The Government has institutionalised Workfare through the Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) scheme to help low-wage workers find work, boost their income and build up their retirement savings. Low-wage informal workers and self-employed persons need to contribute CPF to receive WIS. It is therefore important to address the non-payment of CPF so that those who qualify for WIS will not be denied the benefits. Low-wage workers are also more likely to experience other employment-related problems, such as deprivation of paid annual leave and sick leave.

As underlined in the National Wages Council's guidelines for 2007/2008, it is necessary to galvanise the efforts of the tripartite partners to reach out to low-wage workers, their employers, and low-wage self-employed persons, to raise awareness about the benefits of CPF and WIS; as well as their employment rights and obligations.

With this in mind, the TriCom has adopted the following Terms of Reference:

• Identify the key sectors with higher incidence of informal workers or self-employed persons not making CPF contributions;
• Identify the impediments to regular CPF contributions and other employment problems faced by low-wage workers;
• Initiate and drive promotional programmes to educate workers about the benefits of CPF and other employment rights, details of WIS, as well as encourage employers, informal workers and self-employed persons to start contributing to CPF and Medisave;
• Recommend and implement measures to incentivise contributions to CPF and Medisave by employers and workers, as well as strengthen the protection of employment benefits for low-wage workers; and
• Develop outreach efforts to informal and self-employed low-wage workers by coordinating multi-agency initiatives and leveraging on existing networks, such as those of NTUC, SNEF, the People's Association, and trade and industry associations, to encourage and help low-wage workers sign up and make regular CPF contributions, and/or seek redress and assistance on deprivation of other work-related benefits.

The TriCom will convene for a term of one year in the first instance.