hello
imagined
a home tutor want to increase their wages
who on earth
want them?
i was a former despatch rider on adhoc basis
increased $0.50cts/trip
clients also erased my databased contacts
even though
i did explaint in 4 languages
that the numbers of erp poles have been erected all over singapore
including that bloomin one in toa payoh
you all know toa payoh right?
heartland of the hdb centre?

My mother works as a contract cleaner and I can confirm that the going rate for a 5-day per week contract is around $700-$800 for a few years. Very seldom has she seen job offers for more than $800 and sometimes these cleaning contractors try to avoid paying CPF too. Many of them also don’t credit Saturday leave to you (if you’re lucky enough to get annual leave). Medical benefit does not exist.

In her line of work she’s dealt with a myriad of nightmare workers. Some of them capitalise on the fact that these workers are either too old or too timid to fight back. It also doesn’t help that the MOM dispute resolution process is so cumbersome. Many of these workers just suffer in silence.

Sorry, obviously I meant “nightmare EMPLOYERS”!

I have picked up some quotes from my notes:

“There are three kinds of lies:lies,damned lies and statistics”.

“Get the facts first and then you can distort them as much as you please”

Life sucks big time…. :)

Ya thats why the minimum wage needs to be implemented here.

In Singapore, a part timer frequently earn less than $5 an hour. For cleaners, it could even be lower – $800/30 days/8 hours = $4 (approx).

In Australia, the minimum permanent job wage is $550 per week. Even if you clean the tiolet, that will be your wage.

In fact, some part timers here earn more than FT workers. If you don’t mind working in the supermarket, an hour of work can fetch you between $15 to $20. If you work 8 hours a day you can earn anything betwwen $120 to $160 daily.

Being a first world country status, we have some of the third world working environment. It is clear that the govt is always trying to side with the employers for they are afriad businesses will close and move elsewhere.

This happened in 1997 and could have cloud their sensitivity to our workers’ plight.

Currently, US is trying to reduce their pay especially for the auto workers. A skilled auto worker can make about $40 an hour excluding benefits. During the bail out Congress discussion, one of the main item for negotiation is to reduce workers’ wages.

Hopefully, this crisis will allow the govt to start some new initiatives to improve our working conditions.

In fact $800 is on the high side. The cleaners at my office get paid I think about $600-650 (5-day work, no OT).

Good Morning,

When you draw on statistics to pre-force a point, like this:

“The Median Gross Monthly Income of Full-Time and Part-Time Employed Residents grew from $1,950 and $ 600 in 1999, to $2,590 and $ 600 in June 2008, respectively.

It would thus seem, based on the above numbers, that the median monthly income change per annum over the last nine years for full-time employees were 3.2 per cent.

For part-timers it was 0 per cent.”

You need to be very mindful – firstly, firms and businesses leverage on “part time” –“contract” and “temps” ONLY because it offers them ONE of many ways to get around head count freezes and to fulfill their accounting requirements under conditions of acute to chronic economic stress.

The latter is a complex matter – and relates to revenue recognition criteria especially for multi-national type firms which need to account on a quarterly basis.

Why is this observation so important? Bc its suggestive; what needs to be borne in mind is “part-time” or “contract staffing,” is ONLY a short term stop gap measure (or rather that is what it was original designed for) – it cannot be under ANY circumstances structured to serve the long term, not without falling foul of standard accounting practices and possibly MOM requirements – so in a nutshell, it simply doesn’t support the long term agenda of what is required to support a normal and healthy business process.

So what you may need to factor in; in your report; is at some point; contract staff do ACTUALLY morph into permanent full fledge employees i.e an admin staff working in lets say a multi-national may be given the assurance by her boss that if the head count freeze is lifted, then she would be given a placement as a employee in the firm.

That means in effect what you MAY be highlighting here is ONLY a temporary or interim state of employment. And if that’s the case, then it may be wiser to qualify yourself accordingly -otherwise some people reading this MAY get a very loopy picture of the employment market.

Thank you

SD (Internet Liaison officer of the brotherhood)

These part time and low wage people are the minority.

66 % are not and that’s why every election PAP won their votes.

The poor and those oppressed by low wages also dare not protest and demonstrate.

Everything is peaceful and prosperous on the surface and PAP can remain in power and ministers still get their million dollar paycheck.

That’s what really matters, isn’t it? How I wish I were a MP or part of gahmen!! Recession proof income and still hugely big even after 20% cut.

“As the MOM statistics now define part-time workers as those working 30 hours or less a week, does this change mean that more full-time workers, particularly those earning $1,200 or less, may be re-classified as part-time ?

