[GE2025] The Workers' Party (WP) Discussion Thread

[ramlee]

Mediocre team

Coming from a pap sarporker that means WP ish ky le!!

 

[Decemberb]

Invest banking last time, sure must look good

 

[Multiversal]

Sorry to say but you are talking rubbish
In Singapore we don’t get to vote for our prime minister. We vote for our mp who represent us in parliament
It is true that we are going to enter a crisis. In a crisis who would you rather have. Pap mp who will talk motherhood statement to you and tell you go skillsfuture course to be security guard when you lose your job or wp mp who will speak up for you in parliament and ask pap why are our people losing jobs and what can you do for them.
for me the choice is clear.

Unless you are my age, I was voting long before you got your PSLE certificate. If it sounds belittling, it's the only way to put things in its proper perspective before you lecture me about how the PM is selected, which you obviously tried too hard to do.

Since you seemed to need it, I shall make my essay so much long to say that you can vote your whole WP, whatever that stands for (Workers' Party, Wayang Party, Woke Party, you choose right), to become the government. Now, if you tell me, oh! oh! but they don't have enough candidates, then may I suggest that you could perhaps stand for election. Talking or writing so much gets nothing done for Singapore, if you are not BS-ing but meaning well for the country. If you are opposing for the sake of it, or because of a private grievance, and you don't have a clear idea about what you can really do for the country, then don't waste my time. I don't need another Singh. I don't need empty rhetoric but concrete action plans about what you are capable of doing with Trump's madness.

 

[krikering]

You want to work is your dai ji don't drag us into it thank you.

Everyone should have their own choice, not like all must work or don't work at the same time. WP is mainly advocating for those that still want to continue working.

Anyway, I believe the above is separate from CPF withdrawal issue.

https://www.wp.sg/manifesto

Abolish the Statutory Retirement Age
WP calls for the abolition of the statutory retirement age to enable older workers to continue to participate in meaningful employment if they choose to. This may also positively affect their mental and physical health and delay frailty.

Removing the official retirement age will permit workers the freedom to continue to work at any age as long as they are able and willing to. It also serves to remove age discrimination in the workplace, as employers can no longer use the excuse that hiring a worker with a short runway before retirement is a bad business decision.

The Workplace Fairness Act 2025, which outlaws ageism in the workplace, can boost the employment of older workers, making the abolition of a retirement age an effective complement to such laws.

The absence of an official retirement age does not mean workers will be forced to continue working even if they are in poor health or prefer to stop working, nor does it imply a delay in the CPF Payout Eligibility Age

 

[spinning_quirK]

Ya of cos the company will have to pay the full agreed salary to any workers wat, failure to do so will be a breach of law.

I understand that when elderly workers reach retirement age, there is a tendency for companies to renegotiate reduced salaries if the workers choose to stay on?

The crux as always is whether the person is able to create more value than the salary paid...

How much value do our 5 mayors create, do you know?
It's surprising that you would just rattle off some idealistic business employment principle, but almost everybody knows or used to know at least someone within 3 degrees of acquaintance whose value creation is that of Paul Lampard or carnal transaction. I suppose you're ok with that?

 

[spinning_quirK]

I don't need another Singh.

Is this racist?

I don't need empty rhetoric but concrete action plans about what you are capable of doing with Trump's madness.

Can you link some speeches and articles of the PAP leadership and candidates putting forth concrete action plans regarding Trump's madness? I've only been able to dig out plenty of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt speeches so far from them.

 

[Eliwood]

I understand that when elderly workers reach retirement age, there is a tendency for companies to renegotiate reduced salaries if the workers choose to stay on?

How much value do our 5 mayors create, do you know?
It's surprising that you would just rattle off some idealistic business employment principle, but almost everybody knows or used to know at least someone within 3 degrees of acquaintance whose value creation is that of Paul Lampard or carnal transaction. I suppose you're ok with that?

Lol i also agree the mayors r unneccessary as it is unclear what their role entails. But personally i dun see this to be a big issue compared to SG's consistent economic growth.

Just like in SG, there are so many beh kans leeching but it is a necessary price to pay for social stability to grow SG's economy.

For all workers, how much they are paid is purely between them and their company. With or without retirement age ppl who cant perform will struggle to justify their employment eventually.

 

[spinning_quirK]

Wait so u agree to remove retirement age or don't agree? So sinkies should work until we die issit?

