Gov’t OKs wage increases, annual bonus for L&E technicians

Around 1,300 lift and escalator technicians will be covered by the Lift & Escalator Progressive Wage Model.

The Singapore government accepted the recommendations from the Tripartite Cluster for Lift and Escalator Industry that will provide sustained wage increases and annual bonuses for lift and escalator technicians.

The Ministry of Manpower said the recommendations will cover around 1,300 lift and escalator (L&E) technicians.

“These moves will also help the industry attract new talents and encourage upskilling of workers,” it said in a release.

Among the recommendations approved was to extend the existing Lift Progressive Wage Model (PWM) to cover escalator technicians from 2022, as many technicians maintain both lifts and escalators. The expansion of coverage of the PWM “will ensure clarity and parity of progression for these workers.”

This will also provide a “customised skills ladder and training requirements” for escalator technicians to ensure that they were “suitably trained” and improve the L&E firms’ productivity.

With the enhanced PWM, the Government also accepted the recommendation to make the PWM adoption a mandatory registration with the Building and Construction Authority for all L&E maintenance firms from 2022.

It also approved the recommendation for a six-year schedule of sustained wage increases from 2023 to 2029, which include the monthly basic wage, overtime payments, commissions, allowances, and other regular cash payments. For example, the basic monthly salary of an entry-level L&E technician is expected to increase from about $1,850 today to S$3,080 in 2029.

“This reflects a strong tripartite consensus to raise the wages of L&E technicians and an appreciation of the importance of these workers. The scheduled sustained wage increases will also offer service providers and buyers greater business and contracting certainty,” it said.

The recommended mandatory annual PWM Bonus for eligible L&E technicians from January 2023 was also approved. The bonus will comprise at least one month of an employee’s prevailing monthly basic wage, to be paid out to those who have worked with their employees for at least a year.

The government also renewed its call for service providers “to continue to invest in their workers’ training for a more productive workforce, for service buyers to adopt progressive contracting practices, and for workers to embrace upskilling.”