Part-time Work for Work Permit Holders

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Manpower whether the Ministry will consider allowing work permit holders to engage in part-time work, considering Singapore's current labour shortage.

The Minister of State for Manpower (Mr Teo Ser Luck) (for the Minister for Manpower): Mdm Speaker, we do not allow foreign work permit holders to engage in part-time work for several reasons.

First, we expect employers to bring in work permit holders for specific, full-time jobs. Work permit holders should not have the time to engage in part-time work on top of the work for their primary employer.

Second, allowing part-time work may put work permit holders at risk of exploitation, especially if employers offer their work permit holders to do part-time work for other firms.

Third, allowing part-time work may increase the overall demand for work permit holders, which would run counter to the national effort to restructure the economy and prevent over-reliance on foreign manpower. Firms should address their manpower needs by becoming more manpower-lean, or by re-designing jobs to be more attractive to locals, rather than by relying more on foreign workers.

Finally, allowing work permit holders to do part-time work is likely to increase competition with locals for freelance jobs or part-time work.

We offer support for companies through the Lean Enterprise Development or LED Scheme to transform and achieve manpower-lean growth. Many progressive companies have come forward to take up the LED Scheme and we encourage more to do so.

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang (Nee Soon): I thank the Minister of State for the reply. I have asked whether we can consider allowing work permit holders to do part-time work but I understand this might already be happening on the ground, but under the radar. The reality is workers want to work; companies need the workers. These are jobs that they cannot find Singaporeans to work in, especially at that particular shift. So, rather than ban, can we consider regulating, so that we can protect the workers?

As the Minister of State mentioned, if they are doing the part-time work under the radar, they might be exploited. So, if we are worried about opening the floodgates, then perhaps, if I could ask the Minister of State if they can consider opening up on a smaller scale, at perhaps a few industries or just one industry to start with, and study whether it works before we decide further on whether to ban it or to open it.

Mr Teo Ser Luck: The fundamental is, firstly, to protect the interests of our local workers. I think that is the first and foremost. Secondly is that you also want to protect the interests of the foreign workers, the risks of them being exploited. For some industries, we do actually offer some flexibility. For example, in the services industry, within the same company, we do allow them to redeploy their work permit holders across different departments within the same business, within the same company. That is possible.

Mdm Speaker: Dr Janil, I understand that you wish to make a clarification?