I refer to the article “More flexibility for bosses to cut costs and save jobs” (ST 18 May).
I wonder if such schemes to allow bosses the flexibility to cut costs will help workers retain their jobs. Already, employers have access to the Jobs Credit Scheme (JCS) which is itself a financial scheme to prop up businesses to stay afloat in this tough time. Nevertheless, the JCS can only go so far in helping an ailing company’s bottomline. Once the company is down and broke, there is nothing much that can be done to salvage it. By putting good money to bad businesses, I wonder if our government is doing the wise thing here.
Employers may now, with the latest recommendations, have the legal means to reduce wages or ask staff to go on no-pay leave which will effectively reducing a worker’s wages down the road. The remaining workers are left to struggle it out in the office with double, sometimes treble, workload share. What measures are being taken to ensure that no wayward employers will seize the opportunity to victimise workers now left with less bargaining power due to this down period?
I also wonder why the government does not consider a short term unemployment benefit for those who are retrenched. Many of the schemes available now, such as the JCS are all geared towards putting money into employers’ pockets in the hope that the firms will survive and retain workers. Spurs programme is also one scheme which allows firms to send their redundant workers to be retrained and the government will absorb part of the workers’ wages through training allowances.
Unemployment benefit, on the other hand, is effectively putting good money into a jobless worker and enabling him and his family to live on with dignity instead of scraping the bottom. The economy will also be boosted by domestic consumption as the retrenched will now have real money to spend instead of hoarding whatever reserves they have right now for further rainy days. This also hastens the onset of deflation – which most economists are fearful of.
It is timely that our government takes a serious look at a concrete plan to implement unemployment insurance. Many developed countries deduct a small percentage of workers’ salaries to fund unemployment insurance. It is like a CPF deduction but much reduced in scale. A one-percentage point taken from our monthly CPF deduction could be used to fund such a payout so that there is no real additional expense incurred.
As the global economy turns uncertain and every economic recovery cycle gets shorter, our government may be wise to look at how the retrenched and unemployed workers can be effectively assisted during down time.
Gilbert Goh
President
Transitioning – Unemployment Support Services
—–
And furthermore, even the so-called ‘protection’ for the workers, are only GUIDELINES, by the tripartite partners. Why not legislate?
“Why not legislate?”
It’s not a matter of representation power. It’s a matter how to set things to create jobs in the easiest way.
If you want to fight against “capitalists who exploit workers”, go blame the americans for creating half of the world’s GDP.
All this are to make the unemployment figures looks good. Gainfully employed at half your salary is the same as unemployed half of your time.
PAP always like to enpower the MNC’s GLC Employers rather than the Normal Singaporean Employees.
Cause in their eyes, Singaporean are just Stupids Idiots who don’t know how to manage their money!
But PAP don’t realised the tax payer money sink into the MNCs like their R&D dept got no return.
Those Foreigners Talents Bosses are just laughing at the Stupidity of PAPs in their back!
another bright idea to make locals more competitive? workers are too insignificant liao. how can they make staff go on no-pay leave when there are workers who are not paid working overtime?
another attempt to tilt the scale in favour of employers?
The gap between the boss and workers, the gov and the people, the rich and the poor, the controller and the controlled are getting wider and wider by the days. This will ultimately lead to serious conflicts in the future, if nothing is done to arrest such a trend on an urgent basis.
A subservient and obedient citizenry can swallow as much as they can stomach. Once the patience runs out, and emotions set in, troubles must inevitably come. By then, it will be too late to reverse the eventuality.
re Spirit-centred,
so true & when stats are published they all look very nice, & ask for another round of pay increase for job “well done”…
Companies like SIA has been giving out very good bonuses & benefits all these years. It is not unreasonable for them to ask their employees to take less or even unpaid leaves now. However, those local SMEs are bound to exploit these rules.
