In September 2024’s sitting in Parliament, PSP’s Leong Mun Wai addressed Parliament supporting the Platform Workers Bill as a crucial step toward improving the welfare and pay equity of platform workers. He also advocated for additional protections against potential discrimination and ensuring fair compensation.
Mr Speaker Sir,
The Progress Singapore Party welcomes the introduction of the Platform Workers Bill as an important first step in improving the welfare of platform workers.
There are now more than 70,000 platform workers in Singapore, as of 2023[1]. This is a significant portion of our workforce, and many of them are lower-income and have been displaced from the job market in recent years.
While platform workers generally enjoy more flexibility than employees, they are also subject to significant management control by platform companies when their supply of services are matched to demand by algorithms. It is timely that our legislation is now being updated to create a new class of workers distinct from employees and self-employed persons to protect the rights of platform workers.
Equitable Pay for our Platform Workers
This Bill recognises the need to ensure more equitable pay for our platform workers. We support the change made by the Bill to align the CPF contribution rates for platform workers and platform companies to those of regular employees and employers, for platform workers born on or after 1 January 1995.
This is a step in the right direction which will ensure that younger platform workers have adequate protections for housing and retirement. The opt-in regime for older platform workers also meets the desire of many older platform workers to opt out of CPF contributions on their earnings in order to maximise their take-home pay.
However, in order to ascertain that this change will really benefit the platform workers, we would like to ask the Government if it has gotten commitments from the platform companies that they will not reduce incentives or earnings rates for platform workers to offset their increased costs from paying Employer CPF contributions?
During the COS for MOM in 2023, my colleague, Ms Hazel Poa had raised the issue of whether platform workers who opt in to CPF contributions would be discriminated against because they are more costly, and asked whether measures would be put in place to prevent discrimination against those who opt in.
At the time, SMS Koh Poh Koon clarified that platform workers would not be covered under the upcoming workplace fairness legislation, and that it is not in the interest of the companies to discriminate against workers who opt in for CPF, because over time, the bulk of the workers available for platform work will need mandatory CPF.
However, PSP is concerned that in the short term, there are insufficient protections to prevent Group A workers who opt in for CPF, from being discriminated against. We are disappointed that the Bill does not contain provisions to prevent platform companies from discriminating against Group A workers.
PSP proposes that MOM should regularly receive reports from the platforms on the percentage of jobs that are completed by Group A workers, as well as the percentage of Group A workers on their platform. MOM should regularly monitor these data points to ensure that there is no evidence of platforms discriminating against platform workers who may be more costly because they opt in to CPF contributions.
We would like to go further to ask MOM to consider proposing the ultimate safeguard of a minimum base fare per delivery or rideshare?
We propose that platform workers can form platform work associations that function similarly to trade unions. A minimum base fare could be negotiated between the platform work associations and the platform companies as part of the negotiations on the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The PSP’s view is that platform companies and platform work associations should work towards an appropriate minimum base fare, calculated with reference to our proposed Living Wage of $2,250 per month (before CPF contributions) for 44 hours of work per week.[2]
While platform workers are viewed by some as independent contractors, the worker’s overall compensation is to a large extent determined by the platform companies. As a result, appropriate policy has to be set to ensure that platform workers are compensated fairly for their services.
The 2022 IPS survey “Precarity in Platform Work: A Study of Private-Hire Car Drivers and Food Delivery Riders” found that more than 90% of full-time private-hire car drivers across all age cohorts were worried that they will no longer able to earn enough money because the financial incentives given by (platform companies) are increasingly being cut or reduced[3]. Employer CPF should not be another reason for platform companies to reduce incentives for platform workers.
Hence, once the CPF contribution regime is implemented in 2025, the Government should closely monitor the situation to ensure that platform companies are not reducing incentives or earnings rates for platform workers to offset the higher labour costs that they need to shoulder by paying CPF contributions for platform workers.
Safety of our Platform Workers
When deliberating this Bill after the first reading, we were of the view that while equitable pay is important, it is also important to ensure the safety of our platform workers is not compromised by the pressure of work.
As such we are glad that one of the key changes made in the Bill is that platform companies must now pay compensation to platform workers for work injuries at the same scope and level as employees are entitled. PSP supports these provisions. This is a much better improvement over the voluntary work injury compensation coverages currently provided out of goodwill by platform companies.
We also note that the work safety of platform workers will be further strengthened by the draft Code of Practice for Platform Services, which the WSH Council has put up for public consultation last week. Under Part 4.5.1 of the Code, platform companies should limit the load to be delivered to the capacity of the delivery bag and/or the maximum load weight of the vehicle or active mobility device. PSP supports this as it will better protect platform workers from being exposed to unsafe situations due to excessive loads.
