“If it was so viable, why didn’t the insurance and platform companies suggest this earlier when there were workers who were injured or suffered death while on the job?” said Dr Koh.
He was responding to a supplementary question by Mr Liang Eng Hwa, Member of Parliament for Bukit Panjang Single Member Constituency on the Government's response to the proposal by GIA, which represents some 40 insurance firms here.
Dr Koh’s comments come a week after the Government accepted several recommendations by the advisory committee on platform workers. These requirements will apply to platform companies, such as food-delivery and ride-hail firms. Taxi companies working on a street-hail model, however, will be exempt.
These recommendations include requiring platform companies to provide the same scope and level of compensation as employees’ under the existing Work Injury Compensation Act (Wica).
For example, if a gig worker works for three food delivery companies and is injured while completing a delivery, the company with whom the worker was doing that delivery for, will have to pay for the worker's total income loss across all three firms.
General Insurance Association - In a statement after the recommendations were announced, GIA chief executive Ho Kai Weng propsed an alternative which he said can be efficiently achieved through existing solutions. Instead of Wica, he suggested platform workers be given prolonged medical leave insurance and group personal accident insurance.
If platform workers were to tap on their Medishield Life as well, the proposal — taken in its entirety — will ensure workers are protected for medical expenses, medical leave wages, permanent incapacity and death, said Mr Ho.
Dr Koh pointed out that given that employees are covered for up to S$45,000 medical expenses for work injuries, there is no reason for platform workers to have to rely on Medishield Life, which is paid for using their Central Provident Fund monies or out-of-pocket cash.
The advisory committee’s position is that platform workers should receive the same level of coverage for work injury compensation as employees, he said.
Self Insured In Disguise - “GIA’s suggestion is essentially asking platform workers to pay for their own medical expenses,” Dr Koh said. He added that GIA’s insurace coverage proposal for gig workers will lead to higher insurance premiums for platform companies given that the scope of coverage for their proposed policy is "much wider on a 24/7 basis".
This would raise the business cost for companies, especially since they would have to purchase insurance coverage even for workers who do only an hour of work a day, he said.
Dr Koh said that GIA’s proposal was contrary to what insurers had advised the advisory committee before the recommendations were published.
“I will suggest that GIA members work closely with platform companies to offer financial protection and compensation for these workers at the level of Wica as soon as possible by the first quarter of next year," he said.
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