Gilbert,
Being president of your own small organisation and with your experience dealing with the out-of-job workers, may I ask if you have any suggestions to help strike a balance other than your suggestion to introduce unemployment benefits, which you and I know, will be like cracking open a nutmeg.
Don’t you think it will be better to push for the government to release the people’s own money – those locked away in their CPF accounts. Giving every one with a CPF account, the equivalent to a small percentage point, say, 0.5 to 1 percent, might be good enough for most to tide through. It will also go a long way to stimulate the economy with this added spendings. What do you think?
I feel it will work because it will also encourages Singaporeans to contribute to their CPF accounts during good times so that when bad time comes, they will have more to look forward to, depending on the amounts they had contributed.
I hope the government would stop looking at dipping into the CPF as setting a bad precedent. If it is use correctly, it can be a healthy precedent as well.
#6 gemami – small percentage point, say, 0.5 to 1 percent, might be good enough for most to tide through
This sounds reasonable. Tide through, yes.
Boost domestic consumption, not feasible.
If oppositions don’t try to sound reasonable, the reputation won’t build up.
another attempt hang on to the old model of “persuading” MNCs to invest in Singapore. Give tax breaks/havens, bring in cheap labour, easing banking laws, etc, ad nausem. Leadership has run out of idea.
Dr Frankenstein ,
i agree with you, they are trapped in the spiral, trying to do the same thing that brought success in the past
Gemani
I doubt that the govt will want to open up the CPF money for use here as we all know that it is both difficult to manage and do we now have enough CPF to spread around after losing so much of money in toxic investments?
Building up unemployment insurance is one way to stay ahead of the problem in future. Many developed countries contribute a small percentage of their income and when they are unemployed, they can tap on such reserves which is actually their own money in the first place. It is meant for use when one is jobless.
Buying unemployment insurance gives one peace of mind and does not influence in anyway the govt’s expenditure. It will also not affect the bottom line of the govt as it is used from one’s salary.
This will benefit all parties especially the worker who will be able to have a safety net in place in future.
This was suggested way back in 1997 during the Asian financial crisis but was not taken up by the govt. Perhaps the govt wants to control how a worker should behave when the economy is down i.e. by going for retraining during each crisis?
This is the second time that retraining is used during a major recession (first one was during the Sars period) and it is still unsure how effective it is to tackle a economic crisis. It only makes a jobless worker feel beholden to the govt and desperate even though he is retrained as he still has no job after being retrained.
Our jobless workers should feel confident that he has a safety net to rely on as he funds the unemployment insurance money out of his own pocket. One percentage point of our CPF deduction should be enough to fund such unemployment benefit.
As of now, those who belong in the middle income category (or 4 rm and above) will have no access to CDC financial assistance. They will have to borrow from friends or pawn away their valuables to raise cash to tide through this difficult period.
aiyoyo
elites got affected or not?
aiyoyo
The logic is simple. Bosses must be profitable because they pay more taxes, pay more rent and consume more utilities. Guess to who?
I agree with gemami, but I propose to give that small percentage as a micro loan for people who wants to start business. We are allowed to buy shares, ie giving our CPF to others to do business, right?
JCS is just to help the big boys, for small and medium company, the assistance is really peanut.
In Singapore, the biggest portion of the operation cost is the rental… And you know who is the biggest landlord… needless to name them…. if you still dunno,… “the CEO who get 20mil as bonus” will give u the clue for more link.
Getting assitance from the CPF? Wait long long man, the gahman is ready for the episode 3 of “Money Not Enough”… Jack Neo shd start start telling the behind stories of our gahman instead of showing them our citizen’s life which they don’t really care.
Thanks Gilbert for the enjoyable read.
Appreciate your help to singaporeans and especially unemployed ones like me.
Allow me to share my real story.
I have been looking for a job for so long (more than 8 months), I am desperate and decided to try working as a Hawker stall assistant.
There was a small notice at the stall in my neigbourhood. Its stated “Hiring Singaporeans or PR only” followed by the mobile number to call.
