INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION CONVENTION ON EQUAL REMUNERATION AND MINIMUM AGE (Ratification)

Mr Ong Ah Heng asked the Minister for Manpower whether his Ministry will consider ratifying the International Labour Organisation Convention (ILOC) Number 100 on "Equal Remuneration", which deals with non-discriminatory payment of women and men's salary for work of equal value, and ILOC No. 138 on "Minimum Age", which protects children by establishing a minimum age for certain types of work.

The Minister for Manpower (Dr Lee Boon Yang): Mr Speaker, Sir, Singapore has been a member of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) since 1965, when we became independent. We have ratified a total of 20 ILO Conventions including two of the seven core conventions, namely Convention 98 on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining, and Convention 29 on Forced Labour. As a member state of the ILO, Singapore participates in relevant ILO activities. We monitor the development of international labour issues closely and assess whether additional ILO conventions could be ratified.

Convention 100 on "Equal Remuneration" aims to ensure a non-discriminatory payment of salary for men and women for work of equal value. In Singapore, working women enjoy good social status and income that are comparable to their male counterparts. Our employment practices emphasize payment of salary based on performance and meritocracy.

Convention 138 on "Minimum Age" aims at protecting children by establishing a minimum age for certain types of work. We have no child labour in Singapore.

Hence, it would appear that we may be in a position to ratify these two Conventions. However, ratification of ILO Conventions entails obligations to fully comply with all their provisions. My Ministry will carry out a thorough study on the requirements and our follow-up actions under each of the conventions, in consultation with NTUC, Singapore National Employers' Federation (SNEF) and other relevant agencies, before we can consider ratifying Conventions 100 and 138.

Mr Ong Ah Heng (Nee Soon Central): Sir, can the Minister inform the House about the number of complaints that his Ministry received on gender based discrimination over the past few years? Second, in future, does he foresee that more women will work part-time and flexi-time? How would the Ministry ensure that such workers are protected from discrimination based on gender? And the third question is on the prohibition of child labour. While it is not a problem in Singapore, can the Minister tell us the number of companies which has been found employing underaged youths in the past few years?

Dr Lee Boon Yang: Mr Speaker, Sir, the Member has raised three supplementary questions. One is on the number of complaints received on gender based discrimination. Apart from a small number of complaints about gender discriminatory recruitment advertisements, my Ministry has so far not received any complaints concerning gender discriminatory employment practices adopted by any company.

Members will recall that in March this year, my Ministry, together with the NTUC and Singapore National Employers' Federation, had jointly issued tripartite guidelines on recruitment advertisements. I am pleased to inform the House that since the release of these guidelines, recruitment advertisements which specify gender, age, race or religion had dropped from about 30% to less than 1%. We will continue to persuade the last few employers to adopt non-discriminatory practices when they advertise for new employees.

The second supplementary question is on women doing part-time work and also flexi-time arrangements with their employers and how we will protect them from discrimination based on gender. Sir, currently, employees taking up part-time or flexi-work are covered by the Employment Act and its regulations. Their terms and conditions, in respect of statutory benefits, are pro-rated based on the number of hours that they work vis-a-vis the regular working hours of their full-time counterparts within the company. Our employment laws and practices are of course gender neutral. Sir, my Ministry is also looking into how our employment laws could be made more flexible to facilitate the employment of women in such work arrangements so that they can better balance work and family responsibilities.

Finally, he asked the number of employers who have been found employing underaged youths in the past few years. Sir, under the Employment Act, a child below the age of 12 years shall not be employed in any occupation at all. My Ministry has not received any complaint of such underaged employment practices for more than 10 years. Under the Act, young persons below the age of 14 years are also not allowed to work in industrial undertakings. They can only be employed in light work suited to their capability and capacity.

