This Labour Day, let us remember this one fact: Workers make Singapore possible. The infrastructures and amenities we enjoy are built, maintained, and serviced by a variety of workers. If your electricity and wi-fi are working, you have a worker to thank. If you managed to get to your destination on time, thank the bus drivers. If you stepped out of your house and saw the garbage bins clear, thank yet another worker. If you are alive today Covid-free or not, thank the healthcare workers who have been working extremely hard during the pandemic.
Not just Singaporeans. Workers from all around the world make Singapore possible. Our roads and HDB flats are built by our migrant worker brothers. Our migrant worker sisters took care of us when we were young, raising us, while our parents may have be busy at their own jobs. And what about the iPhones and smartphones we all rely on so much? Thank a worker in Taiwan. Workers from around the world make Singapore possible.
While workers work extremely hard to make this country possible, they are not treated like the heroes they are. The credit goes to billionaires, politicians, and experts. While workers stuck their necks out during the pandemic to keep Singapore running as smoothly as possible, many saw their incomes significantly decline- this was especially true at the start of the pandemic. This would be acceptable if everyone was in the same boat riding this storm.
However, while workers’ incomes declined, billionaires got richer during the pandemic. How is it fair that those who worked hard to keep a society (in sickness) functioning get poorer while billionaires got richer?
The pandemic did not cause workers’ suffering. It worsened problems that had already been there. To address these problems, we must tackle the root cause.
Although the pandemic is clearing up, the cost of living has been increasing significantly. Food, electricity, and petrol prices among others are rising. This would not be a significant issue if our wages increased as much as the cost of living. Unfortunately this has not been the case. As a result, low-waged workers are wondering how best to stretch their dollar. This is further not helped by the impending GST hike and inflation. Imagine workers struggling to even have enough for three meals a day? For workers and the unemployed who have turned to running their own home based businesses, the cost of living has an added effect on their income too. The impending GST hike, and only causes anxiety and stress, thinking about the near future.
Cash-pay or gig jobs in sectors like food delivery, transport, restaurants, and even healthcare and caregiving are common. Workers with various health complications, disabilities, caregiving and other important priorities appreciate the flexibility and autonomy of such jobs.
Some employers appear to take advantage of such workers by cutting back on basic employment security, earned by the labour movement decades ago, to increase the rate of exploitation. This includes health insurance, paid leave, and a minimum income guarantee. These employers may avoid responsibilities through individualising risks. For example, they may enlist “individual contractors” or “partners” instead of full-time workers.
What happens when such employers or platforms suddenly terminate your services/employment? What legal recourse do you have as a “partner”? They sell you a dream of independence along with a false sense of equality while denying the ability to negotiate work conditions and wage levels. Is this what a fair contract looks like? Why can’t workers have both flexibility and security?
In Singapore, home ownership is desired. However, many are worried about rising housing prices. Without a high enough wage or other personal funding sources, HDB public housing may not be attainable. For others, the promise of homeownership may feel distant. Rental housing is an alternative consideration with a community one can call your own but these estates usually have conditions that are less than desirable. Some workers are even discriminated against from renting a home based on who they are. All of this is unfair. No worker should have to struggle to have a roof over their head.
Workers approaching seniority may worry about sufficient retirement funds. The government claims to be addressing retirement adequacy by making CPF contributions mandatory for platform workers, for example. However, do they consider the impact it has on the amount you have left for your current expenses?
“As riders, we note with grave concern the recent news about the upcoming reforms to our industry. We are especially concerned about the potential mandatory CPF contributions.
Many riders are already struggling day to day. There is nothing stopping the major platforms like Grab and Foodpanda from reacting to this news by cutting our fares even lower than they already are. This will only make life harder for us. In light of this, we riders will not support mandatory CPF contributions unless the government can guarantee us that our fares will not be cut if CPF is compulsory.”
– SG Roo Riders, A group by riders, for riders.
Without ensuring that platforms cannot cut fares beyond a certain point, workers are understandably worried about making CPF contributions mandatory in the name of adequate retirement savings, inevitably making the present lives of workers more difficult.
Workers in Singapore are also no strangers to poverty. In wealth-rich Singapore, 52,000 Singaporeans earn less than $1,300 a month (including Workfare supplements and CPF contributions).It is not unusual for workers to end up in spirals of debts trying to secure basic necessities including healthcare. When it becomes increasingly impossible to survive financially, some workers may even turn to desperate measures for a quick buck.
Our economy (GDP) may be growing, but why aren’t the lives of workers improving too? We clearly have enough wealth and resources to go around. But how much of it is choked at the top, far from the reach of the working class? The fact that workers are constantly not getting their rightful share of the wealth they help create is an injustice. But we must remember that justice has never been handed to us on a silver platter. No one will hand it to us. We have always had to fight for it.
This Labour Day, let us take a moment to also celebrate what has been achieved. Regardless of which sector you are a worker of, every time workers come together to express their grievances, the probability of change significantly increases. We have seen this with food delivery riders, healthcare workers, domestic workers, bus drivers, and construction workers, to name a few. The Great Resignation can also be described as a significant turning point for workers in Singapore. In December last year it was found that 1 in 4 workers in Singapore were planning to leave their jobs this year. Such a trend forces employers to rethink the way they treat workers since they cannot do without our labour.
This Labour Day, let us also acknowledge that much more needs to be done. We need to stop the GST hike. We need a minimum living wage for all workers regardless of nationality. We need to make employers take the demands and grievances of workers seriously.
This Labour Day, follow worker groups such as @sgnightingales @updatemeprn @sgrooriders @migrant_workers_singapore to stand in solidarity with them. We must come together to end exploitation and oppression. Not life.
If we believe that workers make Singapore possible, then we must also believe that workers have the capacity to change the system for the better.
Happy Labour Day! In solidarity, always.
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