If this happens, then any apparent drop in the number of workers who earn $1,200 or less may actually be due to such re-classification, rather than an improvement in the statistics for the number of lower-income workers.”

Hey, isn’t that a good thing? As a million dollar MOM minister, that’s the simplest scheme I can think of to improve the statistics. With a simple reclassifcation, I have now raised the Median Gross Monthly Income of Full-Time and Part-Time Employed Residents! Those earning $1,200 or less and are now reclassified as part-timers would help raise the $600 figure, right? Isn’t that a good thing? Painless and at no cost to the government. That justifies my million dollar salary, doesn’t it?

LOL

…part-time” or “contract staffing…it cannot be under ANY circumstances structured to serve the long term, not without falling foul of standard accounting practices and possibly MOM requirements – so in a nutshell, it simply doesn’t support the long term agenda of what is required to support a normal and healthy business process.

Is this true? I have with me two elderly staff who were converted from full-time employment to contract ones when they had reached the aged of 62 yrs. They have been working for the company eversince the conversions and we are looking at something like more than 5 years already.

Apart from this, my department has been recruiting temporary staffing on a regular basis for positions that must be filled throughout the year, i.e permanent positions. Is this also legal, or is the company taking advantage to save cost because hiring temps or contract staff does not require it to provide the various benefits that comes with full time employment.

I am talking about the healthcare business where, apart from crisis like SARS, nothing seems to be able to shake the foundation of its healthy annual profit margins.

The most pressing focus that faces us is really one brought forth by this economic downturn; as it bites further; firms (especially SME’s) will invariably find ways and means to maximize their returns even if it means capitalizing on loopholes and blind areas in the employment act / then the real question is whether this new way of doing business will produce “good” or “bad” to the workforce?

My feel is the bureaucrats have NOT done enough to make sure they are preparing themselves for that sort of proactive game –they need to seriously re-look at the current moribund MOM employment guideline to reflect this new economic reality – IMHO, the current dichotomy between full time employment and part time –contract staffing etc is woefully inadequate to support this new reality of doing business – its currently EITHER black or white, with little or no provision to accommodate grey areas. That simply means, it’s too rigid and inflexible.

A small business enterprise may need only 4 or 3 hours of labor against diminishing orders? / how can that sort of working arrangement be structured on a long term basis?

Maybe it’s time to send some of these sleepy bureaucrats on a tour of the Russian front?

You see in the 1st division game, it is not enough to play catch up, businesses will demand that you’re in the front end and not the back end. The main problem is currently, ALL their resources are positioned in the latter, and that’s simply no good– that is the REAL problem.

SD

7) singaporedaddy on December 15th, 2008 10.45 am

You argued that that firms and businesses leverage on “part time” as it offers them ONE of many ways to get around head count freezes and to fulfill their accounting requirements under conditions of acute to chronic economic stress. That’s true at the mirco level but at the macro level? When Singapore has been experiencing years of positive GDP growth?

Do you have the statistics on the number or proportion of Full-Time Employed Residents vs that of part-timers for 1999 and 2008? This would help shed light on the employment market – whether there has been a shift towards part-timers at the national level.

Also, are you disputing the figure that at a national level, the Median Gross Monthly Income of Part-Time Employed Residents has stagnated at $600 over 10 years, without even factoring inflation?

Can you also substantiate your claim that “part-time” or “contract staffing” “cannot be under ANY circumstances structured to serve the long term, not without falling foul of standard accounting practices and possibly MOM requirements”?

Many thanks.

Good morning Gemami

“Is this true? I have with me two elderly staff who were converted from full-time employment to contract ones when they had reached the aged of 62 yrs.”

I understand completely where you’re coming from. I do. The short answer to your question is; we are NOT dealing with a gold standard mechanism here, as it remains are very imperfect mechanism.

The challenge I believe is to make things transparent and part of that has to do with streaming the accounting practices to reflect reality.

You don’t need to be a chartered accountant or even high flying economic planner to understand how this adds up in reality; if you really want to understand the mystery of part time-contract staffing-temps etc.

All you have to do is look at the current theatre of operations in Iraq; the US state dept regularly churns out what I call happy stats; for instance; they tell Americans less of their boys now are returning in body bags; things are finally turning around in Iraq; they are even talking about handing the security of the country to the Iraqi’s; there is finally light at the end of the tunnel; troop replenishment has been cut drastically and they are expected to reduce all this to zero by 2011.

Question: how true is this?

