Ahead of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's National Day Rally (NDR) this Sunday, Aug. 29, the Workers' Party (WP) issued a statement repeating its calls for various policy suggestions.

WP said it has made these calls both in its GE2020 manifesto, and its speeches in Parliament "over the past decade".

It also mentioned that it "welcomes the recent signals from high-ranking government figures" on the "government’s openness towards implementing much-needed reforms in key areas of public policy".

The WP did not specifically identify these government figures nor elaborate on these signals, but PM Lee announced in his May Day rally that he would speak more on plans to support low-income workers at the NDR.

Here's what the WP is calling for:

1. Implement an across-the-board minimum wage

WP said this would provide a living wage for workers, which can "comfortably co-exist with the Progressive Wage Model".

It added that it could allow for higher sector-specific wage floors and productivity-linked wage increments from that universal minimum level.

2. Implement a redundancy insurance scheme

This would provide pay-outs for those who are involuntarily unemployed.

The WP claims that had such a scheme been introduced before the pandemic, it would have enabled pay-outs that would have cushioned the shock to the economy and the livelihoods of those who lost their jobs.

The WP also said this would have "reduced the amounts drawn from national reserves", and pointed out that it issued a policy paper in 2016 and moved a Parliamentary Adjournment Motion on the subject a year later.

3. Avoid a GST hike

Instead of hiking the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the WP favours other approaches, like easing the rules to allow for a greater Net Investment Returns Contribution, which has been done before.

Another suggestion was to allow for a partial contribution from land sales to the Budget, as is already the case for sales of land leases of less than 10 years, which count towards operating revenue for budgetary purposes.

4. Introduce anti-discrimination laws

The WP want anti-discrimination laws to prohibit bias in hiring and firing by ethnicity, gender, and age.

The WP says this will provide greater clarity to job seekers and deter discrimination in the job market by "unscrupulous employers".

5. Review the existing framework for public housing under the HDB

The aim of a review of the public housing framework is to ensure affordability, by introducing a universal sale and lease buyback scheme and promoting urban renewal by expanding the SERS system.

The WP issued a policy paper on this subject in 2019.

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Top image from Pritam Singh's Facebook page.