For young persons between the ages of 14 and 16 years, a small number are employed in industrial undertakings. Employers must notify the Commissioner for Labour with details of the young person and medical report to certify his fitness for the job. Last year, the Commissioner received notifications from 1,200 young persons to work in industrial undertakings. I should hasten to point out that almost all of them are working part-time in fast food restaurants and such kind of establishments. Fast food restaurants are classified as industrial undertakings under the Factories Act because cutting machines and other apparatus for food preparation are used in the premises. So employers of young persons between the ages of 14 and 16 years in fast food restaurants have to notify the Commissioner for Labour on this basis.

Mr J. B. Jeyaretnam (Non-Constituency Member): May I ask the Minister, when he says that our women in Singapore are paid comparable wages, is he able to assure the House that all employers in Singapore, whether they are in the private sector or public sector, pay equal wages to men and women doing the work of same value or the same work? Is that the fact? And, secondly, he says the Ministry, in conjunction with the NTUC, will make a study of the provisions in these two conventions. I do not know how long ago the conventions were promulgated. Why has it taken the Ministry all this while and has it started in its study of the provisions?

Dr Lee Boon Yang: Mr Speaker, Sir, with regard to equal wages for men and women, my Ministry has not received any complaint that companies adopt discriminatory practices. If the hon. Member is aware of such discriminatory practices being adopted by any employer, please bring it to our attention and we will look into the matter. As far as we are aware, employers in Singapore adopt the practice of paying their employees the same wages for the same kind of work being done. If the Member is alluding to the fact that when you look at the overall statistics, there is some wage disparity between male and female employees, let me clarify that wage disparity in the overall statistics of our labour force is not the result of discriminatory practices. It is due to the differences in the profile of male and female workers in Singapore. Many female workers drop out of the labour force when they get married and start a family. As a result, the current stock of female employees is generally younger compared to the male employees who are older because they stay in the labour force longer. So when we average out, the wage would indicate that the males tend to get a higher pay than the female. But that is because of this pattern of female workers dropping out of the labour force earlier than the male workers, and not because the employers deliberately pay them less.

Furthermore, a lot of our female workers are also employed in the production and related-type of work and as a result, you will find that the overall earnings of female workers may be depressed. There again, it is not because they have been discriminated against but because of the nature of work that they do. If you go to an electronics factory, you will find that the vast majority of the assembly workers or production workers are females. So, they are paid according to the work they are doing.

As to the study to look into whether we can accede to ratify Convention Nos. 100 and 138, let me point out to the hon. Member that there are many countries or nations who are members of the International Labour Organisation. They do not ratify all the conventions. Even the United States of America does not ratify all the conventions of ILO. In fact, the United States is one of the countries that has ratified the fewest number of conventions compared to many other countries. It is not surprising that we have not ratified all the conventions because each country's laws are crafted based on the special needs of the country. ILO provides a supranational legal framework. It is only when we feel fully comfortable and confident that our legal framework will not in any way clash with the legal framework imposed by ILO that we then proceed to ratify a convention. That is why I am saying that since we have reached this stage, there is no discrimination on the basis of gender, in terms of wages and also our minimum age laws will not clash with what ILO is espousing, that we can now look further into this matter to see whether in fact we should proceed to ratify these two conventions.

Mr Jeyaretnam: Mr Speaker, Sir, may I ask the Minister another supplementary question? Does he accept that unless there is a law which requires equal pay for men and women, there is very little point in women complaining to his Ministry? He says that his Ministry has never had any complaints so far.

Dr Lee Boon Yang: Mr Speaker, Sir, let me explain again to the hon. Member that even ILO does not require countries to enact a legislation on equal remuneration if they want to ratify the convention. In some instances, ILO will only require a tripartite declaration to the effect that the wages will be based on the work performed rather than on the gender of the workers. There is no reason for us to adopt his approach that for every issue, we must create or establish a law to ensure that the matter is dealt with. We have, over all these years, made progress and demonstrated that the meritocratic system works and employees will be paid according to the value of their contribution to the company and no employer is going to deliberately circumvent this by paying his female workers significantly less than what he pays to his male employees if they are doing the same job.