MINISTRY OF LABOUR

Comprehensive Labour Legislation

A comprehensive Employment Bill will be introduced in Parliament. The Bill will standardize and regulate the terms and conditions of employment for all employees irrespective of whether they are workmen, clerks or shop assistants and the existing Labour Ordinance, 1955, the Shop Assistants Employment Ordinance, 1957, and the Clerks Employment Ordinance, 1957, will be repealed. Among other things the Bill will provide a standard working week of 44 hours for all employees, regulate overtime work, to enable a wider spread of employment, limit certain fringe benefits to lessen abuses and increase productivity and promote more industrial growth.

Central Provident Fund

It is necessary to mobilise domestic savings to be employed in our counter recession strategy. Under consideration are selected increases in the rates of Central Provident Fund contributions and a new range of contributors covering all employees including those in Government and Statutory Boards in addition to their pensions or other provident fund benefits and self employed persons.

Concurrently a scheme is being worked out between the Ministry and the Housing and Development Board to enable balances in the present Central Provident Fund to be set off against the first instalment of Housing Board flats. The additional Central Provident Fund contributions can be used to pay off monthly instalments of both Housing and Development Board and privately built homes. It is estimated that about 60 per cent of the 2, 3 and 4-room tenants of the Housing and Development Board flats will thus be enabled to purchase their present flats. The lowering of assessments is also being considered to make the home ownership scheme attractive.

Training

The Hotel and Catering Training Centre will be extended to train waiters, barmen, room stewards, receptionists and cashiers for the expanding hotel and catering industry. Technical assistance had been sought under the Colombo Plan and the I.L.O. for the expansion of the Training Centre. Soon the training of cooks and courses for supervisory and management personnel will also be conducted at the Centre.

A crash programme for the retraining of redundant base workers was started in April this year at the Singapore Vocational Institute, the Economic Development Board's Workshop, Polytechnic and at 5 secondary technical schools. These training courses will equip retrenched workers with the basic skills in various trades. Further, steps have been taken to establish industrial training centres which will be equipped with modern machinery to enable trainees to gain actual production experience. These centres will offer training and retraining facilities not only to our citizens retrenched by the British Services but also to school-leavers who desire to acquire industrial skills to get employment in blue collar jobs.

Manpower Planning

A Manpower Planning Committee will be established to study the supply and demand position in depth and breadth. The studies will embrace educational and training requirements and supply the necessary information for comprehensive manpower planning.