MINISTRY OF LABOUR

MR LEE YOCK SUAN Minister for Labour

Together with employers and workers, we will maintain a conducive work environment, and create more and better jobs for our workforce. We will protect the safety, health and social security of our workers.

Labour Relations

We will strive to preserve our excellent industrial relations climate.

The flexible wage system is in place in both the unionised and non-unionised sectors. Companies are in a better position to weather an economic downturn.

More Efficient Use of Manpower

We need to make better use of scarce manpower resources. To promote part-time employment, we have issued guidelines to help employers and workers work out suitable part-time schemes.

70% of unionised firms have raised the retirement age of their workers to 60 years. Progress in non-unionised firms, however, has been slow. We will decide soon whether to legislate the raising of the retirement age.

Foreign Workers

We will continue to permit a controlled inflow of foreign workers to complement the local workforce and facilitate economic growth.

We will promote the recruitment and assimilation of skilled and compatible foreign workers. For the construction industry, we have introduced a two-tier levy system with a lower levy for skilled foreign workers.

The Employment of Foreign Workers Act has been enacted. Employers caught with illegal workers will face higher penalties, including mandatory jail sentences for repeat offenders. Industrial Health and Safety

We will protect workers' health by preventing and controlling occupational health hazards and diseases.

We will encourage factories to adopt self-regulatory measures to prevent accidents. We will request more industries to run safety orientation courses as is being done for construction and shipyard workers.

Social Security

We will continue to improve services to CPF members and extend CPF to more Singaporeans, including the self-employed. We will gradually restore the CPF contribution rate to the long-term target of 40%, with equal contributions by employers and employees.