I was happy to see an employer supporting singaporean/pr.
So, I called. My last drawn pay was about $8000, basic salary. There was also a separate Employer CPF contribution for my last job. The following is what the hawker stall boss told me about the job :
1. Full-time = 12 hours per day.
. salary : $1500
. Working days = EVERY DAY work with 2 off-days per month entitled (I wondering any 1st world labor policies violated??? )
. Place of work = Jurong (place advertised = SengKang. )
2. Part-time = 8 hours per day.
. salary : $5 per day + $5 transport allowance.
. working days = Every day , 2 day-offs.
. Place of work = Jurong
From Seng Kang to Jurong by public transport may cost quite a bit (for mere mortals) , lets assume $2.50 per end-end trip consisting of bus and mrt and maybe 1 more shuttle. To-and-Fro = $5 (allowance used up entirely).
To work for 8 hours, if I spend 1 meal outside, that could cost me $2.50 (without coffee/tea/soft drinks but only tap water). This leaves me $2.50 income per day for 8 hours so-called ‘part-time’ work. This is assuming no other nett- offs.
Yes I am Desperate and should take up this job. I am still considering.
But I like to ask, is $2.50 a day of income (partially netted), enough to survive in 1st world Singapore? Fortunately for the Employer,in a pro-business environment where there is no official Minimum wage regulation, he can set this kind of salary. Food prices have not fallen overall even in this crisis, based on personal observation. Many prices continue to go up.
To cut story short, I also like to know
What is there for Employees?
regards
Pork and Pork ( can pork no more)
The reason for such policies is that the government is following textbook economic policy. Nominal wages have downward rigidity so this creates frictions in the labour market which prevents the labour market from reaching a new equilibrium in a deflationary environment. Such poliy to reduce nominal wage rigidity is similar to having a positive target inflation rate to allow reduced real wage rigidity even in the face of nominal wage rigidity.
The problem with such an approach is that in such an economic situation the textbook policy is not applicable. The political and social consequences of such nominal wage revisions are not properly factored. The focus must be on redistribution of the labour force towards out-performing industries and away from under-performing industries. Otherwise the rigidities will be magnified once the economy picks up.
Additionally, to prevent negative political and social consequences, there must be a concerted effort to improve income distribution through government stimulus. This recession is the ultimate opportunity for the government to improve the income disparity in Singapore. Such reduced income disparity will effectively boost domestic consumption as well which will be the basis for smoothing of the economy in a global economic recession.
The sentiment that boosting domestic consumption will be ineffective has been stated many times in the comments on economic articles. This is a fallacy, domestic consumption and government expenditure should be the backbone of any policy to smooth a global economic recession because we cannot be dependent on export demand anymore. The arguement is similar to that of National Service. We cannot be dependent on foreign assistance, we must have sufficient domestic capabilities and develop foreign ties as a means to supplement and strengthen our domestic capabilities.
As long as the PAP are around, workers here will always be second rate “slaves”
They will not put any legistration in place because that would make hiring very inflexible. This has always been the norm to attract the MNC. But things have changed over the last two years or so and will continue to be difficult for workers in the near future. The MNC and government know this and perhaps a longer recession will bring them to their knees and think of the ordinary Joe next.
6 years of service, not even a single month of compensation from my generous US MNC, no thanks to these GUIDELINES. Can I complain?
If it was legislated, at least it would be easier to tide through this period.
In Singapore, you die your problem. Just don’t be at the bottom.
hi Gilbert,
i am rather sceptical about an unemployment insurance. how why…..
how much it covers can be a matter of which class of the policy is chosen. also, there is a level of uncertainty how effective it will actually be.
there are many loopholes insurance companies can exploit, & its all in the fine print. those who are not legal savvy could be at a loosing end. like the MiniBond saga has shown, will this be another buyer-beware?
how does it protect the low income earners who may not be able to go for a more comprehensive unemployment insurance plan (which it is meant to protect?)?