Hmm? What's your stand on this issue? Let me post some excerpts from MOM's website and my layman analysis of what could happen to put an elderly worker at a disadvantage vs his or her employer in an age of heavy pro-employer policies by the PAP government.

https://www.mom.gov.sg/employment-practices/retirement

1. In accordance with the Retirement and Re-employment Act (RRA), from 1 July 2022, the minimum retirement age is 63 years. Your company cannot ask you to retire before that age.

What does retirement mean for the average worker? Does he get a golden handshake and have to quit? Does it mean he must negotiate a new contract that almost always means a lower salary because of his age?

2. Employees who turn 63 can continue to be employed in the organisation if they meet the eligibility criteria of re-employment.

What's the status out there? Do people want to stop working at 63, or they tend to want to get re-employed asap because of the rising cost of living?

3. Eligibility
You are eligible for re-employment if you:

• Are a Singapore citizen or Singapore permanent resident.
• Have served your current employer for at least 2 years before turning 63 for employees hired at age 55 and above.
• Have satisfactory work performance, as assessed by the employer.
• Are medically fit to continue working.

So it sounds very much like retirement age is a way for employers to re-evaluate their older workers and cull them out of employment if there's younger, fresher, hungrier workers out there? It's not about performance metrics, merit.. just an age-based excuse that gives the advantage to the employer.


My take on the employment mess in Singapore is that we just need to pay workers fairly in the first place. We need to send back tons of unproductive foreign employees (data is showing that SG has record-low productivity after we opened the floodgates; employers have also become lazy with structuring and processes because of so much cheap labour). I don't think we need a retirement age, I think we need a Golden Handshake guarantee. Anyway, there's so many part-time workers, contract workers, cardboard pickers, it looks like currently the retirement age means nothing except for a privileged class of white collared and "unionised" blue collared employees.

If I feel fit at 75 and want to keep working, I want my full salary and annual increment.
If I've done well for myself and want to slow down after 55, I want my Golden Handshake and then travel around a bit before finding some part time work like showing up at PAP rallies for free chicken rice or harassing opposition social media pages with AI assistance.

Now I'm waiting for you to answer your own question, because SIC.

 

[gonewiththesmart]

WP really know to fix the problem.



https://www.zaobao.com.sg/realtime/singapore/story20250418-6208190

准候选人双语能力强 毕丹星：是有效沟通和代表选民的重要条件​

PS: Candidates’ strong bilingual skills are an important condition for effective communication and representation of voters

工人党连续两天推出双语能力强的准候选人，工人党秘书长毕丹星指出，具备良好的双语和双文化能力，是工人党重视的优势。

星期四和五（4月17日和18日），工人党先后介绍的准候选人蒋佩姗（Eileen Chong，33岁）、滕沛源（Alexis Dang，39岁）和陈钦德（Jimmy Tan，53岁）等在介绍会上，都以流利的华语向媒体介绍自己。

在2020年大选的一场华语辩论中，工人党是唯一缺席的政党，引发部分人士质疑它是否仍重视讲华语的选民。工人党随后公开道歉，澄清并非不愿派员出席，而是认为当时候选人的华语水平，未达到适合参与辩论的程度。

The Workers' Party was the only party absent from a Mandarin-speaking debate in the 2020 general election, prompting some to question whether it still values Mandarin-speaking voters. The Workers' Party later publicly apologized, clarifying that it was not unwilling to send a representative to attend, but that it believed that the Mandarin level of the candidates at the time was not at a level suitable for participating in the debate.

The Workers' Party has introduced candidates with strong bilingual skills for two consecutive days. Workers' Party Secretary-General Pritam Singh pointed out that having good bilingual and bicultural skills is an advantage that the Workers' Party values.

On Thursday and Friday (April 17 and 18), the Workers' Party introduced candidates Eileen Chong (33 years old), Alexis Dang (39 years old) and Jimmy Tan (53 years old) at the introduction meeting, all of whom introduced themselves to the media in fluent Mandarin.

 

[Suporter]

Can't even contest 1/3 seats still tok simi manifesto?

 

[spinning_quirK]

Pritam supportive of such poses?

You prefer ministers like CCS gyrating their hips?

Yes I think you do.

 

[doppypoppy]

WP candidates are disappointing, no star candidate aside from the old lawyer

 

[nats7798]

Diam la u

Got Alexis jiejie

 

[Suporter]

No Nicole no tok

 

[Shion]

what talking u...

 

[spinning_quirK]

PAP only has one pattern, which is about making sure Singapore survives the recent Trump madness. To use a technical jargon, this is an economic *shock* none of us have ever seen since the end of the last World War.

