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SINGAPORE: Union leaders are pleased the Budget measures have given adequate attention to the needs of older and lower-paid workers.
Some said this showed the government was listening to suggestions from the ground.
Union leaders held a two-hour post-Budget dialogue session on Thursday night.
About 400 union leaders packed the auditorium at the NTUC Centre for a better understanding of the Budget measures rolled out.
Some called it a "gracious" and "generous" budget.
Electronic & Electrical Industries Union's Cyrille Tan said: "The lower-wage workers, especially in our electronics industry where most of them are operators, I think many of them will be enjoying the Workfare incentive scheme and I think that helps them."
Building & Timber Construction Employee Union's Patrick Teo said: "(Budget) really takes care of low-wage workers because in our construction line, some of our workers really have low salary. And most of them are actually paid daily, so it's quite a good benefit to some of our workers."
NTUC President, John De Payva, said: "The calls that we've made in the past few months were on the Workfare. We were saying, can government consider that those not on CPF - and we're talking about more than 100,000 of these people - be considered for Workfare. The effect was fantastic, because the government came out and say, you just need to contribute one-third, and we'll give you two-thirds of the Workfare. So that was very welcoming."
But there was one issue the labour movement would have wanted addressed and that was personal income tax.
No cuts were announced for personal income tax.
Generally, union leaders were appreciative of the Budget measures.
Many said the measures rolled out far exceeded their expectations.
Over the next few months, leaders from over 60 unions will go down to the ground to explain the measures in detail to their members. - CNA/ir
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