Well, if you look at the excel spreadsheet, it’s a very rosy and happy picture; but if you go behind the numbers then you will see that one reason why actual troop figures are not going up in real terms; is bc many of these people who are currently taking over the role of US “peacekeepers” in Iraq are actually employees of private firms who do a brisk business of hiring mercenaries – so in real terms, the troop strength is not reflective of what happens on the ground.

And bc these mercenaries aren’t strictly classified as combatants, but rather security consultants; if they get shot in the head; do they show up in the dead count? Nope. But that doesnt discount the fact, folk are still dropping dead their flies.

Now you have to bear in mind, what I am highlighting here is only the tip of the iceberg – bc if you look at the entire supply chain of war making in Iraq, you can even say; if you really took the trouble to trace out this sort of bull crap with a calculator and a piece of matter one evening and go thru the accounting from everything ranging from food services, transportation, housing, right up to how the bullets are served up to frontline troops – that’s what you will see.

BUT, HERE, YOU NEED TO ASK YOURSELF WHY IS THIS DONE? WHO ARE THE BENEFICIARIES? WHO LOSES OUT HERE?

My point is simply this; the truth should never ever be taken at face value. NEVER.

Smart people don’t do that, that’s why they never put their faith in 1st division individuals, but rather build 1st division systems and processes – where even the best man is dispensable.

I have to go for a conference call now . the german govt is panicking and I need to save a semi-con firm.

Thanks Gemami and have a very productive week ahead

SD

Example of crap from our world class newspaper

Straits Times (Mon, 15 Dec 2008)

Headline: “SPECIAL REPORT: ERP helps cut congestion, drivers agree”

Rationale for headline: “About 26 per cent of drivers polled this year said ERP had reduced traffic compared to 15 per cent last year.”

@#&*@%^*$

On page A8, the chart showed that the responses to the question “Has the increase in ERP reduced traffic?” are

Yes 26.3% (2008) 15.3% (2007)
No 62.7% (2008) 77.3% (2007)
Don’t know 11% (2008) 7.5% (2007)

Our world class paper certainly follows the Pareto Principle. No wonder our 1st division politicians are blind. See only the good stuff.

LOL.

&*(&$@#*($&

Good afternoon 12 SGcynic,

Trust me; you don’t need to use statistics to establish EVERY point of contention; not every time at least. And let me share with you another secret; most people like to use statistics bc, it makes them look professional and serious.

Lets dive in bc I have round after round of conference calls back to back today; now how did I account for that sweeping assumption, I just made? Simple, I used Ockham’s razor. Let me share with you how it works; in a nutshell, the principle states that the explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating those that make no difference in the observable predictions of the explanatory hypothesis or theory.

In simple English, it means; this; if a firm keeps on using temp or contract staff INDEFINITELY; then at some point, someone will simply pick up on the incongruity and begin to ask thorny questions (I grant you this may not always happen all the time); why is your conversion cost so high? Can you please give me a break down? etc

Now in well managed firms where there are no gold taps and superman; discounting the NKF’s of this world of course; you need to regularly submit accounts and these need to ratified by independent assessors, usually they are KPMG or something along those lines – now if these people subsequently ask those sort of questions; how is the board of directors going to answer?

Now bear in mind, where you have an independent audit where your report card is shown to the whole wide world; its not the case of the TC’s where they can all hang up the phones and go off for long holidays; hoping that inconvenient questions will just go down some hole and disappear with time.

No, no, no…. in that sort of competitive cut throat fish bowl world of the fortune 500 firm; if you cannot account for how you typically crew manpower to deliver value to the shareholder within the time it takes you to empty your bladder; you’re a good as finished; bye-bye – take the gold rolex and out you go- no independent auditor is going to sign off to give you a clean bill of health.

That simply means senior managers at a VP level will never make those sort of decisions lightly; they may do so in one or two quarters to try to cheat the system, I admit; but long term is just too risky and hence Ockham’s razor.

Trust me, its good. It cuts through the bull, right to thru to the marrow. Ockham’s razor. Dont leave home without it.

Good day & Thanks

SD (Internet liaison officer of the brotherhood)

[...] Discourse – TOC: No salary increase for part-time workers in 9 years? – Everyday’s Life in a Snapshot: the not-so-obvious motives of having more foreigners – [...]

In simple English, it means; this; if a firm keeps on using temp or contract staff INDEFINITELY; then at some point, someone will simply pick up on the incongruity and begin to ask thorny questions (I grant you this may not always happen all the time); why is your conversion cost so high? Can you please give me a break down? etc

Now in well managed firms where there are no gold taps and superman; discounting the NKF’s of this world of course; you need to regularly submit accounts and these need to ratified by independent assessors, usually they are KPMG or something along those lines – now if these people subsequently ask those sort of questions; how is the board of directors going to answer?”

