SINGAPORE — A pro-family work environment where flexible-work arrangements for those who can take care of children are legalised, and companies are given grants and other incentives when they employ back-to-work mothers.

These are just two of the measures proposed by the People’s Action Party (PAP) Women’s Wing in a position paper submitted to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) yesterday.

The group’s call for greater governmental intervention in creating a pro-family work environment to retain and encourage more women to re-enter the workforce comes in light of Singapore’s currently tight labour market, which they felt can be met by tapping on women who are not working.

Other suggestions include setting up a “One Stop” Centre managed by the MOM to enforce these practices, provide retraining and job-matching services to prepare women to return to the workforce, having more childcare services and increasing the protection of freelancers and contract workers.

Presented by Members of Parliament Foo Mee Har and Fatimah Lateef, the proposal called for flexible-work arrangements to be carried out in two phases.

First, clear guidelines on pro-family employment practices should be included in the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices.

To take this a step further, they also recommended that it be made legal, in two to three years’ time, for women with children under 12 to request for flexi-work arrangements, and up to one year of no-pay leave, if the employee has been with the company for a minimum of three years.

While she noted that time would be needed for companies to adjust the guidelines, Dr Fatimah added: “Legislation becomes necessary when we find that through guidelines, encouragement, certain things are not going the way we want.

“So certain things, when you legislate you will get better results.”

To incentivise employers to hire back-to-work women, the group also proposed a Back to Work Employment Credit Scheme, in which grants are made available to offset the cost of retraining workers or job redesign.

It also suggested that the Government consider giving “preferential status” to companies which have adopted these pro-family practices, in the form of green lanes for faster work pass processing, lower foreign workers’ levy and a higher dependency ratio for foreign workers.

Asked how this will work when the Government is currently tightening foreign labour inflow and whether this will lead to an exploitation of the system, Ms Foo said that the suggestion was “capped broadly for the (manpower) ministry to consider”.

She said: “We don’t want people to abuse the system. Therefore, when implementing, we will have to make sure that it’s a robust system that incentivises the employer if they have practised fair employment and not if they have done it one-off.”

In response, the MOM said it will “take their recommendations into consideration in our policy reviews”.

While the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) welcomed the recommendations on pro-family employment practices and employer incentives, it expressed reservations on legislating flexi-work, noting that this “will create unnecessary friction and stress at the workplace, not only between employers and employees but also among employees”.

The President of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, Mr Chan Chong Beng, felt that legislation could make “employers even more fearful of employing women”.

He said: “Businesses are very volatile. Today, a job scope may allow a woman to have flexi work hours, but in a year or two, the nature of the business may mean that she needs to work full-time.

“If it becomes a law, employers will be at the mercy of their female employees. This will just make companies very reluctant to employ this group of people.”