FOREIGN MAIDS LEVY

Mr Chng Hee Kok asked the Minister for Labour whether the increase in foreign maids levy runs counter to the Government's policy of encouraging more female participation in the labour force.

Mr Lee Yock Suan: Mr Speaker, Sir, there is no contradiction between the increase in the foreign maids levy and the policy to encourage more Singaporean women to work. It is not the Government's intention that any particular policy should be pursued to its ultimate limit regardless of other consequences. There has to be a balance between the various policies.

Employing a foreign maid is only one of several options available to women who have to work and who have to cope with household and childcare responsibilities. The other options are:

(i) The married woman stops work after childbirth and returns to work after the children are older and more independent;

(ii) Part-time or home-based employment;

(iii) Traditional help from parents, in-laws, relatives and neighbours;

(iv) Foster-care;

(v) Childcare centres;

(vi) Sharing of household duties among family members; and

(vii) Local domestic help, mainly part-time.

Sir, there are over 40,000 foreign maids in Singapore today as compared to a total of 630,000 households. Clearly, the vast majority of Singaporean families have managed to cope without maids, either local or foreign. Many developed countries with higher female participation rates than Singapore (eg, Switzerland, Japan and Australia) do not depend on foreign maids.

My Ministry recognizes that it is not easy for working parents, especially mothers, to juggle their job demands with their childcare and household responsibilities. However, employing a foreign maid should not be the only or even the main solution to the problem.

The growing number of foreign maids shows that we are heading to a situation where employing a foreign maid is seen by many as the only option. We should avoid this for various reasons:

Firstly, the large number of foreign maids poses long-term social problems and increases demand on our public facilities such as medical services and transportation.

Secondly, the long-term effects on the values and work ethics of children brought up by foreign maids are still unknown and therefore we should be cautious.

Thirdly, other local alternatives for childcare and housekeeping will not develop fully. This will affect those who cannot afford to have maids.

Employing a foreign maid has assisted some Singaporean women to continue working. However, the situation becomes untenable if most working women require maids. The number of maids will then become extremely large. There are 207,000 Singaporean wives who are working and most of them are managing without maids.

The number of foreign maids in Singapore has shot up from almost zero in 1978, when the foreign maids scheme started, to more than 40,000 today. As the number is still growing rapidly, the Government has no alternative but to take measures to dampen the demand.

Mr Heng Chiang Meng (Cheng San GRC): Sir, since the Minister is quite impervious to other forms of proposals, except the financial one, I would like to suggest this proposal. Will he consider a form of progressive rate on the levy? That means those who earn less probably pay slightly less than those who earn more. In fact, another form would be a modification of this. Those who employ a second maid probably would have to pay a higher levy. And those who employ a third maid would pay a still higher levy.

Mr Lee Yock Suan: Mr Speaker, Sir, I do not know what the Member meant when he said that I am quite impervious to other suggestions.

As for his question about differential levies, the problem is that from a national viewpoint, the social cost of a maid is the same, whether she is employed by A or by B. And do you want to enter into a situation where we have different pricing of the same services to different people because of different incomes?

As for pricing the levy higher for second maids, this will not solve the problem because less than 5% of the families have more than one maid, in other words, they have two maids. And the Ministry does not, in general, allow any family to have more than two maids. In fact, most singles do not qualify for maids. Already there are administrative controls to try and dampen the number of maids. We have tried to defer this increase in the levy for a long time. But unfortunately the numbers have gone up and so I am compelled to take this action.

Mr Heng Chiang Meng: Sir, may I give a point of clarification first when I said the Minister is impervious?

Mr Speaker: I am sorry. Ask your question, please.

Mr Heng Chiang Meng: Sir, my question is this. If the Minister is so concerned about the numbers increasing, then I would like him to look at any scheme, any idea, that can dampen the numbers to any extent and it would surely be in line with his objective.

Mr Lee Yock Suan: Sir, I would say yes that my Ministry will welcome all suggestions on ways to tackle this problem. I realize that this is a complex issue, that working mothers deserve help, that we want the women to have children, to work and so on. So it is really a very complex issue that even countries like Japan cannot resolve, if you refer to a newspaper report a few days ago about the problems of working mothers in Japan. Sir, if Members have good suggestions, my Ministry will consider them.

There is one school of thought which says that we should allow only people who need maids to have maids. That is one school of thought. I do not know whether we want to go to that extreme. If I may remind you, ours is a free market economy. So we depend on a mixture of pricing and administrative controls. In socialist countries, there is this statement, "From each according to his ability and to each according to his needs." Do we want to go that way, such that even if you can afford to pay for a particular service, the State says you cannot have it because you do not need it?

I was following closely the debate the other day about problems of working mothers and I sympathise with them. We have taken this action because there was no alternative. We already have administrative controls in place since 1987. But the numbers are still going up so rapidly that the number of maids could double in maybe five years. So we have to do something. If you can come up with better ideas, please let me know.

Dr Koh Lam Son (Telok Blangah): Sir, if it is the case as the Minister has stated that the majority of families can actually cope without maids, then why did the Government allow maids in the first place; and, secondly, why allow increasingly large numbers over the years?

The second question is that if we are only going to allow families who need maids to have maids, what will be the criteria that the Minister will use?

Mr Lee Yock Suan: Mr Speaker, Sir, I was not the Labour Minister when the door was opened to foreign maids. Looking back now at this policy, it has its good and bad points. Certainly, it has helped a lot of working women, the better qualified and those who can afford maids to come out and work. And as a result, the female participation rate has gone up. So it has been a good policy. On the other hand, we cannot have too much of a good thing. So we have to control it. In fact, most mothers cannot afford maids with or without a levy. So other solutions must be found and childcare centres could be one of them.

On the other hand, I think we should avoid a situation where the family or average Singaporean tends to look to Government for solutions to every problem. The traditional solution has been for the grandmother to look after the grandchild. Unfortunately, with the easy availability of maids, I have had cases at my Meet-the-People sessions where the chap comes in and says, "My mother-in-law used to look after the child for me. But now she says, "Why don't you get a maid because I am already 50 and I want to enjoy my life? So why don't you have a maid?"" This is a trend that is coming and we must try and arrest this tendency. One consequence of this development could be the loss of this opportunity to inculcate in our young the social values of the older folks.

As regards his other question, I think he missed my point. I did not say that we should allocate maids according to needs. In fact, I am saying that we should allow a mixture of policies - needs, for example, where they have sick parents as well as other instruments like the levy.

Mr Heng Chiang Meng: Sir, when the Minister mentioned about the grandmother, does he mean that he thinks grandmothers should not be allowed to enjoy themselves?

Mr Lee Yock Suan: Mr Speaker, Sir, I do not know whether the Member was joking. I presume he was. Of course, I did not mean it that way. It is perfectly all right for everybody to relax and have a good time. But I am saying that there are, in fact, a lot of older women who are at home and looking after children, whether their own, their grandchildren or other people's children. This is, in fact, a good source of income for these people. So if you allow other sources, more foreign maids for example, they will be depriving these people of their income.