President Halimah Yacob said in a Facebook post that low wage workers need to be paid better so that they don’t have to depend on incentives like extra attendance allowance in order to survive.
She then cited the example of a pest control technician who was sentenced to 5 weeks imprisonment for refusing to be swabbed at a polyclinic for his cough and be placed on sick leave because he would miss out on his $100 month attendance allowance for going on MC.
Here is her statement:
A pest control technician was today sentenced to five weeks jail for potentially exposing the public to the COVID-19 virus. He refused to be swabbed at the polyclinic that he attended for his severe coughing, when he was told that he would be placed on sick leave pending the outcome of the PCR test. His reason was because he feared losing his $100 monthly attendance allowance if he went on mc.
The man’s action is without a doubt irresponsible as he could infect others if he was positive. But this case also highlights another common employment practice that can be detrimental to workers. In order to earn the extra attendance allowance, workers may refuse to take sick leave even when they are unwell, particularly for low wage workers. $100 for someone who earns $1500 a month with a family to feed is a lot of money that can be used to purchase necessities. Incentivising workers to work even when sick, can be dangerous too for those operating machines as it exposes them and others to injury.
The real solution is to make sure that low wage workers are paid better so that they don’t have to depend on such incentives to survive.
For companies that pay such an attendance allowance, what they wish to deter is abuse of sick leave and not penalise those who are genuinely sick by depriving them of the payment. Also, in the current pandemic, it’s not fair to deprive workers of the attendance allowance when they go on sick leave because they are Covid-19 positive or have to wait for the PCR test result. Employers should make this clear to workers.