Vision: A Great Workforce, A Great Workplace

Mission: To achieve a globally competitive workforce and great workplace, for a cohesive society and a secure economic future for all Singaporeans.

To achieve this mission, MOM has three strategic outcomes:

• Globally Competitive Workforce
  Developing a dynamic and flexible workforce that drives economic growth and meets industry needs.
• Income Security & Lifelong Employability for Singaporeans
  Enhancing employability of Singaporeans through skills upgrading, improving retirement adequacy and strengthening income security of vulnerable workers.
• Workplaces for Optimal Performance
  Developing safe, healthy and harmonious workplaces with good employment standards and practices for all workers.

A total budget of $1.05 billion (inclusive of $120 million from the Lifelong Learning Endowment Fund) has been allocated to MOM in FY2009 to achieve the mission.

MOM’s FY2009 BUDGET

Globally Competitive Workforce

In the face of globalisation, intensifying competition and more volatile economic cycles, MOM seeks to develop a globally competitive workforce. This is a workforce that is dynamic, flexible and responsive, with the right number of workers to meet industry needs, with the right attitude, the right skills, and at the right price.

To achieve this, the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) aims to enhance the capability of the Singapore workforce through promoting and facilitating skills acquisition and upgrading. MOM also regulates the inflow of foreign manpower to complement and augment the local workforce at various skills levels to meet the needs of businesses.

$457.7 million (43.6% of MOM’s FY2009 budget) will be spent on developing a globally competitive workforce. The key initiatives and programmes in FY2009 are highlighted below:

Flexible and Responsive Labour Market

• Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR)
  
  In December 2008, MOM and WDA introduced SPUR, a tripartite programme developed together with the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF). SPUR is a national response to help companies and workers manage the impact of the economic downturn and build new capabilities to seize opportunities during the economic recovery. SPUR will be a 2-year programme, costing $650 million. Under SPUR, WDA will double the number of training places in the Continuing Education and Training (CET) centres from 110,000 in FY2008 to 230,000 in FY2009. Employers and workers will also benefit from enhanced course fee support, absentee payroll and training allowances.
• Labour Market Sensing and Signaling
  
  MOM will deepen its sensing of the labour market in key industry sectors to enable the formulation of more responsive programmes and policies. MOM will also enhance its dissemination of labour market information to signal areas of skills and employment demand to help workers seize new opportunities.
• Integrity of Work Pass Framework
  
  To protect the integrity of the work pass framework, MOM will continue to strengthen its enforcement capability and operations. MOM will continue to develop and build new capabilities in ground sensing, information gathering and intelligence analysis. This will better support its efforts at detecting work pass violations, and planning effective and targeted enforcement action.

Enhanced Workforce Profile that Meets Industry Needs

• Workforce Development
  
  In tandem with SPUR, MOM and WDA will continue to implement the key initiatives under the CET Masterplan that aims to build a world-class CET system to improve the skills of our resident workforce and help them seize new opportunities. A longitudinal study to analyse the impact and effectiveness of the CET system will also be conducted.
• Talent Retention and Attraction
  
  Contact Singapore (a strategic alliance between MOM and EDB) will continue efforts to facilitate global talent and overseas Singaporeans who wish to work and invest in Singapore.

Income Security and Lifelong Employability for Singaporeans

MOM plays a key role in improving the income security of vulnerable groups of workers, helping Singaporeans build up their retirement adequacy, and fostering lifelong employability of Singaporeans.

$418.3 million (39.8% of MOM’s FY2009 budget) will go towards developing income security and lifelong employability for Singaporeans. The major initiatives in FY2009 are as follows:

• Retirement Adequacy
  
  MOM will continue to work with CPF Board to help CPF members build up their retirement adequacy, and on the introduction of CPF LIFE to provide members with a lifelong income.
• Low-Wage Workers
  
  To improve the income security of low-wage workers, an estimated $406.9 million will be paid out as part of the Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) scheme in FY2009. MOM will also enhance the protection of low-wage workers by ensuring that employment conditions are in compliance with the law, and that there are proper CPF contributions for them.
• Older Workers
  
  MOM will continue to work with its Tripartite Partners to encourage the adoption of re-employment to prepare for the enactment of re-employment legislation by 2012.

Workplaces for Optimal Performance

A key area of MOM’s work is on enhancing Singapore’s workplaces for optimal performance. MOM will continue to step up its efforts to inculcate a culture of safety and health in all workplaces, maintain harmonious industrial relations, and enhance employment practices as well as the management of our foreign manpower.

$71.4 million (6.8% of MOM’s FY2009 budget) will go towards building workplaces for optimal performance. Major initiatives and programmes in FY2009 include:

Safe and Healthy Workplaces

• Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) 2018
  
  MOM will continue its efforts of bringing the workplace fatality rate down to a new target of 1.8 fatalities per 100,000 workers by 2018 as part of the WSH 2018 strategy. To achieve this new target, MOM, together with the Workplace Safety and Health Council, will enhance the outreach programmes, and build a strong safety and health culture at both the industry and individual levels. Engagement and enforcement efforts will also be focused on high-risk sectors and poor WSH performers.

Harmonious Industrial Relations

• Tripartism
  
  MOM will continue to work closely with its tripartite partners to deepen and enhance the tripartite relationship, to ensure continued industrial harmony and to effectively tackle challenges posed by the economic downturn.

Good Employment Standards

• Employment Protection Framework
  
  The Employment Act (EA) has been updated to ensure its continued relevance and effectiveness in providing employment protection for workers. MOM will be stepping up its promotional and outreach efforts to educate employers and employees of their new rights and obligations, and also its enforcement efforts to curb systemic employment abuses, particularly in sectors with more vulnerable workers.
• Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practices (TAFEP)
  
  The Tripartite Centre for Fair Employment (TAFEP) was set up in November 2007 to reach out to and assist organizations with the implementation of fair employment practices. In FY2009, the TAFEP will enhance its promotion and outreach programmes, and also access for the public to provide feedback on discriminatory employment practices.

Well-Managed Foreign Workforce

• Outreach and Enforcement Efforts
  
  MOM will further its outreach efforts to educate foreign workers on their employment rights as well as Singapore’s laws and social norms. MOM will work with the relevant government agencies to address various foreign worker issues, such as the provision of proper housing and dealing with social disamenities that might be posed by such workers. At the same time, MOM will continue to step up enforcement efforts against the illegal employment and deployment of foreign workers, and the infringements of foreign workers’ basic employment standards.
  

To find out more about the MOM and its initiatives, visit our website at www.mom.gov.sg.