I believe auditors do not question company policies.

“Now bear in mind, where you have an independent audit where your report card is shown to the whole wide world”

Well, I’m not sure what proportion of the workforce public listed companies in Singapore employ.

IMHO, I believe that you have twisted Occam’s razor and introduced lengthy expositions that have little to do with the issue at hand but muddy the original points raised.

Got to go. Will check back tonight.

Sorry,
my earlier post 17) is directed to 15) singaporedaddy on December 15th, 2008 12.40 pm

“I believe auditors do not question company policies.”

LOL. Why do you then think the auditors in the Senate are grilling those top 3 automakers on ONLY policy issues? That’s a bit like saying you can make a fruit cake without raisins? No?

Please I was under the assumption; this is an intelligent question you posed, that is why I went thru the trouble of giving you an explanation.

There is no need to accuse me of muddying anything here.

I gave u IMHO, a very good and sensible supposition why most firms dont regularly use temp or contract workers INDEFINITELY. Its simply UNTENABLE in the long run and I have also given you a brief working knowledge at how I even derived at this simple conclusion.

Its so simple you could just as well use it to explain MOST things; like why aid workers in Africa are so often exasperated when they discover their western solutions to carry well water will never be effective in that part of the world; as what they fail to regularly understand is in the continent of Africa; water will always be carried on the head of women with well endowed hips; only because the gait of the african woman is unique and particular; the slight 15 degree off set before the ball of the feet touches the ground means such a method of transportating water will always be infinitely more efficient than even using jerry cans or other means with hardly any kinetic loss; more efficient even than even military back packs.

Do you really need statistics to tell you all that? No. But Ockhams razor will do just as well.

Think

Use your mentality, but please dont insult me for muddying issues without providing me with a CLEAR line of logic where I went wrong on my assumptions.

Thanks

SD (Internet liaison officer of the brotherhood)

what to do?
low wage is good for economic wor.
if labor wage can no increase long long, good good wor.
u no want companies say they migrate right ?
got part-time worker union or not?

businesses must make lots of money lah.
accept this lah.

1st world cost of living
lower wage is good good for companies in a 1st world .

david – If the whole country were to vote not just the contested wards/GRCs, I presume the PAP may not even get the 66% votes. The trouble is, when GE comes, less than half the population gets to vote as many GRCs will go uncontested.
Part-timers or daily rated employees are always at the mercy of employers. As these people are usually less educated and perhaps elderly, employers will wants pay them the bare minimium so as to enhance their own profits. I would presume most if not all food court cleaners are paid about $600 to $700 per month without CPF and other benefits like annual leave, medical etc. With the current economic downturn, low wage for the less educated and the elderly will continue for years to come.

l just want to straigthen out a few things here. If you all dont mind along with Singapore Daddy. What you are saying here:

“You need to be very mindful – firstly, firms and businesses leverage on “part time” –“contract” and “temps” ONLY because it offers them ONE of many ways to get around head count freezes and to fulfill their accounting requirements under conditions of acute to chronic economic stress. ”

This only temporary and not really a problem.

Then in 11.15 am at (11) you go on to write.

“The most pressing focus that faces us is really one brought forth by this economic downturn; as it bites further; firms (especially SME’s) will invariably find ways and means to maximize their returns even if it means capitalizing on loopholes and blind areas in the employment act / then the real question is whether this new way of doing business will produce “good” or “bad” to the workforce?

My feel is the bureaucrats have NOT done enough to make sure they are preparing themselves for that sort of proactive game –they need to seriously re-look at the current moribund MOM employment guideline to reflect this new economic reality – IMHO, the current dichotomy between full time employment and part time –contract staffing etc is woefully inadequate to support this new reality of doing business – its currently EITHER black or white, with little or no provision to accommodate grey areas. That simply means, it’s too rigid and inflexible.”

So you are saying, things may get worse. This may develop into a long term problem?

Another thing I want to ask is how does what you say in number (11) compare with what we have been doing in the bio-tech industries where it may not be so labor intensive. I dont know whether you had the opportunity to read the ST this weekend but there is a write up about A*Star and how it has been hitting new heights with new patent discoveries.

This is just a diversion but I am interested to know, why you want MOM to look into new ways to accomodate a new class of workers? Isn’t the current legal dichotomy sufficient?

And what do you really mean when you say in number (11) they, presumably government or mom or both need to play a more “pro-active game?”