Who to Blame but Yourself!
Treat Every Employment Contract as a Business Contract!
Problem of Singapore, ppls are not trained to be businessman but workers!
Get an Broad-Based American Education System would be better for Singapore in the long run!
Americans are more assertive and articulate than any quite Singaporean!
hi TrueBlood Singaporean,
you are right, an employment contract is a business contract of sorts. but some industries form a cartel to come up with “standardised” contract, only those not in the cartel offer a different (better & more balanced) contract.
Jackie also know S’poreans got no self respect willing to be slave for just 3 meals. with all the E2i, JCS, & so on harping that there are (measely paying) jobs.
eh, please dun compare American or any other country’s people with S’poreans. too many differences.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
personally, i am jobless for some months, & have not taken a job that is very unfairly worded against me, the employee. am termed “not flexible”.
i flexible to boss, will boss be flexible to me?
Hi Gilbert,
Thanks for the reply but I am still in the wilderness regards the mechanism of your unemployment insurance suggestion. You mentioned “Building up unemployment insurance is one way to stay ahead of the problem in future“, but what about the here and now? My perception of what the ‘unemployment insurance scheme’ looks like is pretty much the same like CPF contribution (correct me if I am wrong).
Insurance premium must surely come from the employee, and the payable sum assured would only be paid out when a worker loses his job. It is good in that it will keep a restrain on employers who have no qualm in considering layoff as a first option. But then again it might not make any difference if the insurance payout is from another institution other than the employer.
Whatever it is, this government must come down to ground level and walk through the process with the common man, see how the recession is really impacting lives, get to know as many families as possible struggling to stay afloat and doing all they can to fend for themselves etc. No point continuing to speak happy words as if the situation is under control and people are happy with the current measures being put in place. Most of the measures are only helpful toward the employed worker via the benefits accorded to the employers. They must see that it is not helping the unemployed.
No matter how much we lost in Toxic investment, nothing beats the BOA losses by Temasek.
Those of you who encourage the sheer reduction of pay is dumb.
Thanks all for your comments.
I should discuss more on unemployment insurance here since it sparks off quite alot of responses.
There are two ways to fund unemployment insurance:
1. Direct taxes from wages – these are high-taxes high welfare benefit countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Britain and many other European countries. You pay high taxes so that you are taken care of when you are sick (hospitalisation), old (pension) and young (education). Frankly, I am ok with such taxation scheme as I know that I will take back what I pay out later on or in due course.
2. Deduction from wages – funded from one’s income up to one or two percentage point and pay out from the fund when one is jobless. Suffice to say, there is a limit to how much one can take out from unemployment insurance subject to a minimal period. This scheme is fair and applies to all as it is like buying health insurance. If you contract a sickness, you get a payout as you pay premiums for it. If you work till you retire, too bad, you don’t get a dime as you are gainfully employed (which is good for all).
Every month, all of us contribute a dollar to our self help group – CDAC, Mendaki, Sinda and Eurasian Assocaition. If you earn aboe $2500 you contribute slightly more – $1.50 I think. Each month, self help group takes in about 2 miliion dollars of income from about 2 million local Singaporeans workers from such compulsory contribution ( you can opt out by way of writing in if you want).
Imagine if we all contribute a dollar each to the unemployment fund, we will build up $24 million dollars of such fund in a year’s time – not bad considering that it is only one dollar per worker per month. The power of multipilcation.
The govt’s argument that unemployment insurance will make us soft doesn’t hold ground anymore as they have being giving out financial assistance to the poor and needy. By giving out unemployment insurance money, we are in fact taking back what we have paid out and it will run out over a period of time unlike those effected in Australia whereby it is payable over 12 months and renewable.
It is a good safety net that allows one to tide over a period of time especially when the economy recovery cycle gets shorter. Many of us are already third time retrenched by this round and we are not even in our 50s!
