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Second Reading Speech at Constitution (Amendment) Bill

Senior Minister of State for Manpower, Dr Koh Poh Koon, Parliament House

  1. Mr Deputy Speaker, on behalf of the Minister for Manpower, I beg to move, that the Bill be now read a second time.

     

  2. Mr Speaker, the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore (Amendment) Bill 2024 is linked to the Platform Workers Bill 2024 which was passed in Parliament last month.

     

  3. To recap, Parliament passed the Platform Workers Bill to strengthen protections for platform workers providing platform services, such as ride hail and delivery services, in the areas of (1) housing and retirement adequacy, (2) financial protection in the case of work injury, and (3) representation. For representation, there will be a legal framework setting out the rights and obligations of both platform work associations and platform operators in dealing with each other. As the framework for employers and employees has worked well in preserving industrial harmony, it was a reference for the framework for platform operators and platform workers. Hence, platform work associations will be analogous to trade unions.

     

  4. Today, a member of any trade union or of any body or association affiliated to a trade union cannot be a member of the Public Service Commission, Public Service personnel boards, Judicial Service Commission and Legal Service Commission. This is to preserve impartiality and high standards in the Civil Service, the Judicial Service and the Legal Service. As platform work associations function like trade unions, the same consideration should apply, for parity.

     

  5. Therefore, we are proposing consequential amendments to the Constitution, through the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore (Amendment) Bill, to prohibit members of any platform work association or of any body or association affiliated to platform work associations from being a member of the Public Service Commission, Public Service personnel boards, Judicial Service Commission and Legal Service Commission.

     

  6. Sir, I beg to move.