Jamus Lim on Platform Workers Bill

The Platform Workers Bill is a “comprehensive, even exhaustive, document” addressing a wide range of legislative changes and makes “good-faith efforts” to improve the rights and protections for gig workers, said MP Jamus Lim. It has the support of the Workers’ Party (WP), he said in Parliament on Monday (Sep 9). He noted that the present Bill covers workers providing on-demand delivery and ride-hailing services operating on digital platforms. This is an “appropriate prioritisation”, given their relative share of platform workers, he said. He expressed hope that it would consider eventually extending coverage to another category of platform workers - those who contribute towards and are paid for their part in a crowdsourced task. Turning to CPF contributions, Assoc Prof Lim said the WP believes that the scheme goes some way towards providing for retirees during their sunset years and has a role to play for platform workers as well. He said the WP is in favour of the stipulations in the Bill that will encourage such workers to enrol into the system. He stressed the need to monitor the rate of sign-ups, as well as develop a strategy for encouraging participation. He also stressed the need to ensure accurate reporting of earnings, in much the same manner that employers are obliged to accurately declare salary information for wage-earning employees. This will facilitate retirement planning and submissions to CPF. The data should be open to audit, ideally by a truly independent third party, he added.