Do you think more support should be provided for the vulnerable workers in our workforce?

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In almost every 宫廷剧 (imperial palace drama), there will always be a couple of 大魔王 / evil characters in the show that like to bully the 弱小 aka the vulnerable ones.

Remember 华妃 (Concubine Hua) in 甄嬛传 (Empresses in the Palace)?

hua fei

How about 高贵妃 (Noble Consort Gao) in 延禧攻略 (Story of Yanxi Palace)?

gao gui fei

And last but not least, 嘉妃 (Concubine Jia) in 如懿传 (Ruyi’s Love in the Palace)!

jia fei

They tend to bully the weak and the vulnerable but fear the strong. Jin bad one.

Actually hor all these concubines in the imperial palace are also maciam a bit like workers working in a company.

Like some of the weaker concubines, you might also encounter some chow kuan bosses or people with a bit more power than others who flex and abuse their authority to bully others, especially the vulnerable workers – like the older and mature workers, persons with disabilities, and ex-offenders.

So, recognising this, and to help this group of workers overcome their challenges at workplaces like being discriminated lah, being treated unfairly lah, and worst, being bullied, Ng Chee Meng, secretary-general of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) said in a recent media release that they want to continue to advocate and provide stronger support for this group of workers.

In case you didn’t know hor, previously in Parliament, Labour MP Patrick Tay has asked the Gahmen to provide more support for the local professionals, managers, and executives (PMEs), especially the older and mature workers.

This includes providing wage support and employment credits for companies who hire mature PMEs, training and upgrading opportunities for older workers, and job matching services.

Labour MP Patrick Tay ask Gahmen to give unemployment support & benefits to PMEs, AGAIN

Actually, it is not just the older and mature workers in the workforce that needs to be protected.

Don’t forget that those in the gig economy, our self-employed friends who are working for online platforms – like the food delivery riders, private-hire car drivers, and taxi drivers – they also need to be looked after because they don’t have a lot of protection and benefits, unlike regular employees like you and me.

Remember this story about this couple who got both of their Grab accounts banned just because the husband helped his sick wife complete a delivery order?

Husband does food delivery on behalf of sick wife, ends up being banned by Grab for violating regulations

In the end, both lost their livelihoods because of this.

Ok lah, I know lah. While there are some sentiments among Singaporeans that this group of gig economy workers “should’ve known what they were getting into” and don’t need to be protected like regular employees, but hor if we want to build an inclusive Singapore where people of all backgrounds can be uplifted and do well in life, all the more we should lend our hands to help this group of vulnerable workers mah, tio bo?


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If you’d like to contribute your story to us, drop us an email at editors@sureboh.sg and we’ll review it. We read each submission that comes to us within two weeks of receiving it.

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