Finally, excuse me if I am long winded, but as I see things going. Our economy isnt so dependant on labor intensive manufacturing operations any longer. If you look at many A*star initiatives many of these new ways of commodotizing value lies in research and development. So how would this new set of laws which you are proposing come in to add value to this whole idea of creating a vibrant business climate?

Just asking

Has anyone realised that the EMPLOYMENT RATE and MONTHLY INCOME is inversely related? In our economy you can create countless $800 jobs and push everyone to take them or hire foreigners if nobody wants it pushing up the EMPLOYMENT RATE. But this is useless, because what is the use of a job that cannot pay for the necessities of a family. The Manpower ministry no longer publishes the unemployment rate among Singaporeans ….this silence on the joblessness of Singaporeans is LOUDER THAN ANY NUMBER.

Under the PAP the income gap has ballooned and the PAP has only taken token actions to address this. This problem will keep growing until something concrete is done. But I think the PAP will take a minimalist approach on this by spending as little as possible as long as there is no visible widespread homeless and starvation our elites will stop there. But there is a certain kind of growing hopelessness among this segment of the population and the support for the PAP will decline if they continue to do nothing. The PAP will try its old tricks of using threats (upgrading), misinformation (media) and outright repression (CSJ etc). What we really need is a good govt – one that works for the interest of the people and not is conglomerate of business and other interests of the power elite.

I dont claim to be a supporter of PAP. But what has this lucky tan,

“The PAP will try its old tricks of using threats (upgrading), misinformation (media) and outright repression (CSJ etc). What we really need is a good govt – one that works for the interest of the people and not is conglomerate of business and other interests of the power elite.”

Got to do with the article written by Mr Leong Sze Hian?

The most important issue that has been highlighted in this thread I believe is the following.

(a) Is the current MOM guideline adequate? Can it be abused by unscrupulous employers out to exploit a legal loop hole?

(b) How will this proposed new guideline affect higher end skilled jobs in emerging industries like bio-tech?

(c) How to give the business community more flexibility.

I would also like to mention in passing, not that I am advertising on behalf of any party, there are many opportunities currently for business initiatives in the bio-polis hub. That may be a good place to look at for new and bright opportunities.

ong lei kit,

such problems with income disparity has a lot to do with how this country is run. We have the highest income gap among East Asian countries and among all developed nations.

Whatever MoM needs to do, you mean the smart people there don’t know? There is an interest to maintain the system as it is for the benefit of the interests of the party and the problems will be here as long as the party is here.

Leong Sze Hian is writing as if the govt is not aware of these problems and how to solve it. My point is there is no interest in taking concrete steps to solve them because it does not benefit the other interests of this govt. …and to continue to retain power it has to do what it does to retain power.

Good Afternoon Miss Ong,

I hear you, and I understand where you’re coming from. The answer to this is not easy. You have asked, I believe at least 3 questions; two of which related to this write up and one which if I may be so bold to add has nothing to with anything here, but for some reason sucks in what happening in the bio-tech business. I wonder why Miss Ong?

Let me see. If I dont get censored, then I will happiest to answer you. I need that assurance from the web master here, bc no one wants to spend 15 min writing a reply only to end up in moderation for maybe 24 hours.

Why dont you go and ask the webmaster here to give us all that assurance first Miss Ong?

No buts. No if’s. Just exactly what I’ve asked for Why? Bc the reply I am going to give to your questions is shall we say a bit sharp like cheese.

Alternatively, we can all live in darkness. Its fine by me.

Good day

SD (internet liaison officer of the brotherhood)

SG is so expensive & the reason why they don’t implement the minimum wage is to keep the foreign investors here.
Imagine you are a MNC, would you set up business in Malaysia or SG?
Definitely Malaysia, because operating cost (including rental) is way way lower.
To attract foreign investors, the gahment sacrifice the welfare of the citizens, especially the blue collars.

Isn’t it unfair to protect the interest of their fat pockets & sacrifice the commoners?
They should think of ways to lower operating cost of businesses (not only during recession) and protect the commoners (or do they call us the peasants?) from exploitation!

26) Lucky Tan & Ong Lei Kit

“such problems with income disparity has a lot to do with how this country is run.” This not a problem that only afflicts Singapore – the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer; it’s really a global problem that is part and parcel of what it means to buy into the idea of a globalized economy.

If you really want to understand how globalization makes the poor poorer; then all you need to do is understand that a tailor who runs an export business in lets say Tanjong pagar is not competing with only every tailor in Singapore, but perhaps every tailor in the world – so what happens in a sweat shop lets say in Shenzhen will have a direct impact on the marketability of this one tailor’s product – and conversely, this will also have a winnowing effect on the other side of the skill spectrum; where the skills of real elites will command an utility equal to lets say some one in NYC, London or Paris – so if you really want to understand globalization, just think of it in terms of everyone going to one book shop and buying the same rule book and playing the same game – that’s all it is.

