As mentioned earlier, the proportion of resident contract employees last year was 189,100, a 5% rise from the previous year. The number of resident employees on short-term casual and on-call employment is about 72,000.
The vulnerability of this group has been well-reported. Compared to permanent staff, these workers often receive no medical benefits, and may not receive any CPF contributions. There are also no retrenchment benefits.
As the government has identified this as an area of weakness, what plans does the government have to give more protection to these workers?
On the Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) touched on by Minister earlier, informal employees will only get the WIS CPF benefit if they contribute significant sums into their Medisave accounts. A year ago the Senior Parliamentary Secretary told Parliament that this requirement to pay into Medisave is a likely reason why many casual workers did not receive WIS benefits. Has the take-up rate improved?
(Note: this speech was delivered in Parliament on 13 Feb 2009.)
