view of the fact that COVID-19 is especially harsh toward older persons and employers are therefore also worried about how to deploy such workers and manage their safe return to work; they have concerns. We must therefore find ways to incentivise employers to keep such workers hired, whether full-time or part-time, back to work at the workplace or telecommute, rather than to have the employers decide that they will do without them.

Next, matching jobs. No matter how hard we try, I think it is inevitable that some older workers will be displaced as companies take measures to cope and to transform. It is imperative that we find ways to help as many older workers earn income as possible. If not, they will become structurally unemployed prematurely, and will then have to depend more on their children, who themselves are under pressure, or on general taxes for support.

In this regard, I urge our National Jobs Council to pay due attention to job preservation and job creation for older workers as well. The Circuit-Breaker period has illustrated cross-industry job possibilities. Whether it is Professional Conversion Programmes (PCPs) for older PMEs or full-time/part-time/gig jobs in retail, logistics, healthcare, transport, the public sector and others, let us give older workers a fair go at these opportunities as well.

I recall that when we battled SARS back in 2003, there were a number of big projects that created many thousands of new jobs. That helped absorbed displaced workers. This time round, the Government has also announced moves to create public and private sector jobs and traineeships. MTI has also just very recently announced a very good investment pipeline coming into Singapore that will create thousands of jobs as well.