However, Part 4.5.2 of the draft Code of Practice does not address the fact that platform workers may feel pressured into accepting jobs during unsafe weather conditions because of the penalties imposed by platform companies on cancellations.
The PSP thus proposes that Part 4.5.2 of the draft Code of Practice should be amended to include that platform companies should remove the penalties for workers who reject or cancel orders during bad weather conditions. Such cancellations or rejection of orders should not be included when rating the platform worker’s performance. This is not an extraordinary step, given that one major platform company, Deliveroo, does not penalise riders in this way.
We hope that MOM will consider these suggested measures to ensure that this Bill and the Code of Practice will be more effective in ensuring a safer working environment for all platform workers.
Mr Speaker, I will speak in Mandarin please.
新加坡前进党对《平台工作者法案》的推出表示欢迎，认为这是改善平台工作者福利的重要第一步。
截至 2023 年，新加坡有超过 7万名平台工作者，是我国劳动力的重要组成部分。其中许多人来自低收入群体，并在近年来因为各种原因被迫退出传统就业市场。
虽然平台工作者在灵活性方面享有一定优势，但他们的工作安排往往受到平台公司通过电脑算法进行需求匹配的严格管理控制。因此，前进党认为此次立法及时且必要，旨在为平台工作者建立一个与普通雇员和自雇人士有所区别的新工作类别，以更好地保障平台工作者的权益。
关于平台工作者的公平薪酬问题，前进党支持法案中提出的改变，将平台工作者和平台公司的公积金（CPF）缴纳率与普通雇员和雇主的缴纳率对齐，适用于1995年1月1日或之后出生的平台工作者。前进党认为，这是朝着正确方向迈出的重要一步，有助于确保年轻平台工作者在住房和退休方面获得足够保障。同时，年长的平台工作者也可自愿选择是否参与公积金缴纳制度，符合许多年长工作者的意愿。
然而，前进党担忧平台公司可能会通过降低平台工作者激励或收入率，来抵消增加的公积金成本。并想请问政府，是否得到平台公司的承诺，不会通过这些手段影响平台工作者的收入？
并且，前进党建议人力部定期从平台公司获取数据，监测选择缴纳公积金的工作者所完成的工作比例，以确保没有出现歧视平台工作者的行为。
同时，前进党建议设立最低基础费率，由平台工作者协会和平台公司协商确定，确保平台工作者的收入不会因平台公司的运营成本增加而受到影响。比如，前进党认为，该费率可以参考我们提出的最低生活工资，即每月2,250新元（扣除公积金缴款前）以每周44小时工作计算。
在平台工作者的安全问题上，前进党赞成法案中规定平台公司须为平台工作者提供与雇员同等的工伤赔偿。这比目前基于善意提供的自愿赔偿有了显著改进，能够减轻平台工作者因工受伤后面临的财务风险，以及在无法工作时的收入损失。
此外，前进党也对《平台服务实践守则》草案表示支持，尤其是守则中第 4.5.1条关于限制配送货物重量的规定，认为这有助于避免平台工作者因过重负担而遭遇不安全的工作环境。
然而，前进党建议对守则草案的第4.5.2条进行修改。平台工作者在恶劣天气下接受订单时往往面临压力，担心因取消订单而受到平台公司的处罚。前进党主张平台公司应取消在恶劣天气下拒接或取消订单的处罚，并且这些取消不应计入平台工作者的接受率或取消率的计算。这一建议参考了像Deliveroo这样的主要平台公司，它们已不对平台工作者因天气原因取消订单进行处罚。
前进党呼吁政府促成平台工作者成立平台工作协会，与平台公司合作，推动改善平台工作者的工作条件，特别是在恶劣天气下的工作安全问题上，以确保所有平台工作者都能够在安全和公平的环境中工作。
Mr Speaker Sir, notwithstanding the clarifications and suggestions made in my speech, PSP supports the Bill.
For Country For People.
[1] https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/politics/bill-to-implement-stronger-protections-for-platform-workers-tabled-in-parliament
[2] 2250 * 12 mth = 27000, / 52 weeks / 44 hrs = 11.80 per hour, based on 2.2-2.5 deliveries per hour, about $4.70 to $5.40 base fare per delivery, which is in line with SG Riders recommendations. Of course, this is before deducting expenses.
[3] https://lkyspp.nus.edu.sg/docs/default-source/ips/working-paper-44__precarity-in-platform-work.pdf