Where I believe our govt may have got it all wrong is they mistakenly bought into the belief that globalization is a gentlemen’s game like croquet. I for one have always believed very strongly to win in this game, it doesn’t pay to play it straight or even honestly; one needs to count cards at times and like poker even up the stakes when you have nothing at hand; why that? Bc if you look at globalization as a game, no one is actually moving to that that one happy business utopian model which they have agreed too – the problem is we are dealing with a bunch of pirates here; they are all making up the rules as they go along – for instance, the EU make up around 40% of global commerce, but 2/3 of their import and export are traded within Europe itself – so even they are not globalizing in the true sense as much as quietly hedging their bets by opting for a combination of social democracy with a neoliberal economic system; the Americans under Bush are even worse; they have thrown away the rule book and have tilted towards a mix of protectionism and crony capitalism; one reason why Bear Stearns was saved and not Lehman bros was bc the exposure of the former was more than the latter in the US market – its as simple as that everyone is covering their own ass.

The problem with us is we played this game too honestly; we pranced into a poker game very much like a young damsel dressed in white lace walking into a game that we had absolutely no business to go into without a least a few characters like darkness to serve as chaperones. We never bothered to carry a six shooter or to even hedge our bets; instead, we put all our chips on a few high end squares; like banking, service industries, bio-tech and juggernaut firms like Temasek – and some idiot said, yeeeeeeeeeee ha, this is good to go!

But when the ball in the roulette table of globalization is given a good spin what do you think our chances of winning are in this game? As I said, globalization is a rigged game. You go figure that out yourself.

The problem is most people don’t know how serious this is.

SD

I wish to share that jobs that are change between the first party holding the tender after securing it will not run the show but will outsource the contract to the next party and than it goes on, till the last idiot will not be able to pay more from the original contract that lead to all this low pay.

A law must be enacted to prevent contracts from changing hands from more than two parties and only than you can see more salary for such jobs. The government or the tenderer does not bother as all they want is the contract to be fulfill and not what are the employees paid.

The pay can only increase if there is a minimum wages in Singapore and only than contract job will pay well base on the wages recommended.

In Singapore its a fake hope and people have to surrender all their wealth one day to the government for good. Good example will be retirement fund and our housing system. Therefore, keep dreaming and nothing will happen in this fake world with cheats and robbers.

Wages are dirth cheap low………Tourist are impressed with the labels in some souvenirs that “SINGAPORE IS A FINE CITY”.
1st. Class City with 3rd World wages.to those contract workers………….how to cope?
ERP / COE / GST ……………are all stressful for the middle income wage earners that some chose to migrate.

These will be solutions for 2009 :

01. More casinos tender to be grant to operator with minimium $1 billion investment business plan in every neighbour to increase gambling revenue.

02. Pegged Sing $ to US$ to fight inflation. S$1=US$1 rate after revison.

03. Scrap mom annual employment report since numbers are not revelant in this fast pace economy.

04. HDB listed as billion dollar private company to be listedin forbes magazine as most promising real estate company, can price the first $1.5 million 5 room flat.

05. No change to help unemployment since survey shows singaporeans got enough saving to live till they died.

The 3 wise man wish every singaporeans a happy golden age 2009, wih more good years but be caution, this recession may last longer than 2009 leh.

Hi All,

I like to seek your advise.

1. Does Minimum Wage means an official lowest salary PER job?
OR
1 minimum wage for the whole country for 1 job only?

in short, is it about 1 $ value or multiple minimum salaries, 1 per job title?

NOL also retrenching 1000 staff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ah halima,
ah lim

say something leh.

I URGE companies be urged.

02. Pegged Sing $ to US$ to fight inflation. S$1=US$1 rate after revison. They won’t do something like that….they will be depreciating SGD to boost export in order to get a higher score for their report card.

aiyo, comment oso no use wan.
the PEOPLE will forget. As usual. As always.

The government, the employers themselves and the unions have a duty to protect the rights of contract and part-time workers by:

1. Ensuring that Singapore’s employment laws like Central Provident Fund Act, Employment Act and Workmen’s Compensation Act are included in the contracts.

2. Ensuring that all contract workers have a written contract, which specifies their rights like appointment, working hours, salary, benefits, etc.

3. Not awarding a project to the highest bidder, but check if the bidder has sufficient cash outflow. This will prevent the problem of financially distressed employers not paying their contract workers.

