The National Day Rally on Sunday (Aug 23) saw a slate of new measures to support parents and families, including more childcare leave for working parents and more financial support for Singaporean children.
Following the announcement of these measures, a Singaporean mum who is also the business owner has voiced her views on the matter.
In a TikTok video on Tuesday, Tan Boon May, who has three kids aged two to five, said while she stands to benefit from these measures “more than most of” her viewers, she is not “jumping for joy”.
As the owner of two math tuition centres with more than 80 per cent females on her team, Boon May, 33, said she sees “three fundamental problems” that could be “detrimental” to Singaporeans as a whole if not properly addressed.
The first concern she raised was manpower shortage.
While the government will reimburse salaries for those who get additional childcare leave, employers would still have to find someone to cover the work of those who are away, she pointed out.
“Imagine you have a team of 10 parents who need more childcare leave, 10 times six, easily that will be 60 days of work that the organisation needs to find cover for,” she explained, adding that manpower cannot be “so easily replaced by another” in some industries.
Using her own tuition centres as an example, Boon May said: “When my teacher needs to take leave, I can’t possibly get a person who doesn’t have math knowledge, who might be a waitress in a restaurant, to come and teach a class for math.”
The second issue, according to Boon May, is that an employer’s costs are not limited to an employee’s salary — and the “actual cost” is “a lot more” than the salary reimbursement given by the government.
“The assumption is that if an employee earns $200 a day and the Government reimburses $200 then the employee has been completely covered. [That’s] false,” she said, explaining that the salary is only part of the cost of employing someone.
Other expenses include paying for rent, marketing, training, software, equipment, management and admin support among others, Boon May explained.
“An employee ultimately needs to create more value than their actual salary to help cover all these costs, and these costs are not even including the fact that we have to hire another person to take on the job of the staff who is on leave,” she said.
“Sometimes, finding that relief actually costs more than the employee’s salary because it means that another employee might need to step in to provide last minute training, and that means double the cost.”
https://www.tiktok.com/@maythematics/video/7677701487782415637
And the most concerning problem out of the three, for Boon May, is whether parents could “unintentionally become less competitive” in the job market.
Sharing that she had lost her job when she was pregnant with her first child, Boon May said that she had firsthand experience of how having children could affect one’s career.
“It is the worst feeling that anyone could go through because having a child and being out of your job is just crazy,” she said.
“I don’t want anyone to go through that because I’ve been through that before.”
In the case of SMEs that already have a number of parents in the the business, they may unconsciously consider a person’s caregiving responsibilities when hiring new staff.
“Employers should not discriminate against parents,” Boon May said.
“But if employing someone with greater caregiving responsibilities creates an operational disadvantage, we have to recognise that it could unintentionally influence hiring behaviour.”
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So what can be done?
While Boon May doesn’t “claim to know the perfect solution”, she floated some possibilities such as relief manpower support, incentives for cross-training and additional assistance for smaller companies — particularly those with a head count of less than 15.
“If increasing Singapore’s fertility rate is the national objective, then fundamentally, I think we also need to make family employment sustainable,” she said.
Having children should not disadvantage the employee in their career, nor an employer for hiring someone with children, Boon May pointed out.
“If we can solve both sides of the equation, then I think it will truly be a meaningful step forward for Singapore.”
Boon May’s video drew mixed reactions from netizens, with several sharing their own take on the matter.
“Well spoken, it’s very objective and thought through. However, no matter what decisions are made, it’s never easy to implement perfect policies. My thought is as long as the policies help 60 per cent of the population, then it’s already well done. However, it must continue to adjust and improve continuously,” wrote a comment.
Another suggested: “Consider hiring older tutors whose main child-caring days are over? There will be another set of problems to deal with, but a diverse staff pool will benefit you.”
As a parent, however, Boon May appreciates the longer childcare leave although it “may sometimes feel insufficient”.
“Preschools close for teacher training or meetings, and when contagious illnesses such as flu, conjunctivitis or Covid-19 spread in school, children may have to stay home. And very often, parents fall sick too,” she told AsiaOne on Wednesday.
Her concern lies in whether greater childcare leave entitlements, in addition to maternity and paternity leave, could “unintentionally affect how parents are perceived in the workplace”, particularly for roles where reliability and physical presence are important.
She also suggested greater flexibility in how childcare leave is structured, as families have very different caregiving arrangements.
For example, some parents may need to utilise every single day of childcare leave available, while others have the support of family members who take on more caregiving responsibilities.
“Perhaps there could be options that give families greater choice and flexibility, while still protecting every parent’s right to take the childcare leave they genuinely need,” Boon May told us.
In an interview with CNA after the National Day Rally, Marriage and Parenthood Reset Workgroup chair Indranee Rajah addressed some concerns raised by parents.
They include possible workplace discrimination against parents who utilise the longer childcare leave, or parents themselves fearing that they’d be disadvantaged if they do so.
“We want it to be a win-win. If you have happy employees, employees who feel assured that they can do their work, have career progression and yet be able to have families, then you get a much more productive workforce with good morale,” she said.
At the same time, Indranee acknowledged that time away from work could affect productivity if there is no one available to step in.
“So we have to design workplaces in a way that allows for somebody to step out to take leave and yet have that worked addressed,” she said.
While the government paying for longer childcare leave is “one step”, employers may also have to look at areas such as HR practices, flexible work arrangements and contingency plans for when employees are away.
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