UNSKILLED WORKERS IN SERVICE AND RETAIL SECTORS (Shortage)

Mr Tay Beng Chuan asked the Minister for Manpower whether his Ministry will look into the current shortage of unskilled workers in the service and retail sectors and review or relax the policies governing the issue of work permit for businesses which depend on foreign workers to survive.

Dr Lee Boon Yang: Mr Speaker, Sir, the service sector has been allowed to recruit foreign workers from the traditional sources, up to 30% of the total workforce. Non-Traditional Source (NTS) workers are not allowed in general with a few controlled exceptions. This is because we have to balance employers' need for more workers with the impact of foreign workers from low-wage countries on our workers' wages.

In the manufacturing sector, where companies face greater foreign competition, we allow up to 50% foreign workers. For the construction sector, which has the greatest difficulty to recruit local workers, we have taken a more liberal approach that allows up to 5 foreign workers for 1 local worker.

We believe that the allocation limits are sound and provide a fair balance between employers' demands, our ability to compete and the concerns of Singaporean workers. Hence, we will not be generally relaxing our work permit policy on unskilled foreign workers for the service sector. But we will continue to welcome and facilitate skilled foreigners coming to work in Singapore under the various employment passes.