4. Abolishing the law which says that a contract worker has got to be in employment for a minimum of 6-months before he or she can qualify for employment benefits.

And these pointers should not be mere guidelines or ‘advisory’, but should be enforced as regulatory as it is already enshrined in the labor laws of Singapore.

My thoughts are here: http://singaporesocialactivist.blogspot.com/2008/12/rights-are-not-mere-advisory.html

[i]39) Ravi Philemon on December 15th, 2008 11.22 pm The government, the employers themselves and the unions have a duty to protect the rights of contract and part-time workers by:
[/i]

you must be jesting
right?
where in the whole wide world
do you find a union chief
who also happenned to be over a $100,000/month minister?
it liked as though
asking ms belinda ang to be little red robbin hood as well?

Based on Singapore’s standard and cost of living (among the highest in the world) should i say the minimum wages a worker should earn here must be around $1500 a month. Thats still only $8.50 an hour (much lower than many developed countries). If this is still too costly for most companies to provide for their employees, i guess we really need to lower our cost of living to be on par with our neighbours so that at least poorer Singaporeans can be satisfied with their $1200 wages. The most obvious ways to cut the cost of living in Singapore are to make do with the governments numerous hidden “taxes” that burdened the pockets of ordinary Singaporeans.

so many rich minster around.

not sure how much they donated to charity?

and should they let singaporean know their total wealth so that there will more transparency?

I am not surprised at all that a lot of people are earning less than $1200 a month. In between my JC and university days, I worked part-time at NTUC as a cashier. I was surprised to hear from the full-timers that they did not earn much more than me. They were only taking in about 1000 a month, and granted these were ladies who have working husbands too, I was very impressed by some of them whose total household income of less than 2000 a month and were still able to see their children through polytechnic and university. Given the stagnation of wages, 1200 a month now should be about what those ladies are earning right now.

I was shocked that NTUC would pay so little even to full-timers who had worked almost all their lives there. My part-timer salary was 4.20 an hour (back in 2000), and this could only happen in a country without minimum wages.

As a plebeian, I shall speak like one, I have funny idea of ong lei kit, he or she makes me feel funny. Not a supporter of PAP he claimed, before and after he/she posted here, no other commenter was interested in his/her declaration. This shows that nobody is interested in his/her position.
Then, he/she talked about Biotech Industries as though most Singaporeans are employed here.

As far as we know, the Biotech Companies are mainly foreign investments here that hardly employ more than two to three hundred staff and not all are Singaporeans. True, A-Star is a state concern that has some of our brightest scholars in it, is it able to make as much as SIA, PSA? I don’t know, therefore I ask.

We are dealing with a large segment of Singaporeans employed under contract terms with very low salaries. There are enough examples given and I need not reiterate them. Lucky Tan and singaporedaddy have both offered their very enlightening views and opinions which are obviously true to all of us. There should be no argument.

As a small country without any resources and developments reaching saturations in every aspect such as land became concrete jungle leaving no space for mass productions of primary products through farmings. Our sealine are barren as they are reclaimed and developed and few can depend on the sea for incomes. Singaporeans today by and large are at the mercy of foreigners to provide us the jobs, foods and even foreigners to consumed our goods(mainly imported) for retailers and hawkers to survive.

Someone, anyone kindly help me to take away our commoner’s worries.

puppy.

I am sad to tell everyone here nothng will be done to help underpaid true hardworking singaporeans to rally their mini wages to stay in a first world country. However, the main piority is to have 24 hours brainstorming legislation with our top talent to continue to be the asia biggest $$$ wealth managerment centre by 2009. How to answer to USA + Europe on annoymous billon dollars account hold by the billon dollars wealthy people from these country?

At least F1 wayang last few months a way to show them we can stage what monaco can stage at night at the expense of singaporeans.

3 wise man wish to say this recession will be longer than previous ones since no one in he world believe the biggest bank in the world will be in such dire state.

19) singaporedaddy on December 15th, 2008 1.23 pm

Dear singaporedaddy, no insult intended. I’ve reread your post 7) and I realised that I overlooked your last para and thus misunderstood your point. My bad.

My take after understanding your point is as follows (please pardon me if I’m not parsimonious for I do not have the habit of writing at length and I don’t the luxury of time to organise my arguments).

I accept the point that “contract staff do ACTUALLY morph into permanent full fledge employees” and that part-time work may be temporary or interim state of employment (just think of students doing vacation jobs or firms hiring on a project basis).