As I see it, the US is going to implode with its tariff war with China. It's a battle between a people who not too long ago worked in sweatshops earning as little as US$1 a day which was what drew US companies to set up shop in China, and a people who only knew how to organise wildcat strikes with their powerful unions to demand higher wages and shorter working hours. It's easy for Trump to say, set up your factory in the US and you don't have to pay tariffs. But how much do you have to pay those angmos? Do you think they will work 996 for you? Fat hope!

Inflation followed by a deep recession is the making. Trump's making. The US dollar will lose value, and some countries are already trading in Indian and Chinese money. RIP, greenback. There are works going on to make the Euro the currency of choice because nobody trusts the US system anymore.. China sold one trillion USD treasury bonds. The next financial nuclear bomb would be selling US$ 2 trillion cooperate equity and loan stocks. It will send the US economy and financial markets into a tailspin. Watch the S&P 500, Dow Jones and Nasdaq, stay tune right.

Those Americans can't even afford to pay for decent healthcare (remember Obamacare?), and now their costs of living are set to rise. Prices for essential goods, necessities. A country which accounts for almost one third of the world's GDP will as sure as hell bring about the headwinds of economic turbulence to Singapore. China will not escape either because this is a battle fought for mutual damage, and a race to the bottle between the two of them.

To cut to the chase, we will see more retrenchments and I feel sorry for the generations which are still in school or doing their NS, waiting to come out, enter a tertiary institution or go out to work. Who are they? Answer: they are your children. Or grandchildren.

Pritam Singh will lead us through and we will land safely?

Some of you, or perhaps most of you here, since this forum has an oppies majority representation, may sneer and say I am an Ib lar! I am fearmongering lar! Singapore will survive lar! Vote them out larRRRR!!!!

Suits you man.

If you think that instead of countries lining up to book an appointment to go to China to meet with Xi as in the recent past, it is Xi himself getting off his not-too-comfortable armchair in zhongnanhai to make a southern tour, and meet with, among others, the chair of ASEAN which is currently Malaysia, all is still well, then you are deluded. What else must happen before you wake up and see the events that are unfolding at a breakneck speed as a watershed that Singaporean voters cannot afford to play tikam taakm with?

I place my trust in Lawrence Wong and his team, and I am as much entitled to vote as you are. You cannot stop me. Not even if you get me bend..something which some of you did to me in the past.

More...

The WP and the other oppies, I have yet to hear anything from them regarding the upside down world economic order. Of course they will say, oh! we are not here to form the government, we are not ready! We only want to be the check and balance. Rar rar rarrr!

They are selling small man's stuff. I am more interested in what they can do in terms of checks and balance regarding policies that deal with the external economic environment because if MNEs collapse, SMEs are in limbo, trade deals are abandoned, and the law of the jungle replaces the rule of law, you will get what you want: FTs and FWs will leave faster than Pritam can *whisper* his manifesto into your ears.

It's not a time to play gutter politics, or dance to the gallery saying all the things you'd like to hear (rape stories included?). It's not a time for WOKESISM.

It's time to rally around the government to work together as citizens and government along with employers to weather through at least these four years till Trump steps down. It so happens that this to-be-government's term coincides roughly with Trump's term. Give them a strong mandate. If you think Pritam is the man for the job, then vote him to become the PM. I will settle for nothing less. If Pritam is so good, then let him become the PM. I don't want to see dancing around the gallery. And I don't need economics lessons from Jamus either.

Wow such a big post of FUD from someone who supposedly understands that love casts out all fear.

 

[tellim]

U want elite.for wha

 

[Matapolis]

WP candidates are disappointing, no star candidate aside from the old lawyer

Huh?

 

[Zinna]

i see WP candiates more impressive than army general and baby face

 

[spinning_quirK]

Lol i also agree the mayors r unneccessary as it is unclear what their role entails. But personally i dun see this to be a big issue compared to SG's consistent economic growth.

If there's enough money to pay unnecessary mayors, then I think what many people think is that we can spread the money around more, not just a select few who may or may not be cronies.

Just like in SG, there are so many beh kans leeching but it is a necessary price to pay for social stability to grow SG's economy.

The beh kans hired by village HRs?

For all workers, how much they are paid is purely between them and their company. With or without retirement age ppl who cant perform will struggle to justify their employment eventually.

Including employers that pay an amount but secretly claw back a portion, if I'm not wrong is to loophole some requirement in one of the employment passes?
Just between the employer and the employee, government shouldn't meddle? SAF 8th or 9th core value?