The current Covid-19 pandemic has opened society's eyes to the value of the work that essential service workers perform, and Singapore must change how it treats such workers in the long-term, said labour MP Zainal Sapari (Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC).
This includes finding ways to ensure that the average wage growth of such workers - many of whom are in sectors that pay lower wages - continues to be higher than that of workers in the median income group, Mr Zainal said in Parliament during the debate on the supplementary Fortitude Budget yesterday.
He noted that under the Pro-gressive Wage Model (PWM), cleaners and landscape workers are currently given just two weeks' worth of mandatory PWM bonus, while there is no such bonus for security officers.
Giving such workers an annual one-month bonus would increase their annual wage sum by 8 per cent, he pointed out, urging tripartite committees overseeing these essential services to work together to enhance these workers' skills and wage ladders.
A PWM is a wage ladder that specifies higher pay for workers as they upgrade their skills.
Sectors where the PWM has been made mandatory are also currently characterised by an older workforce, limited use of technology and relatively low productivity, he said. These include the cleaning, security and landscaping sectors.
Mr Zainal said that workers in environmental services and the landscape sector, as well as security officers, should be regarded as specialists instead of being seen as low-wage workers. This can be done by improving the skills of workers in these industries and finding ways to raise their productivity - by tapping technology, for example.
This will also help to attract a younger and higher-skilled workforce to these sectors, which could in turn raise wages in the industries.
Consumers and service buyers should also become more socially responsible by rejecting service providers that offer services at low cost, but at the expense of the welfare of such essential service workers, Mr Zainal said.
Instead, service buyers should adopt an outcome-based contracting model, where contracts are awarded to companies with progressive employment practices that give due recognition to workers, rather than basing decisions on price alone.
"This crisis has also forced us to reflect on our core values and principles... and highlighted our unseen class system. At the same time, it also showed that we can rise to the occasion to put things right," said Mr Zainal.
He appealed to Singaporeans to play their part in creating a "new normal", where workers are treated in a more equitable manner, after the crisis.
He added: "If the $100 billion we have spent in this crisis does not lead us to a future where we can be more progressive, more equitable and more enlightened, then indeed it would be a tragedy if the only thing we did was just trying to survive rather than coming out stronger as a society."
