Unionists repeat call to raise wage threshold for salary increments

SINGAPORE — Unionists yesterday voiced their concerns for workers earning just above S$1,000 a month, as they would miss out on the minimum S$60 wage increment recommended by the National Wages Council (NWC), despite being among the bottom 20 per cent of workers.

The S$1,000 cut-off laid down by the NWC was also a point of contention last year and unionists had been pushing for the threshold to be raised to S$1,200 this year.

“This year, we were trying to push the amount from S$1,000 to S$1,200, but I think (companies) strongly objected ... we needed to compromise somewhere, so we remained at S$1,000,” said Mr Toh Hock Poh, president of the Metal Industries Workers’ Union. Given that the lowest 20 per cent of workers will see wage rises over time, raising the threshold is necessary, so they will be able to enjoy wage increases recommended by the NWC, he added.

Labour parliamentarians were also concerned, with Mr Patrick Tay (Nee Soon GRC) saying that in negotiations with companies, he will push for graduated wage increments. For example, those earning between S$1,000 to S$1,500 could see increments of between 4 to 5.5 per cent while those earning below S$1,000 would continue to have a 6 per cent increment.

Mr Zainal Sapari (Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC) pointed out that, as recommended by the NWC, those who exceed the salary threshold should still be given fair increments, while National Trades Union Congress assistant secretary-general Cham Hui Fong said such workers should be given special consideration.

“Let’s look at how we could tier the percentages, so that while they may not enjoy the 6 per cent or more (in wage increase), they should not be disadvantaged just because they just crossed the S$1,000 mark,” she said.

Unionists also called for “qualitative” measures to deal with jobs that are outsourced, with the gridlock between service providers and buyers often suppressing wages.

“For outsourced workers, if the buyers don’t pay, (employers) can’t increase the worker’s salary. So, the responsibility should (also) be on the buyers,” said Mr Nasordin Mohamad Hashim, president of the Building Construction and Timber Industries Employees’ Union.

Mr Toh suggested that the best way to prevent wages from stagnating is to implement the Progressive Wage Model — which has been made a mandatory licensing requirement for the cleaning and security sectors — in all sectors.

While unionists supported the NWC recommendations on wage increases, Mr Thomas Chua, president of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said it is important not to lose sight of the broader objective of maintaining competitiveness by ensuring wage increases are in tandem with productivity growth.

The Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) added in a statement: “If their wage cost increases continue to outstrip productivity growth, they may lose their competitiveness and their workers may also be affected.”

Noting that smaller companies face greater challenges in improving productivity, Ms Cham said greater support could be given at a cluster level, where companies that have implemented productivity improvements can share their best practices to help smaller companies adopt such practices more quickly, instead of having to reinvent themselves.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY XUE JIANYUE

In the original article, we reported that Nee Soon GRC MP Patrick Tay said that in negotiations with companies, he would push for graduated wage increments, where those earning above S$1,000 will get between 2 and 3 per cent increment. The National Trades Union Congress said that Mr Tay cited the figures for illustrative purposes, and further clarified that it could recommend tiered increases of between 4 to 5.5 per cent for those earning between S$1,000 to S$1,500. We apologise for the error. This article was edited on June 2, 2014 at 2.10pm.