Over 3,000 employees to benefit from Singapore's enhanced Landscape Progressive Wage Model by 2029

The enhanced model will include a six-year schedule of baseline wage increases from 2023 to 2029, new job roles under a career ladder, and mandatory training requirements across all landscape PWM job roles.

The Singapore Government has accepted the Tripartite Cluster for Landscape Industry's (TCL) recommendations, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) announced on Friday (20 August 2021).

These recommendations are detailed as follows:

A six-year schedule of sustained baseline wage increases

This will be provided under the Landscape Progressive Wage Model (PWM) from 2023 to 2029, and follows a previous review of scheduled wage increases in 2018.

To illustrate, the basic monthly wage of an entry-level Landscape Worker is expected to grow from about S$1,650 in 2022 to S$2,385 in 2029. "This reflects a strong tripartite consensus to continue raising the wages of landscape employees, and an appreciation of their importance to the industry. The schedule of sustained wage increases will also offer service providers and buyers greater business and contracting certainty," MOM shared.

New job roles under the enhanced PWM Career Ladder 

In January this year, the Government accepted the TCL’s recommendation to introduce a Specialist Track under the PWM Career Ladder. As part of this new Specialist track, new job roles of Landscape Specialist and Senior Landscape Specialist were created, and will take effect from 1 July 2023.

The new job roles will provide better career prospects for landscape employees who wish to develop more specialised skillsets, and do not aspire to become a supervisor. Students who graduate with the necessary qualifications may also be hired to fill these positions.

This, MOM noted, will attract new entrants to the industry, and offer greater clarity on career prospects for landscape employees.

Enhanced PWM mandatory training requirements

The third recommendation is to enhance mandatory training requirements across all landscape PWM job roles with effect from 1 July 2023. Each job role will require three mandatory WSQ modules for progression under the PWM, and will ensure that there is adequate training at each job level, and encourage employees to continually upskill as they progress in their careers.

"The Government reiterates its call for service providers to continue to invest in their employees’ training for a more productive workforce, for service buyers to adopt progressive contracting practices, and for employees to embrace upskilling. Together, our whole-of-society efforts will uplift our lower-wage workers."

In a Facebook post on Saturday (21 August), Senior Minister of State for Manpower, Zaqy Mohamad shared that more than 3,000 landscape employees in Singapore stand to benefit from this move, calling it "yet another milestone in our effort to uplift our lower-wage workers".

The Tripartite Cluster for Landscape Report can be found here.

Photo / Senior Minister of State for Manpower, Zaqy Mohamad's Facebook (Pictured: NTUC Deputy Secretary-General Chee Hong Tat in orange, Senior Minister Zaqy in white)