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SINGAPORE – The waste management and recycling sector is one step closer to having a progressive wage model (PWM) after a proposal was recently sent to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) to request the formation of a tripartite committee about the topic.
The deputy general secretary of the National Trade Union Congress (NTUC), Zainal Sapari, revealing the development on Thursday (October 22), said that NTUC had submitted the proposal after obtaining acceptance from the Association for Waste Management and Recycling of Singapore (WMRAS).
The labor movement awaits MOM’s response.
Mr. Zainal spoke on the sidelines of a visit he made with NTUC Secretary General Ng Chee Meng to Wah and Hua Pte Ltd waste management company in Kranji Crescent.
Mr. Zainal and Mr. Ng said they could not give a date for when the PWM would be implemented for the recycling and waste management sector as the process takes time.
For example, the tripartite committee would have to work with companies in the industry to develop the skills scale and also work with statutory councils to find appropriate ways to implement the model, explained Mr. Zainal.
His comments on PWM come after the issue aired in Parliament last week when the Workers’ Party lobbied for a universal minimum wage of $ 1,300 and the government cited figures to show that PWM had helped raise the salaries of 80,000 cleaners, security guards. and landscape workers by 30 percent in recent years.
PWM has been rolled out in all three industries since it was first raised in 2012, with some like WP raising questions about whether this rate of progress is too slow.
When asked about this on Thursday, Mr. Ng said that in the long term, NTUC hopes to increase workers’ wages in different sectors not only through PWM, but also by “looking at the total possibilities for workers.”
In elaborating, he said that the PWM, working in conjunction with the Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) scheme, which raises the wages of lower-paid workers, has helped improve the situation for workers, without employers having to bear only the burden of raising wages.
With the government stepping in to raise wages first with the WIS, employers can improve productivity so that the entire industry progresses and workers can receive more pay, he said.
Mr. Ng added that the way to help workers is to help companies too, so that the solution is win-win for all parties.
Speaking in Mandarin, he said that pushing for a higher wage without considering the realities of the industry would be akin to protecting workers ‘rice bowls but breaking employers’ rice jars.
If the higher wage is not sustainable for the industry, companies would close and workers would be out of work, he added.
“We must look at this issue in its entirety of PWM plus WIS. I would suggest that we take this point of view so that worker well-being is not just about the issues we are talking about today,” he said.
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