The key here is to convince out govt to accept such a proposal. Many here have doubts whether our govt will efficiently distribute the unemployment benefit. Then why not appoint an insurance co to do it? NTUC was appointed to take over the Medishield insurance scheme few years back, I am sure that they can also do it for unemployment insurance.
Hope this help.
Govt openly asking employer to cut cost is like telling them to depress workers wages. I felt govt should not interfere too much on how businessmen want to do businesses. It is not wrong for govt to show concern on cost issue, but their constant interference yield no result at all and make the situaion worse rather than improving. A profitable company might ride on govt sentiment to exploit workers by echoing the govt fear
On the other hand, wages not enough for survivial is no difference from people who are jobless. Of course the latter will get less stressful without having to deal with typical boss and the former will work extremely hard with not enough to feed.
When the president gave a monotonous opening speech yesterday, only one word speaks volume of the opening message: “WAYANG”.
Absolutely spot on David – it’s WAYANG.
We have been in recession for more than half a year already and I think the time is about right to get some real figures from the government on how it recession measures have been measuring up in reality.
There is so much talk about this or that scheme until nobody knows which scheme is to serve which purpose but all we hear is that these schemes are working wonderfully well and preventing job losses, creating jobs and collectively we are beating the recession. But where are the concrete evidence?
All over the island, you see, hear and meet people who are losing their jobs and who are going to lose them soon. It is time for some undoctored figures to show us that these schemes are helping the poor unemployed person and his family.
Stop the Wayang. It’s people’s lives we are talking about.
hi Gilbert,
thanks for explaining the concept of umemployment insurance. sorry if i am still doubtful about the real effectiveness, since its still not in effect yet. but the point about appointing an insurance company handle the the schemem may be a step backwards. personally, i feel S’poreans have too many schemes parking money elsewhere (CPF, Medishield, so on) with restrictions on useage. as with the case of CPF monies being non-liquid money now.
being umemployed not by choice, why should employees be made to pick up the tab for employers or govt who made miscalculation in policies? it may well become another pro-employer policy in the wrong hands.
anyone got similiar or different views? please share. ;)
The gahmen believes that by being very directly and strongly pro-employer and pro-training, it is also pro-employee. HOPEFULLY!
So employees, please have HOPE, a four letter word.
But please take note, don’t hope the PAP will lose the next elections! It is a hopeless to hope.
I do not see the need and workable solution of having an unemployment insurance. Most retrenched workers are people with lower skill and education level and are already earning a very small wages due to foreigners depressing it. Deducting certain percentage of their pay might add stress to the small net income and the short term payout may not be attractive too. Besides, insurance company are likely to make older workers pay higher premium since this group are vulnerable and likely to be retrenched and probably hard to find another job so soon. Instead of worryiing about retrenchment and relying on insurance, workers should learn how to save enough for rainy days while they are still working. Money in your hands is 10 times better than in others (ie CPF or insurance co). The issue does not lie with Singaporean as individual, it is not about retraining, upskill or multiskill. The root of our problems lie with our leadership and its continue anti Singaporean policies. If half of our small pie is taken by pap and another quarter pie to 1 million foreigners leaving the last quarter pie to 3.5million Singaporean, I do not know what is fair in the eyes of this govt. They are the one with no sense of proprtions resulting in grave situation Singaporeans are facing. Time to reclaim the whole pie because Singaporeans are the true owner to it. No mistake about it.
Tax the rich.
Singapore has many rich.
More and more millionaires.
While employee-mindset intellectuals slog for their boss enjoying pro-biz policies with no min wage enforced,
they should give back to the society especially the employees who slogged for them by pay and pay more tax to help fund/finance the job insurance. I hope the rich starting from certain income bracket would be taxed more by at least 1 percent for this purpose.
Solution provided, like it or not. Great or not. what is 1 percent to the rich? its peanuts!
