8 valid reasons why we should pay attention to Budget 2016 other than GST Rebate

Last Updated on 2016-05-18 , 4:30 pm

The Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat will be announcing the Budget Statement 2016 come 24^th March. We usually keep an ear out for the Budget Statement just to check if we’re going to get any GST rebate for the year, right?

It’s okay, just admit it because that’s what most of us in the office are interested in anyway. But when we heard about some of the recommendations given by the National Trade Union Congress (NTUC) for Budget 2016, we found more reasons for us to pay attention to Budget 2016 other than the GST rebate.

Here are 8 valid reasons why we should do so, because if these recommendations are taken into the Budget Statement, it’ll be totally awesome.

1. Strengthening Singaporean Core

Go out onto the streets, go into Facebook or just talk to your uncles and ask about their opinion of foreign workers, and most of them would probably give a disgruntled face and say our jobs are being taken away. Are you of the same opinion?

We’re not going to go into whether this is true or not, but if you feel this way, you’ll be psyched to know that NTUC is recommending for the Government to strengthen the Singaporean Core, by way of foreign workers’ quota imposed on companies in Singapore and reviewing the Employment Pass criteria, and give preferential treatment companies which show commitment towards hiring Singaporeans over those which don’t.

2. Do more for PMEs

If you’ve been working long before the amendment of Employment Act, you’ll know that the Employment Act used to only protect the blue-collar workers, while white-collar workers – PMEs – were largely left to fend for themselves. With the Labour Movement’s recommendations, there was a change in Employment Act back in 2014 and PMEs now enjoy greater employment rights in the workplace. For Budget 2016, NTUC recommended for more to be done for PMEs, with integrated career counselling from schools to workplaces so that our people can stay relevant in the global marketplace. We will have KidZania soon, what about adults?

3. Protect workers in “Contracts for Service”

The Employment Act is sufficient to protect the employment rights of people in “contracts of services”(aka employees), but there’s still much to be done for workers who are employed under “contracts for services”(aka freelancers). For example, unlike “Contracts of Services”,workers under “Contracts for Services” do not receive CPF contribution from their employers.

4. Protection for “Contract” employees

As the economy slows, Robert Walters SEA predicted that more companies will employ staff on short-term contracts instead of giving them a permanent contract.

Contract-of-service staff, while they enjoy basic things like annual leave and sick leave, may not get to enjoy benefits like annual bonusesand long service awards. NTUC has recommended that employers should be obliged to hire the employee on as a permanent employee after a few extensions of contracts.

In addition, NTUC urged for the government to make it illegal for companies to impose mandatory “one-day break” between contracts (which robs staff unfairly of long service benefits because their first day will be counted from Day 1 of their new contract, and not from their first contract with the company).

5. SkillsFuture Top ups

If you’ve not known yet, there was an injection of $500 worth of credits into our SkillsFuture account back in January 2016and it’s said there will be regular top ups of credit into the account. When and how much, we don’t know.

NTUC is calling for the Government to provide regular top ups for the SkillsFuture account which is pretty exciting because the credits don’t come with an expiry date and you can accumulate (read: hoard) these credits until it can pay for the desired course that you want. For more info, check out SkillsFuture’s website.

If you’re an NTUC member, you also get $250 every year under NTUC’s UTAP training fund to take courses, which can be used together with SkillsFuture credits.

6. Allowing SkillsFuture Credit to be transferred to Medisave

One major complaint Singaporeans made, when the SkillsFuture Credit is rolled out, is the fact that some people will find no use for the $500 and let it go to waste. “Wouldn’t it be better to give us the $500 in cash,” some have said. Yeah, right.

Well, for those whose unable to use these SkillsFuture credit for one reason or another, NTUC is asking for these credit to be transferred into your Medisave account. It’s not cash, but at least it can be used for healthcare, right?

NTUC is urging the government to allocate more resources to make healthcare costs for Singaporeans more affordable in areas like outpatient treatment, Intermediate and Long-term Care sectors.

7. To give us a chance and choice to work

Many of us want to retire as early as possible, but what if we enjoy our jobs or want to work till we are 70 because extra pocket money never hurts, doesn’t it?

Currently, the retirement age is at 62 years old. What if we could have variegated retirement ages across different industries, so we can choose to work longer if we want to, and not forced to retire before we have reached our full potential?

Let’s see if NTUC can push this recommendation across before we reach 62.

8. Employers to Share Productivity Gains With Employees

With more resources put into increasing productivity, NTUC wants employers to share the productivity gains fairly with employees who also had to put in effort to change and improve their processes too.