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By Ian Tan Hanhonn
Senior Minister of State for Manpower Zaqy Mohamad and tripartite representatives from the Tripartite Workgroup on Lower-Wage Workers kicked-off today a series of workshops to find ways to further uplift workers in the lower-wage group.
The Alliance for Action (AfA) for lower-wage workers, first announced by Mr Zaqy in his Committee of Supply speech on 3 March 2021, held its first workshop at Temasek Shophouse on 27 March 2021.
The AfA is a tripartite driven initiative, comprising 40 members such as corporates, community organisation representatives, youth leaders and unionists, that will look at starting ground-up projects.
These projects may include campaigns to appreciate lower-wage workers and initiatives to improve their working environments.
“Today you have about 50 action-oriented individuals from civil groups as well as community groups who are giving us ideas and hopefully, we get some ground-up initiatives through this engagement. This is just the first of several workshops in which we want to engage and garner ideas and see where we can deploy them and involve the public more,” said Mr Zaqy.
Labour Member of Parliament Mohd Fahmi Aliman, who also joined the workshop, said that the ground-up discussion between all the various members gave a very holistic approach towards uplifting the lives of lower-wage workers.
He said: “This is a very good platform for people to discuss simple ideas that can, not just affect policies, but also help implement something simple on the ground that can help workers. I think this is very useful.”
There will be a total of six workshops held over six months for the members of the AfA to develop, test and refine their ideas, before proposing them to the tripartite partners.
The workshops will focus on strengthening the public’s respect and appreciation of lower-wage workers; promoting more supportive working environments that would allow these workers to thrive both physically and mentally; increasing support and returns from upskilling; advocating for progressive wages.
Singapore Business Federation’s (SBF’s) Former Core Committee Chairman of Sustainable Employment Goh Swee Chen said that the AfA corporate members were chosen based on their ability to contribute ideas or their likelihood of benefitting from such ideas.
She said: “We picked companies that had a more direct relationship with consumers, or companies in the B2C (Business to Consumer) types of businesses.”
Ms Goh was also confident that the AfA would produce some tangible ideas.
“There have been 20 to 30 ideas that we have seen out there now, perhaps more than that – and I am very confident that from here, we will be able to get a good list of actions that we can take.”
United Workers of Electronics & Electrical Industries (UWEEI) General Secretary Tan Richard, who was part of the day’s discussion, said that the session was a fruitful one.
He said: “Everybody came out with some ideas on how we can further improve lower-wage workers’ lives.
“For many years now, our concern has always been for our lower-wage workers. The world’s economy is changing, and we cannot afford to let them be stagnant and left behind. We have to help them move towards the future together with the rest of us.”