Louis asked the Prime Minister (a) what is the rate of uptake of parent-care leave by public servants for each year in the past three years; and (b) what is the number of private companies that currently offer parent-care leave.

Mr Teo Chee Hean (for the Prime Minister): Civil servants can take up to two days of parent-care leave a year. In the past three years, 39% (2014), 40% (2015), and 42% (2016) of civil servants took parent-care leave.

Parent-care leave is not legislated. Based on a Ministry of Manpower survey in 2016, only 19% of employers offer parent-care leave.

Source: Hansard (Parliament of Singapore)

Louis delivered his budget cut on Providing Parent Care Leave at Committee of Supply 2020.

Louis: This Government recognises that we need to spend time looking after our parents. It has been eight years since we introduced parent care leave in the civil service and it is now time for everyone else to have this. We need to legislate it. 

Time to spend time with our parents runs out quickly. With a rapidly greying population, time is running out for our Government to act on this too. 

If the Government feels that it is important for civil servants to have parent care leave, then why not others? We are a family-friendly employer and now we need be a family-friendly Government.

Ms Low Yen Ling (The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Manpower): Mr Chen Show Mao had enquired about paid eldercare leave and Mr Louis Ng asked about legislating parent care leave. I want to assure both Members that the needs of working Singaporeans who are also care-givers are utmost on our minds. In 2018, Senior Minister of State for MOH Edwin Tong led an across-agency review, which I am also part of, to better understand the care-givers' need.

Compared to family care leave, the working care-givers interviewed, they similarly had the same conclusion as the Citizens' Panel. They felt that FWAs are a more sustainable, a more preferred means to meet their care-giving needs. Why? Because they told us they preferred to have the flexibility and the ability to take some time off when their parents need to go to hospital for appointment or their special needs kids need to go for EIPIC intervention and so on. They would rather have the flexibility and ability to take some time off when the need arises, rather than have a few more days of leave. 

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang: Thank you, Sir. Two clarifications. A lot of the response to my suggestions so far has been that we will focus on FWA instead. But I think we need to acknowledge that FWA is not going to accessible to everyone, as the Senior Parliamentary Secretary has acknowledged just now, especially to our frontline officers who we have been paying tribute to over the last few weeks. It will be very hard for nurses, doctors, teachers, pre-school teachers, cleaners, security – the list goes on – to have access to FWA. And that is why I say it is not a zero sum game. Can MOM consider focusing on FWA but at the same time, also legislating the parent care leave, childcare sick leave, so that we get the best of both worlds? We are doing this for the civil service already. Why not for the others? 

Mrs Josephine Teo: Mr Chairman. I appreciate Mr Louis Ng's passion in advocating for more leave provisions. In an ideal world, I would like to be able to say yes to all of them. But we do not live in an ideal world. And I am very much reminded by our former Minister for Labour Mr S Rajaratnam when he moved the Employment Act in 1968. He reminded us of why we are here and why we are seeking to improve work conditions through the Employment Act. He was responding to many Members' calls for employer obligations in many different areas – more protection in this area, more protection in another area. And he said something really profound and I think it remains valid today.

He reminded Members of the House that in order for us to be able to protect employees, we must first have employment. In other words, the jobs must be available. If there is no employment, there is no employment protection to speak of.

So, for every of the moves that MOM tries to make, it is always in consultation, not only with the Labour Movement whom we can completely count on to speak up on behalf of workers and to try and advocate for their interests, but at the same time, we must also involve the employers in this conversation and hear them out and understand the pressures that they face, and then, make a judgement call. At different times, what kinds of pressures we are prepared to exert in order to get the best outcomes for Singaporeans. It is always a balancing act. And MOM is always in the middle. So, we are the true sandwiched class, in some sense.

But let us keep all these things in mind. I see no reason why we cannot continue to review our policies. And I believe that at the right time, when conditions allow, we would certainly want to improve the employment conditions for all of our workers.

Source: Hansard (Parliament of Singapore)

Louis delivered his budget cut on Parent-care Leave for Ageing Population at Committee of Supply 2021.

Louis: Sir, it has been more than nine years since we introduced parent-care leave in the Civil Service. We should legislate the same leave for all other workers.

We need to remember that this is especially important for essential workers who are unable to work from home. We also need to remember we have an ageing population and more and more of us will need time to look after our parents.

We are a family-friendly employer. Now we need to be a family-friendly Government. We should introduce parent-care leave for all employees.

Source: Hansard (Parliament of Singapore)

Louis asked the Prime Minister for 2019 and 2020 respectively, what are the take-up rates of parent-care leave by public servants.

Mr Chan Chun Sing (for the Prime Minister): In 2019 and 2020, the take-up rate for parent-care leave among eligible civil servants was about 50% in each year.

Source: Hansard (Parliament of Singapore)

Louis asked the Prime Minister (a) for each year in the past five years, what percentage of public servants who use parent-care leave are also eligible for flexible work arrangements; and (b) if such data is not being collected, whether the Ministry will start collecting it.

Mr Chan Chun Sing (for the Prime Minister): There are three main types of flexible work arrangements (FWAs) offered in the Civil Service: staggered work hours, telecommuting and part-time arrangements. All civil servants are eligible for FWAs as long as the nature of their job role allows for it. Hence, we do not track eligibility per se.

 Public servants who have childcare and eldercare needs can discuss with their supervisors and HR department on arrangements that balance their personal needs with professional responsibilities. These can include tapping on the Civil Service leave provisions for childcare and parent care, as well as adopting FWAs suited to the nature of their job and operational context, or even discussing redeployment opportunities.

Source: Hansard (Parliament of Singapore)

Louis delivered his budget cut on Provide Parent-care Leave to Everyone at Committee of Supply 2022 as follow:

Louis: Next, I miss my father very much and I regret not spending enough time with him. I especially regret that I did not bring him for his many medical appointments in the year before he passed on.

Spend time with those you love. One of these days, you were either say "I wish I had" or "I'm glad I did".

We all need time to spend with our loved ones, especially when they are not feeling well. With an ageing population, many of us will need more time to look after our parents. The Government clearly agrees with this and introduced parent-care leave in the Civil Service more than a decade ago. It really is time we legislate the same leave for all other workers.

Again, let us not use flexible work arrangements (WFA) to justify not having parent-care leave. If this reason is true, then why do civil servants with flexible work arrangements also have parent-care leave? If it is important for civil servants to have both FWAs and parent-care leave, then why not others? We are a family-friendly employer. Now we need to be a family-friendly Government. We should introduce parent-care leave for all workers.

Ms Gan Siow Huang (The Minister of State for Manpower): Mr Louis Ng suggested raising minimum annual leave entitlements, introducing parent care leave and increasing parental leave provisions, while Mr Gerald Giam and Ms Mariam Jaafar spoke about sick leave.

We regularly review our leave provisions and acknowledge the real needs underpinning the Members' suggestions, but increasing leave provisions should not be the default solution. We have been advocating the adoption of flexible work arrangements precisely because they are flexible and able to cater to all forms of individual needs. We should also recognise that there is a cost to increasing leave provisions and we must balance this carefully against what businesses can sustain in order to avoid dampening jobs growth.

Source: Hansard (Parliament of Singapore) 1, 2