About 780 ex-offenders were hired between September 2020 and February 2021 with the support of the Jobs Growth Incentive (JGI), said Manpower Minister Tan See Leng.
Dr Tan revealed this in Parliament on Monday (2 August) in response to questions raised by Bukit Batok Member of Parliament (M) Murali Pillai who wanted to know the number of ex-offenders hired under JGI, as well as the sectors they have been employed in.
The Manpower Minister said that these ex-offenders were hired mainly in five industries like Environmental Services, Food Services, Logistics, Wholesale Trade as well as Construction.
“Environmental Services, Food Services, Logistics, Wholesale Trade and Construction were the top five hiring sectors, and collectively accounted for almost eight in 10 of JGI-supported ex-offenders,” he said.
He added, “Employers who have hired ex-offenders through Yellow Ribbon Singapore (YRSG), Industrial and Services Co-operative Society (ISCOS), or halfway houses engaged by the Singapore Prison Service will automatically receive the JGI of up to S$54,000 for these hires.”
JGI was introduced by the Government to support employers to expand local hiring by subsiding the hires’ wages, in order to create good and long-term jobs for locals.
Dr Tan noted that based on the latest data, JGI has supported the hiring of more than 270,000 locals from September 2020 to February 2021 by 42,000 employers.
As to how to ensure these ex-offenders are treated fairly after the 18-month JGI salary support period ends, Dr Tan said that all workers can seek help from the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices if they feel they have been unfairly treated, and this matter will be investigated.
Dr Tan explained that the JGI is designed in a way to ensure employers have to shoulder part of the cost of hiring of workers.
“If the worker, whether an ex-offender or not, proves his value to the company, it serves the employer’s interest to keep him on its workforce even after the JGI support has ended. Otherwise, the employer would have wasted expense and months of effort training the new hire, and risk losing a skilled worker to competitors,” he said.
He also went on to note that there are programmes available to support employers to train their new hires.
As for ex-offenders placed by YRSG, the employers and the ex-offenders are given additional support to facilitate their transition from prison to the work environment.
Additionally, a career coach is also assigned to the ex-offender for up to 12 months, where the career coach will work closes with both the employer and ex-offender to provide work-related support and resolve issues together.
“However, employers’ business circumstances and manpower needs are constantly changing. Not all employers will be able to retain every single worker.
“Workers who need assistance can approach Workforce Singapore for career matching services. Ex-offenders can also reach out to YRSG, regardless of whether they are currently receiving YRSG’s assistance,” he concluded.
