Singapore – “Let’s get this clear: No one is against foreign labour. No one is against any particular ethnic group,” said Progress Singapore Party’s (PSP) secretary-general Francis Yuen in a statement addressing Singapore’s reliance on foreign labour.
Mr Yuen addressed the Ministry of Manpower’s statement “that businesses and families would have been severely hit if Singapore had disallowed migrant workers to enter the country after the circuit breaker,” as carried by The Straits Times on Wednesday (May 19).
He called it “disappointing” that MOM’s statement “completely fails to address the desire and call of many Singaporeans, which is not to close our borders to other countries, but only to temporarily close our door to the risk of highly transmissible Covid-19 mutated strains.”
Mr Yuen noted that workers from various other countries without such high risk should supplement Singapore’s foreign workforce.
“The call to temporarily close our borders to such high-risk countries was only made in the last two months and NOT last June,” he reiterated.
He highlighted that it is an opportune moment to “think out of the box and be creative to lessen our dependence on foreign labour,” adding that the new normal will no longer be economic growth based on low-cost labour as it is not sustainable.
He urged respective parties to “seriously look at the demand side to identify solutions” instead of looking at the supply end of the equation.
Mr Yuen provided examples to his point, such as standardising the design of Housing and Development Board (HDB) apartments to allow for more prefabrication instead of building locally.
“Standard design allows for economies of scale in prefabrication methods which allow for automation and driving up productivity and use of higher-skilled labour which may attract more locals to participate in this industry,” said Mr Yuen.
In other areas such as cleaning, the opportunity of automation reduces the need for manual work and increases productivity, added Mr Yuen, using Japan as an example.
“A holistic approach includes public education and encouraging the individual’s willing participation instead of the blunt use of punitive enforcement, for example imposing fines as penalties for failure to return trays at hawker centres.”
Mr Yuen noted that the longer-term problem of overreliance on foreign labour must be tackled “in earnest and with urgency” to protect public health and the safety of the Singapore community.
He also pointed out that no one was against foreign labour or any particular ethnic group, nor was the issue having foreign labour or where they are sourced.
“Rather how we should regulate this workforce from whatever country, in order to achieve a win-win for both Singaporeans and these foreigners, as they contribute as well as benefit from our economy.”/TISG
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