Deep Dive Podcast: Protecting platform workers – the benefits and challenges
When you are in your 20s, you are not likely to think of housing or retirement needs and this is why legislation helps in creating some security for our platform workers, say our guests in this week's Deep Dive podcast.
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CNA's weekly news podcast takes a deep dive into issues that people talk about at dining tables and along the office corridors. Hosted by Steven Chia and Crispina Robert.
On Tuesday (Sep 10), Singapore passed the Platform Workers Bill, which legislates stronger protections for delivery riders, private-hire car and taxi drivers. Why was legislation needed and what does this mean for customers of platforms offering services like food delivery and transportation?
Yeo Wan Ling, assistant secretary-general of NTUC and Associate Professor Walter Theseira from the Singapore University of Social Sciences speak to Crispina Robert.
Here's an excerpt from the conversation:
Crispina Robert, Host:
Let's talk about the CPF component. I was struck by the age at which they say it's mandatory and (when) it's not. So, this will kick in on Jan 1 next year. It's mandatory for those 30 and below. But why 30? There might be those between 40 to 50 who also have these commitments too.
Yeo Wan Ling, NTUC Assistant Secretary-General:
Choice is important. As you mentioned, the range of workers is actually very wide. For a lot of the younger workers that we speak to, they are very welcoming of the CPF because it allows them to bring back a larger (overall) pay package. Because right now, if they are employee-like, you should be getting CPF rights.
With this, you are looking at an additional 17% when this rolls out to its entirety. But at the same time, we have a substantive group of people who are quite secure. For instance, our taxi drivers. They probably have their homes fully paid.
We just want to give people the option to be able to opt in. I've been hearing that a lot of the taxi drivers are also wanting to be part of this programme, because it does add to, maybe not the retirement adequacy part, but definitely the healthcare part.
Crispina:
Tell me a little bit more about this because they do build their nest egg, but ... they already don't make much. So now with the CPF, they're going to take home less. That's obviously the thing that stares in their face.
Walter Theseira, transport analyst:
I want to approach it from a couple of angles. First off, anytime a discussion of CPF contributions is made in the context of self-employed workers, I would say generally, (they) get a bit nervous because they realise that making more CPF contributions means that their take-home (pay) goes down.
For many of them, because the work is not super well-paying, they are finding that their budget is already quite stretched with their take-home (pay). So, it's natural for them to wonder what's going to happen when 20% starts going into my CPF account. That's one issue, of course.
The other issue, and this relates to actually the choices that young workers have, right?
The interesting problem is that while a lot of platform work is low-skill, the workers themselves are not low-skill. A considerable (number) have qualifications or skills that would allow them to take up CPF-paying jobs with better career trajectories.
But, I suspect that at least for some of them right now, one of the reasons why they don't do that is because the take-home pay from platform work looks too attractive compared to some of these other jobs out there which would require the use of their skills, but have a career ladder.
The problem is, for the first couple of years, it doesn't look so attractive taking up the first rung of this ladder, and that's when they go into platform work.
The balance between the attractiveness of platform work and these viable careers has to change.
