Below is the May Day message from Mr Lim Tean, leader of Peoples Voice (PV) party
There are few holidays as universal as May Day, the great universal celebration of labour and the dignity of work.
PV wishes all Singaporeans who are engaged in work and those who aspire to work a very happy May Day!
Unfortunately, another year has passed with little to celebrate for the Singapore worker. In 2022, a staggering 88.5% of jobs created went to foreigners.
Singaporean workers were left to share the crumbs from the remaining 11.5% with Permanent Residents. In 2023, the Ministry Of Manpower has already admitted that most of the jobs created in the first quarter went to foreigners.
We cannot have such an imbalance persist. The Singaporean worker has every right to expect the Government to give priority as far as jobs are concerned to Singaporeans.
Unfortunately, the People’s Action Party (PAP)’s policies only exacerbate the imbalance and unfairness as reflected in the jobs figures for 2022 and the first quarter of 2023.
We get ahead of ourselves, imagining what the future workplace would be like with Artificial Intelligence when the most urgent task is to redress the imbalance and unfairness for the Singaporean worker in the Labour market.
This imbalance and unfairness have led to grave concerns about job security, as the Randstadt’s 2023 survey showed. Almost half of the Singapore workforce worry about job insecurity.
A worried worker cannot be a productive worker, and it is futile to believe that Artificial Intelligence can lead to an improvement in this regard.
A celebrated American economist Robert Solow famously said:- “You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics”.
That is the reason Peoples Voice will never waver from one of our most cherished principles, which is Priority for Singaporeans for Jobs!
We reject any false free trade agreement which promotes Labour arbitrage and allows a foreign country to export their unemployment into our Nation. We reject any government policies which put the Singaporean worker at a disadvantage to the foreign worker.
A Government betrays it’s Citizen Workers if it allows foreign workers to take away their jobs and diminish their standard of living and quality of life.
On this Labour Day, let us celebrate the Singaporean talent. Peoples Voice also renews our pledge to the Singaporean worker to protect their rights and to elevate their position in society for the benefit of their families and the wider community of Singaporeans.
