Job Flexibility Scheme Will Encourage Exploitation And Abuse

26 June 2013

The Ministry of Manpower has announced that from next week, restaurants and retailers can get their foreign work permit holders to do more than one job. The concession, first announced in February, is to help companies cope with higher levies and smaller foreign worker quotas in the service sector. Previously, services sector workers could only do the jobs stated on their work permit cards. This new concession is known as the ‘Job Flexibility Scheme’.

While the Scheme has the intention to increase productivity in the work place, we fear that it may only legitimise exploitation. HOME has met many low wage workers from the services industry who are asked to work excessive hours and to perform a wide variety of tasks beyond what they are legally required to do. 

The most typical examples can be found in food establishments. A cook in a restaurant may end up as a kitchen assistant, waitress, dishwasher and garbage collector. Even though Ministry guidelines stipulate that an employer needs to seek permission from workers before deploying them to multi task, it is very likely that they will find it hard to refuse their employer for fear of losing their jobs. These workers may also feel pressurised to complete their tasks even if it exceeds statutory limits.  

Whilst employers are urged to share gains in productivity, they may not do so to trim down business costs. This is especially so for small and medium businesses with much smaller profit margins. An increase in responsibility without a corresponding increase in salary or productivity incentive payments may back fire and cause resentment. This would be even worse for productivity. 

Many Singaporeans are already unwilling to work in the services industry because of the long hours and irregular shifts. Allowing greater flexibility for employers to assign more tasks to foreign workers will create greater expectations for local workers to follow suit. This will further discourage Singaporeans from joining the services sector, and leave those who are already in it more vulnerable to exploitation.