WOMEN IN WORKFORCE

Dr Lily Neo asked the Minister for Manpower what constructive steps are being taken by his Ministry to attract more women into the workforce.

The Minister for Manpower (Dr Lee Boon Yang): Mr Speaker, Sir, the return of married women to the workforce, more often than not, is a family decision, involving factors such as alternative child care arrangements, costs and benefits, whether the women should stay at home to look after the family or go out and work to supplement the family income and also the confidence of the women who have been absent from the workforce for some years in returning to work.

My Ministry will try to facilitate the return of the married women back to the workforce and we will encourage employers to help working women to better manage family and work commitments so that they need not drop out as a result of family commitments.

Over the past years, through our tripartite network, we have been encouraging and emphasizing pro-family or family-friendly practices at the workplace. In 1996, we launched the "Back to Work" Programme with the support of the Productivity and Standards Board, NTUC and Singapore National Employers' Federation. This programme was aimed at helping married women re-enter the workforce. This will require employers to adopt more "family-friendly" practices.

Sir, currently, our labour laws do not restrict employers from arranging any workweek patterns to meet the needs of the companies and their employees. In addition, the Employment (Part-Time Employees) Regulations, introduced in 1996, provided greater flexibility for employers to pro-rate the benefits based on the number of hours an employee puts in and ensured that part-time employees are given the basic benefits stipulated in the Employment Act. The Regulations also allow the encashment of statutory benefits, such as annual leave and public holiday pay. The Regulations will facilitate the introduction of part-time and flexi-work arrangements. Employers are encouraged to introduce such arrangements so that married women could better balance their work with family responsibilities.

The promotion of family-friendly practices is not a one-off affair. It is going to be a long-term effort requiring the support of employers and unions and their members. We will continue to explore all avenues to facilitate married women's entry into the workforce.

Dr Lily Neo (Kreta Ayer-Tanglin): May I ask the Minister whether he would give further assistance through part-time employment schemes and whether his Ministry would facilitate further the opportunity for women to work from home or tele-commute?

Dr Lee Boon Yang: Mr Speaker, Sir, in fact, we do encourage as many employers as possible to consider tapping the pool of married women, the housewives, to supplement the existing workforce, and we encourage them to redesign their jobs so that some of the jobs can be offered to women on a part-time basis. Some companies are already taking it up, particularly those in the retail sector, the department stores. I understand that some hospitals are offering part-time employment opportunities to the nurses and I am sure the Member would have heard about the offer by the Ministry of Education of part-time teachers to work in the schools, ie, to teach on a part-time basis. As I said earlier on, it is a continuing effort. As the labour market tightens up in view of the economic turnaround, we are expecting more employers to have greater difficulties recruiting the workers that they need. So those who are more innovative will have to come out with new recruitment offers to attract the inactive women to rejoin the workforce.

Dr Lily Neo: May I ask the Minister whether his Ministry has new incentives, especially in areas that help women harmonise work and family, to help them stay in the workforce?

Dr Lee Boon Yang: Mr Speaker, Sir, the biggest incentive to an employer to go out and recruit economically inactive housewives is in fact to fill up his vacancy positions. He gets the workers that he needs. If he does not make that effort, he is going to be shorthanded. He is not going to be able to tap the opportunities that are available. Sir, that will be the biggest incentive to an employer. But of course, we understand that some employers have difficulties in re-engineering their jobs, for instance, and making part-time arrangement for their employees. We offer through the Productivity and Standards Board a programme called the Core Skills Training. If an employer is prepared to recruit a housewife for a particular job, we are prepared to help the employer provide the kind of training that is needed for a housewife to re-enter the workforce. This training will include confidence building, work effectiveness, computer basics, communication and quality work principles. We will support the employer with a grant of about $350 per employee on the scheme which includes a training allowance of $100 to be paid to the trainee to defray out-of-pocket expenses during the period that the new employee is undergoing training. This is just one of the incentives that we have to help economically inactive women re-enter the workforce.

We have also offered a job skill training programme for employers who recruit housewives. This will cover up to 80% of the course fee for the specific job skill training that is required to help a housewife acquire the skills that will be needed by the employer in this case.

Mdm Claire Chiang See Ngoh (Nominated Member): I was told that women in the high level jobs did not seem to get promoted in their career, and this is one of the greatest barriers why women do not want to go back to work part-time. And for those who have stayed part-time they feel demoralised at work. Would the Minister comment on this?

Dr Lee Boon Yang: I think we are on very tricky ground, Mr Speaker, Sir. It is not fair to generalise that women in the high level jobs are not promoted just on the basis of gender. There are equally significant examples where women are in leading positions in many organisations, both in the private and public sectors. So it is not fair to comment on that basis. But the situation in our labour market is that many women tend to leave the workforce soon after they get married and started a family. So on average, if you look at the profile of the workforce, you would see that women in Singapore earn a lower salary than men and some have pointed to that as gender discrimination.

