Alongside fellow panellists comprising Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (ASME) Vice-President Kurt Wee, Economist Yeoh Lam Keong and Social Worker Cindy Ng, Mr Ang Hin Kee (pictured, third from right) expressed that the main concern of the current 400,000 low-wage workers in Singapore was stretching their limited dollars to deal with living costs and expenses.
He said: “I think the real focus is how do we tackle wages that are not increasing as fast as rising costs; whether it be through GST credits, Workfare Income Supplement or other various ways to supplement utilities, transport and education.
“Ideally, these are ways in which you’re transferring revenue onto the hands of people to deal with expenses.”
Hence, instead of regulating wages, there are schemes in place such as the Workfare Income Supplement scheme to help people with their predicaments.
At the same time, there are also a lot of options for employers to tap on to improve their workers’ productivity and wages as the economy goes through restructuring.
Mr Ang shared the example of a bean sprout manufacturing company he recently visited and how it had been successful in automating its processes with Government funding.
“We went down to explain the funding available, such as the Inclusive Growth Programme or the Productivity and Innovation Credit… So for our Small and Medium Enterprises, you need to go case by case, company by company, and say, let’s explore how to do it,” Mr Ang added.
A viewer also commented that the tripartite model had failed the low-wage workers and that it needed to be dismantled.
In response, Mr Ang recalled how Singapore was able to recover from the deep recession three years ago through tripartite co-operation.
“Until today people are still grappling with how Singapore went through that process, and fundamentally that has to do with the trust between these three parties of the Government doing their bit, unions doing their bit and employers doing their part,” he said.
He added that a similar approach can be applied in addressing the concerns of the low-wage workers, as there is the responsibility on the part of the individual worker, employers as well as the Government to improve their situation.
