Parliament: Manpower Ministry studying ways to help injured workers, the disabled and elderly

SINGAPORE - The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) is studying ways to better support injured workers and help people with disabilities find work, Minister of State for Manpower Zaqy Mohamad said in Parliament on Monday (Feb 18).

Manpower Minister Josephine Teo also gave an update on the Silver Support Scheme for low-income pensioners, adding that more than $330 million was handed out in 2017.

Mr Zaqy said the ministry is considering making it a must for companies to report all work injuries that result in medical leave or the worker being given light duty.

This is part of a public consultation paper on amendments to the Work Injury Compensation Act that will be finalised in April 2019, he added.

Currently, the law requires companies to report incidents to the ministry when workers are given more than three days of sick leave, or if they are hospitalised for at least 24 hours. This is in line with the reporting criteria in other developed countries, like those in the European Union, he said.

Mr Zaqy, who was replying to Mr Louis Ng (Nee Soon GRC), also said his ministry will study if doctors, rather than the employers, should report such instances of work injuries. The Health Ministry will be consulted on this as well, he added.

The issue of adequate leave for injured workers has come under the spotlight after orthopaedic surgeon Kevin Yip Man Hing appealed last month against his conviction by a Singapore Medical Council disciplinary tribunal for professional misconduct.

Dr Yip did not give any sick leave to a construction worker after he had surgery for a broken collarbone, but certified him fit for "light duties" on discharge.

The tribunal, which investigated the incident after a complaint by the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics, suspended him for five months last year. The worker had fallen from a height in July 2011, fracturing his collarbone and ribs, and injuring his wrist.

More than 1,600 people with disabilities have found jobs through various job-matching services and programmes in the past three years, said Mr Zaqy.

Still, the Government can do better to help them, he added.

His ministry hopes to get more enlightened employers to take advantage of hiring schemes that have been rolled out, such as the Open Door Programme administered by SG Enable. The programme provides dedicated support to employers to hire and train people with disabilities.

He was replying to Nominated MP Anthea Ong, who had said she was concerned about the reportedly small proportion - about 4.9 per cent - of disabled people who are employed.

Mr Zaqy said the MOM will release more comprehensive data on the employment and unemployment of people with disabilities later this year, as the reported figure in the media last week was based only on publicly available data.

Mrs Teo said that every year, more elderly people are getting help from the Silver Support Scheme, and total handouts have also been going up annually.

She also said the scheme, for the bottom 20 per cent of Singaporeans aged 65 and older, may be extended to include the bottom 30 per cent in this group.

She was replying to Workers' Party chairman Sylvia Lim (Aljunied GRC).

Elaborating, Mrs Yeo said that in 2016, when the Silver Support was introduced, about 143,000 received quarterly payouts that ranged between $300 and $750, depending on the size of the flats they lived in.

Of this, 33,000 no longer received payouts in 2019, as the household incomes of 18,000 of them had risen beyond the eligibility threshold, while about 14,000 had died.

At the same time, 42,000 elderly people who were not receiving Silver Support in 2016 were assessed to be eligible for it by 2019, representing a net growth since 2016, she added.