In fact, what it really reflects is that women are withdrawing from the workforce. So the average experience level of women in the workforce is lower than men because they do not work that many years. If you average out the wages earned by women and men, you will find that men have a higher earning because they have more years of experience on the job. So it is not fair to conclude that women have been discriminated against in this sense. I would say that we should not generalise on this basis. There are many opportunities for women in Singapore to excel and demonstrate their capability to contribute to the company, and they have risen in their ranks. We have Japanese multi-national companies being led by women, we have local companies like the promising local enterprises and GLCs being led by women and we also have Government departments with women in very senior positions. We should look across the board instead of generalising and saying that women are somehow being discriminated on the basis that they are women.

Dr Lily Neo: May I ask the Minister whether he would agree that childcare leave and third child maternity leave are good incentives for women to balance between work and family and to remain in the workforce?

Dr Lee Boon Yang: There is a lot of flexibility, in terms of childcare leave. Employers, particularly in the unionised sector, do consider granting additional childcare leave, especially in the case when the employee's child is sick, or for whatever reason. In terms of maternity leave, the law provides for paid maternity leave for the first two children. Or in the case of the third child, instead of imposing a requirement on the employer to provide paid maternity leave, the Government has provided a whole slew of tax benefits for parents of the third child. The tax benefits more than offset the loss of the paid maternity leave. So this is a preferable arrangement rather than to mandate that employers must also grant paid maternity leave to all employees in the case of the third pregnancy. Because by doing so, we will actually be shifting the cost of paid maternity leave to the employers. As it stands today, encouraging families to have more children is a very urgent national objective. Therefore, the Government has taken the approach that we should do so by giving tax incentives rather than to pass the burden to the employers. So if we want to encourage parents to have more children, we should not, in doing so, impose unnecessary costs on the employers affecting their business competitiveness. Where it is possible, for instance, promoting and encouraging a bigger family, the additional costs can be borne by the Government by way of a special tax incentive. And I understand that the Ministry of Finance and IRAS have a whole slew of very attractive tax incentives for parents who want to have more than two children.

Mr Jeyaretnam: Mr Speaker, Sir, the Minister says that it is unfair to say that married women have been discriminated. Has his Ministry got any figures to support his statement that they have not been discriminated? I have called for a Board against discrimination more than once. Will the Ministry set up a Board against discrimination in Singapore to inquire into any complaints?

Dr Lee Boon Yang: Sir, it is the usual response from the Non-Constituency Member to set up a Board for this and to set up a Board for that. Let me suggest to him that if he has instances where he believes that a woman has been discriminated on the basis of gender or marital status, let us know. We have a comprehensive system to assist workers who have been so discriminated.

Mdm Claire Chiang See Ngoh: I would like to clarify the point that I was not talking about wage discrimination. I think the marketplace decides the differences and so far, I cannot see any evidence of clear discrimination, and that it has been fair. I am talking about promotion to the next job rank. And from some of the doctors that I speak to who opt to do part-time services, they feel that their full-time colleagues who started on the same level get promoted faster.

Mr Speaker: Order. Is the Member making a speech?

Mdm Claire Chiang See Ngoh: I would like the Minister to suggest ways where the part-time schemes can be seen as attractive and how we can go about doing that.

Dr Lee Boon Yang: Sir, when an employer promotes an employee, it must be on the basis of the contribution that the employee makes to the organisation. I think it would be difficult for us to dictate that part-time female employees should be promoted on the same basis as a full-time employee. This has got to be left in the hands of the employer who would judge who within the organisation can best make a difference to the organisation's success and, in that case, promote the appropriate person.

Dr Lily Neo: May I ask the Minister whether our incentives are too restrictive if they are related to income tax because 70% of Singaporeans do not pay income tax?

Dr Lee Boon Yang: Sir, while it is true that 70% of employees do not pay income tax, it is also equally important that for those who want to have more children, a bigger family, must be in a position to support and look after these children. The encouragement to have a bigger family is to have more than two, if you can afford to look after them. Therefore, our tax measure is closely related to this approach of encouraging those who are in a better position to provide the family environment and support for more children to do so, rather than to pass this cost of having bigger families to the employers and, therefore, loading them with a burden and, in a way, even affecting their competitiveness and business survival.

Dr Lily Neo: May I ask the Minister whether he will agree that in view of the declining total fertility rates in Singapore, we should review our stand and whether he could reconsider changing some of the incentives?

Dr Lee Boon Yang: Sir, there is already an existing high-level committee led by the Permanent Secretary, Prime Minister's Office, who is looking into new ways and means of encouraging procreation. So we shall wait for the committee to consider various suggestions.