Singapore’s Advisory Committee on Platform Workers, announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in August, is in the early works to improve gig workers welfare, as reported by the Straits Times on September 15. Its three focuses are financial protection for work injury, retirement and housing adequacy as well as enhancement of gig workers’ bargaining power against those companies. The committee will collect opinions from both workers and companies in the gig economy with an aim to providing fair and balanced recommendations by the second half of 2022, which might include legislative suggestions.

Gig workers include taxi drivers, food delivery riders, ride-hailing drivers, and else, most of which lack basic job protections. For instance, gig economy companies do not contribute to the Central Provident Fund (CPF) for those workers, for the firms do not regard gig workers as official employees. Singapore’s CPF is a compulsory savings plan for working Singaporeans and permanent residents regarding retirement, healthcare, and housing. For employees aged 55 and below, the contribution rate of employers and employees themselves are respectively 17% and 20% of an employee’s monthly gross salary. Besides, gig workers are also not protected by Singapore’s Employment Act to be included in any worker unions, which means they cannot rely on the unions’ collective bargaining and dispute resolution mechanisms to negotiate with the companies.

At the end of August, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong mentioned providing more support for gig workers, considering their employee-like relationships with those companies they work for. The prime minister indicated that the Ministry of Manpower was now studying that issue. In the meantime, offering better protection to gig workers could be conducive to the sustainability of the gig economy, as they play an important role in the fast-growing of companies like Grab and Deliveroo . However, prior to solving the basic protection issue, regulators and advisory institutions should consider the fact that gig workers usually work for multiple companies at the same time. The Advisory Committee stated that it would hold a panel to directly hear views from gig economy companies for a deeper understanding through the gig worker performance data they collected.

Sources:

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/politics/advisory-committee-on-gig-workers-meets-for-first-time-does-not-rule-out

https://www.cpf.gov.sg/Employers/EmployerGuides/employer-guides/paying-cpf-contributions/cpf-contribution-and-allocation-rates

https://kr-asia.com/singapore-eyes-gig-worker-welfare-in-wake-up-call-for-asean-startups