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SINGAPORE : There are now more contract and casual workers in the labour force, and Singapore's labour movement aims to get 6,000 of them onto the Central Provident Fund (CPF) scheme by year's end.
This is so that these workers - from the cleaning, manufacturing and logistics industry - can benefit from the Workfare Income Supplement, said the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) in a statement on Thursday.
Since June last year, it has successfully converted 4,000 low-wage contract workers from the cleaning industry to the CPF scheme through its Unit for Contract Worker (UCW).
This was achieved by educating employers that they are required by law to make CPF contributions for part-time and casual employees whose wages exceed $50 a month, said an NTUC spokesman.
Failure to comply could lead to legal action.
Friday saw NTUC Secretary-General Lim Swee Say, also Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, expanding the UCW's scope to include casual workers or those employed without contracts.
To reflect this change, it is renamed Unit for Contract and Casual Workers.
To a gathering of about 500 company representatives from various industries including the cleaning, security and logistics, Mr Lim said: "At (Sunday's) National Day Rally, PM Lee said one issue is, as Singaporeans live longer, how do we help them work longer, save more and get more insurance.
"What will happen to contract and casual workers as we do this? They should be treated as important contributors of the workforce."
Citing manpower statistics, he pointed to a worrying trend - more are now working as contract or casual workers.
This figure increased nearly 20 per cent between 2001 and 2004.
Currently, one in eight - or about 172,000 - is a contract or casual worker.
Nearly half of them are aged 40 and above with secondary education or less. Most are on contracts that are less than a year long.
Low pay tops the list of worries for this group, said Mr Lim.
"Many of them have expressed that they've no CPF," he said. "Even those with CPF, their employers under-declare their salary so they can under-contribute to their CPF. Sometimes, this is adopted in collaboration with the workers because their pay is so low that they want dollars in cash today rather than in their CPF."
He added: "A growing number of them also don't have insurance. If you (the employers) don't contribute to the CPF, how are they going to have Medisave? If they've no Medisave, how are they going to have Medishield?"
One way to solve the problem is for companies to adopt "best-sourcing", whereby contracts are awarded based on companies' performances rather than those quoting the lowest price.
This way, employers would have more money to pay their workers, he said.
"The progress for practising best-sourcing is a lot slower than we would like to see," he said. "We need a mindset change - that taking good care of workers would take good care of business. Hence, companies should outsource based on performance more than the cheapest cost. Doing so will benefit all parties - including tenderers, contract operators and their workers. Cheap-sourcing is the surest way to failure." - TODAY/fa
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