Enhancing the Employability and Increasing the CPF savings of Ex-Offenders Employed in Gig or Platform work
In the April 2022 sitting, I took the opportunity to ask Senior Minister of State for Manpower, Dr Koh Poh Koon, a supplementary question on the topic of how to enhance the employability and increase the CPF savings of gig and platform workers. Anecdotally, I noted that there is a significant number of ex-prisoners drawn to this sector because of the low barriers to entry. Given the drawbacks of such work; in particular the absence of employer contribution to CPF accounts, I queried about the steps that can be taken to encourage ex-offenders to look at more value-added jobs to protect their long-term prospects. My question and SMS Dr Koh’s answer are set out below.
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Mr Murali Pillai (Bukit Batok): Mr Speaker, Sir, may I ask the hon Senior Minister of State, what proportion of platform workers are ex-offenders and what steps can be taken to encourage ex-offenders to look at more value-added jobs so that their long-term prospects would be protected?
Dr Koh Poh Koon: Sir, the Member asked an important question. We did say that this is a job with low barriers to entry and unfortunately, I do not think the companies themselves track such data such as what is the status of this person’s jobs before, during or after they join platform work. Because, it is just as simple as downloading an app, getting a simple sign-up and they can start to engage in this kind of work. I think the challenge is in getting this data.
We will try to do some surveys on this but I think it is very hard for us to get very, very accurate data on how many percentage of them are ex-offenders. Not all of them will also engage in this full-time. Some of them are doing it as a supplement. As I said, the landscape is very diverse and I think the challenge is to get a true fix. At one point in time, we may get a single snapshot on how many ex-offenders are working in platform work, but they could easily exit the next day. And more may come on the next day after. This is where, whatever intervention we design, we need to have that flexibility to cater to the evolving needs of this group of workers.
Upstream, including the Yellow Ribbon project, I think would be very important to make sure that ex-offenders, before they are re-integrated into society, are already given some degree of skills-training to allow them to, from the outset, look for jobs that are able to sustain them for the longer term, and have employers who are prepared to take them on as employees so that there is perhaps less impetus for them to enter platform work as the job choice when they get out into the rest of society.
I think it takes all stakeholders, including the Singapore Prison Service, including employers who are enlightened to engage and work with ex-offenders.