Dear #32,
You have to right to suggest taxing the very rich to finance the poor, but it won’t be called insurance. How much tax are you willing to pay more to support people poorer than you? If you don’t like to pay more tax, you don’t have choice, but these rich people who you mention about can always pack up and leave. Like it or not, this is the limitation.
Dear #31,
I don’t think the pap is taking a significant portion of the small pie. You can see the numbers for yourself from the revenue budget documents from MOF. I think the open economy policy is actually benefiting most Singaporeans. You can tell by seeing who complains about what.
We have the right to rise the concerns for low wage workers, but we have to be clear on what the problem is…
caution caution #6….. they will call out the army…
…………….. wrote this in another post…………………
its all about slaves..
how does the towkay make his money..??..
you can argue the point that thru him and his ideas of providing a service or product he monetises a potential value which would otherwise have remained dormant ..probably wasted..
or…
he is a predator.. he searches for prey who will work for less than what they will need to survive.. sells the products or services for more than they(prey) need to pay… hence the reward.. the more slaves he has working for him the better.. the less he can pay them the better.. this way his workers / slaves pay him everyday..
…. lets consider who we all pay… and what we have gotton in return for our good work.. also, consider that we are paving the same slave career path for the little ones who come after us..
………………..
and yes .. it looks like the PAP has run out of ideas…
…..this is a problem of philosophical inbreeding….. hopefully like the genetic kind it will lead to the end of the line..
Not all employers benefit from government help either. During the last Sars crisis, S’pore gahmen gave multi-million dollar subsidies to organisations such as hotels to keep their operations going, on the nasis that tourism were badly hit. But Sars also caused the cancellation of events held at hotel ballrooms, and this crippled a lot of small event companies at that time. The gahmen helped the rich big boys (hotels) but ignored the others who were similarly affected.
Hi Gilbert, I read with great support for your proposal. I believe there is urgency on this matter for 2 reasons:
(1) Recovery is slow and could be one where unemployment is high and only specific sectors would recover while others can be sluggish for a while
(2) Inflation risk is high and living costs could weigh down heavily on Singaporeans with low income or unemployed
The discussion thereafter is seeking ways to fund this without busting the budget. In reality, if the government is prepared to relook at how spending is done, we will be able to provide the fund.
For example we continue to spend 6% of GDP on defence. I questioned that. The current underlying threat is terrorism and i believe more money into homefront security can be acceptable. But an all out war is highly unlikely. Since 1997 financial crisis & 2003 Sars, the SAF had already taken the opportunity to modernise its weaponries and maintain capability lead over our adversaries significantly.
I am sure there are more ways budget can be adjusted to provide 20m annually to provide some form of support for unemployment during inclement times.
if tax incentives can be provided for businessmen/individuals to provide such donation or to drive a charity show for this; i am sure there will be many supporting hands.
But would the ruling party be prepared to do that?
Don’t depend on the government lah…. After so many years of hearing “you are on your own”, you still don’t get it?
Do what? Cannot hear you… Sorry, there is more important and urgent things to attend to…. sorry, no time for the poor and unfortunate. Everyone for themselves.
Sounds familiar?
I foresee that the govt will take up some form of unemployment scheme here in the future as they can’t go on subsidising retraining packages. This time round Spurs costs the tax payers $600 million.
We also need another safety net scheme besides retraining to counter every recession and it is getting more serious every time that it occurs.
Several things that the govt can do to help Singaporean workers here:
1. Minimal wage scheme – this will effectively kill off any attempt by the employer to hire cheap foreigner labour and depress local wages but I cant see that happening in pro-employer Singapore now.
2. Strengthen employment labour law – this will take much time but is necessary as we hear of many companies not enforcing retrenchment benefit. Worker contract is also much skewed towards the employer. I have to threaten to go to the Small Claims court before my previous company paid me and they also cut my pay. They later reinstalled to the original amount agreed on when I threatened again. I learned my lesson here i.e. get your employment contract in order (I didnt got mine as it is a short term one) and always threatened to go to the Small Tribual Court if you feel deceived.
