SINGAPORE: Companies in the construction industry
are calling for more resources to be set aside to ensure the
welfare of foreign workers.
They said labour must also be fully utilised for the
industry to grow in a sustainable way.
The call comes after the National Development
Ministry said some 30,000 foreign workers will be needed for public
housing alone this year - almost double the number of last
year.
The Housing and Development Board (HDB) is expected to release some
25,000 Build-to-Order (BTO) units this year.
This, in a bid to ramp up affordable housing, especially for
first-time home owners.
For the construction industry, this news comes as a mixed blessing,
amid an uncertain economic outlook.
Dr Ho Nyok Yong, president of the Singapore Contractors
Association, said: "This is a good opportunity for our contractors,
our members to get more HDB projects. Simple as that. Business
opportunity.
"For construction, especially this year, there are less private
projects. This is one of the ways it can help to compensate back
some of these shortages."
To build public housing, the number of foreign workers needed is
expected to increase to 45,000 in the next few years.
Aside from the shortage of dormitories to house foreign workers, Dr
Ho said there's the question of ensuring that the growth can be
sustained.
Dr Ho said: "When gearing up construction for HDB flats,
contractors and builders buy a lot of machinery, equipment and
tools, and also human resources such as workers, middle management
and management. They train them up.
"Then all of sudden, in the next two years, (if) there's nothing
much in terms of volume, all that investment - the high purchase -
there's no returns."
Dr Ho acknowledges some of these resources can be diverted, for
example into civil engineering and private housing.
"But some contractors are only doing HDB, they are the builders,
they are very different from those constructing bridges, roads.
They're (from) different trades. They might be able to divert some,
but not all, and quite a few might suffer from that."
Labour costs are another concern.
The foreign worker levy has been going up since 2010 and companies
said their costs could rise by about 10 per cent this year.
Some social activists said this could have an impact on the welfare
of workers.
Jolovan Wham, executive director, Humanitarian Organisation for
Migration Economics (HOME), said: "When business costs go up, what
we've seen is that migrant workers bear the brunt of it.
"All this is happening because employers are worried about their
expenses, and they're afraid of having to pay so much and the
increase in the levies isn't doing very much to improve the
situation.
"We've seen workers who are paid S$1.50 - S$1.60 an hour.
"These are wages that no Singaporean will ever accept for the work
that they do. It's disproportionate to their contributions to this
country.
"The National Integration Council for example, most of the
programmes that they have, and a lot of their resources that are
invested are in new Singapore citizens and PRs.
"But what about migrant workers because there are a million of them
here. I think there has to be more public education, to promote
communal ties between Singaporeans and migrant workers.
"We're not going to see many Singaporeans doing these kinds of
jobs. We'll have to accept the reality that for certain kinds of
industries, like construction for example, a larger number of
migrant workers is necessary."
HDB said there are measures under the Construction Productivity
Roadmap launched last year, to moderate the increase in the number
of foreign workers needed as higher productivity allows for more to
be done with fewer workers.
- CNA/ck
