Pritam Singh on Platform Workers Bill

The Workers’ Party supports the Platform Workers Bill as it seeks to advance regulatory changes that will ultimately better serve the interests of platform workers by addressing their income- and health-related insecurities, Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh said in Parliament on Monday (Sep 9). However, he said the success of the Bill for the Singaporean public will turn on how reasonable anticipated price rises of platform services will be, and whether the increase is equitably distributed between consumers, platforms and workers. Mr Singh asked if the Government has any forecasts on this, and whether platform companies will be expected to reveal how much of their price increases accrue to CPF and work injury compensation amendments. On CPF contributions, he questioned the choice of an opt in rather than opt out system for platform workers above 30, saying the latter would be far more effective in securing participation. The fears of platform workers about being worse off if they opt into CPF must also be addressed, he said - such as whether companies may extract the employers’ CPF contribution by adjusting workers’ payment algorithms, or assign more jobs to workers who do not make CPF contributions so as to lower their wage bill. He wanted to know how investigations will be carried out if there are allegations of malpractice or discrimination. Mr Singh also asked about the mechanics of work injury compensation for platform workers as well as the expectations workers ought to have of associations that will represent them, as envisaged by the Bill.