3. Abolish age bias hiring mentality among employers – this will hurt the country in due time as many workers in their 40s to 50s age group will suffer employment bias in favour of younger foreign workers. The longer this drag on the worse the problem will become.
It is timely that the govt intervene in such dire straits time to straighten it’s employment policies as when we are booming again the problem will be forgotten.
Minimal wage scheme has a downside. Services and goods may translate into higher prices for customers. These may not be ideal for implementation when the economy is down, as employer would tighten their belt more and cut employment or decides to wrap up its business. Specifically small business owners would be hurt most. Besides, Singaporeans may not want some of these jobs.
I share your hope that the government would implement some form of unemployment scheme.
how much is wages a part of doing business? is it a huge expenditure? i agree implimenting a minimum wage now is bad timing, its not implimented when economy is booming too. it takes a will to do the right thing at the right time, the cost of not doing anything is just rearing its ugly head now?…
rising costs will always find its way to reduce profit margins, suppressing wages may indirectly reduce its customer base due to ever shrinking disposeable income. reality is showing that the years of stagnant or minimal wage increase (even a drop for some) is not the solution. retail trade will suffer with weak domestic spending. in the long run, retailers may just wrap up all the same. anyone remember Sogo, the Japanese departmental store?
if businesses do wind up due to a sustained downturn it may just mean that some businesses are not forward looking enough- riding on past successes that does not guarantee future success & did not move on with the times.
our govt should do more for our local SMEs, but currently employees are shouldering an unfair amount of burden.
“Minimal wage scheme has a downside. Services and goods may translate into higher prices for customers.”
Not necessary if the minimum wage scheme come in a package where GST decrease and other goodies to alleviate employers’ burden (eg reduced rent) at same time to prevent excuses of rising prices.
Didn’t you see ministers and clowns going around hawker centre asking hawker not to increase price amidst of GST increase ? Why can’t the same clowns do the same thing to employers ?
We see, we are conditioned to think that it should be one way after all that how Shi-t-ty Times and gov taught us to think. The onus is where a government that refuse to lose out on money-making deal.
Do you think there is such a Insurance company that is willing to take this risk of unemployment benefit payout at a premium of 1 percent of the CPF contribution ,especially during these times?Even if there is such an insurance,they will tell you that you will have to pay the premium for a minimum period .Pay again?
More flexibility for bosses?
Many peiople like me also think that JCS can helped many companies but it does not really help all companies ,especially the smaller one.Big companies like Song Song super store can song song laugh all the way to the bank but many smaller towkay are busy dragging their feet to the night bank at Chinatown .Many companies that really need help does not benefit from it especially those who have difficulty paying their workers’CPF contribution in time.They may be fined instead.
I would think proposing for a partial withdrawal of CPF for those in difficulty will be more appropriate and practical at these time.
Instead of holding their CPF at a low interest rate,allow those who owe the bank, to withdraw and pay back the bank that they may have to pay at a rate of 24% .
There are many others who need financial help badly.,
Earlier CPF withdrawal not possible? How about proposing to Garmen to give out “Khang Thow Jee” ?It won’t cost them a cent.
.Let me win some money during these time to tide over before making borrowing from Ah Long an offence.
Cautious caution had hit on the bull eye. The danger that one day a all mighty explosion of anger could engulf SinKapore. Years of built up frastration and anger finally released and people will just go mad for a few hours to release their steam. We had seen this in many countries, including UK. Years of hard work could goes in smoke and SinKapore could be reduced to a truly 3rd world country overnight. That would be a fixing legacy for LKY. If the gahment called in the army, then the danger of civil war is not an unrealistic prospect. Many SinKaporean are NS trained and use of fire arm come naturally.This time it is not racial but people against the gahment. All the million dollar ministers will be out of the country at the first sign of trouble.Those that was left behind will have to suffer. It would be an argry scence. I for one will celebrate just to see the end of PAP rule.