Looing at the statistics (I can’t help it): The Median Gross Monthly Income of Part-Time Employed Residents has stagnated at $600 over the 10-year period from 1999 to 2008. Factoring inflation, this median income would have experienced negative growth. This is even though Singapore has experienced positive real growth in GDP over the same period. (Other readers have shared the possible reasons.)

Notwithstanding the complex nature of “contract staffing”, whether as a short term stop gap measure by companies to fulfil business requirments or otherwise, the fact is should you fall into this category in Singapore, you’re screwed. Hopefully it is a temporary state of affairs. And there is a (sizeable?) group of residents that fall permanently in this category (Occam’s razor?). I think we can guess on which half of the median $600 monthly income they fall into. For this group of people, that is the picture of the employment market. I do not know what proportion of this group would eventually morph into full fledge employees, I doubt it helps matters much for them.

As for the role of auditors, my knowledge is cursory. I have always thought an auditor typically provides an independent report as to whether a company’s financial statements have been properly prepared in accordance with regulations. Unless the auditor has been specially charged to dig into the company’s affairs.

I agree with you that one does not need to use statistics to establish EVERY point of contention; not every time at least. I agree that some people like to use statistics bc, it makes them look professional and serious. (Just think of politicians. :) ) Hey, it is possible look professional and serious without using statistics. LOL

Singaporedaddy,

Thank you very much for your reply. May I just say you are a very suspicious person. I also noticed. You only seem to respond to questions which you want to answer and probably feel it gives you a platform to state your case and bent on a particular subject.

I asked a valid set of questions that corresponded to what the author is trying to forward in this essay. Allow me to just elaborate in detail how it relates to the issue of renumeration and jobs.

1. You mentioned Singaporedaddy that MOM should look at the whole issue of creating a new category to support businesses. This is my second time asking this question. You have not supplied an answer as to why you believe additional cost and time should be incurred to create a new categorization. I am not saying the current classification is top notch (and please stop using 1st division. If I am not mistaken this is a term of endearment that is used by the PAP. I am talking abt the civil service which has never used this mascot to describe themselves.). I just do not seem to understand. Why you even felt the need to create a new classification and how might that add value to the present system.

2. My objective in highlighting high end research and development is to tie in with many of the efforts pursued by the Economic Development Board’s International Advisory Council.

Singaporedaddy, I am sure, you know about this body. They were charged with growing the Contract Pharmaceutical firms in Singapore. With the hope of offering one day a full range of contract research activities including clinical trial management, regulatory affairs, central laboratory and possibly even Clinical Trial Supplies service.

This was once identified by EDB as far back as 2000 as being high growth areas which was supposed to compliment our spectrum of otherservices such as the financial services and others.

The reason why I asked this question is perhaps this area can be revitalized to support other less well off areas which are currently hit by the economic crisis.

I think, I asked very reasonable questions. Why do other people get their questions answered. And I don’t?

[quote]The Chance to Make a Difference

by Lee Kuan Yew

After the dramatic drops in the New York Stock Exchange following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, stock markets and property values in eastern Asia declined significantly. China’s Shanghai index has fallen about 70% this year. Property prices have also dropped, varying in levels among different cities. Visiting Beijing and Shanghai in late October, I found political leaders and businessmen were apprehensive about the coal and iron ore stocks piling up at their wharves as export demands fell. [/quote]

and the point being?
this is directed @ the mental1…
singapore merchants are facing the same dilema everyday
when was the LAST time did you ever visit simwonghoo inc?
just because our local mini manufacturers do not have the qualifications to invite your expensive visits/times to their little warehousing quarters
when was the LAST time did you ever check the daily warehousing charges as setup by YOUR son governorships
who is going to pay for all this overdued storages spaces?
from your overpaid ministers pockets?
or the consumers?
now you know why even sony inc and the other BIG giants have to cut down on production ecetra ectera which also have the domino effect on our daily break and milk peasants
YET
your son governorships still INCREASED their productions/maintainance/expenses as well
TALK IS CHEAP
especialLEE when you don’t have a factory or warehouse to maintain and upkeep the COSTINGs..

35) SZ on December 15th, 2008 10.58 pm

02. Pegged Sing $ to US$ to fight inflation. S$1=US$1 rate after revison. They won’t do something like that….they will be depreciating SGD to boost export in order to get a higher score for their report card.

—————————–

interesting….

If contract, temp & part time workers starts increasing their pay, less Singaporeans will be hired for these jobs.

I agree that part-time workers are disadvantaged in salaries. Back in 2005, my part-time pay at Singtel was $6.5 per hour. Now, with inflation and GST + transport + food price hike, it’s still $6.5.

Can’t help but notice #45 didn’t get the answer again ahah