Comments on: Retrenchment as a last resort – Lim Swee Say

By: George

George — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 09:19:10 +0000

Dear Fellow Sinkaporean,
If we think time is bad now and the economy will sort itself out in a year or so, I regret to say that that view is too optimistic. Many economists are predicting that job losts will continue even after the economy start to pick up. To add to our problem, a new route between Asia and Europe using the Russian Arctic ( result of global warming ) had been established reducing jouney time by 25%. As the major trading partners between Asia and Europe was conducted between China and Japan with Europe in the Northeast, the need to travel south through the Strait of Malaca had been made redundant. This will reduce a big percentage of our entreport shipping businese. I do not have a figure for the number of workers working in the shipping sectors but one assume the number is not insignificance. It would be nice to hear what our ministers think of this new development and what ideas they may have to address this importance issue.I had profound concern as members of my family worked in the ship servicing sector for the last twenty year. It is not easy to retrain a person in the early forty. Could we create new industry to absorb skilled crafmen? There may still time to plan ahead, as it will take sometime for those country in the NorthEast and along the new route to establish Ship serving industries. However, the downside is countries along the routes had a well established shipping industry. Regardless, the need to find alternative employment for these workers are urgent and early planning will help to mitigate the potential disruption of unemployment and lost of GDP.

By: white raven

white raven — Tue, 12 May 2009 23:29:26 +0000

#40, He speaks like that (yes) because he is Chinese helicoptered (Chinese educated). Secondly, he tries to put on a peasant Singlish accent – maybe he thinks the average Joe the worker can identify with him better. Remember when we had Lim Chee Onn? He was considered too high brow and snooty and can’t relate to the ordinary workers, so he was ‘fired’, and returned to Keppel Corp. KepCorp like NOL, and other GLCs etc are full of failed and didnt fail ex-Ministers, ex-Ministers of State, MPs who “returned” – if not golden parachuted back- to the folds, where they came from, ensconcing themselves in cushy iron rice bowls. So these positions are kind of insurance guaranteed for them. Just look up some past Cabinets for examples and compare with the Boards of these GLCs and you’ll see what Imean. Ng Pock Too, LimChee Onn, Cedric Foo, etc. LKY was not ashamed nor apologetic abt this, as he thinks these people have paid a huge price.

By: smallvice585

smallvice585 — Tue, 12 May 2009 19:49:26 +0000

Come on! Mock LSS's nonsensical ideas all you want but please don't mock his English. I am actually more concerned with why NTUC needs to support its own NMP candidate into parliament when it already has so many MPs under its wing in Parliament.

By: Singaporean

Singaporean — Tue, 12 May 2009 19:26:43 +0000

LSS lacks a good foundation in the English Language. This is why when he speaks, there is interference from his mother tongue leading to some who may not fully understand him. Actually it is quite shameful for a country to have a minister who cannot speak proper English. Imagine if he goes to another country and started speaking like that, the ministers in other countries will really think that Singapore lacks talent and can only get this kind of half past six speaking skills to be a minister. If his other functions are outstanding then at least it sort of compensate for his linguistic weakness but so far I cannot see any outstanding attributes in him. Can anyone here see anything that I have missed?

By: DP

DP — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:11:15 +0000

Yes, we see job losses in the USA, but
We se Obama working and takin responsibility
Yes, we see jon losses in Singapore, but
We see Ministers giving us updates which can be found in any news station
Yes, we unenployment rate go up, but
We see our Ministers blame it on the global ecomomy
Yes, we see Obama cap the salaries of CEOs, but
We hear nothing from our Ministers about their extorbitant pay
Yes, we hear about the backlash from the public inthe USA, but
We hear our Ministers, congratulating themsleves for everyones elses’s effort.
Yes. Obama has earned the respect of the majority whites, but
We hear our Ministers claim that we are not ready for a minority race PM
Yes, we se Obama break barriers, but
But here we see our Ministers break records in greed
Yes. Obama has honour . but
We hear Ministers self declare their morality, in the absence of.

By: disgusted

disgusted — Tue, 12 May 2009 11:51:15 +0000

The less he talks, the more confident and the better I feel about our economy

By: anon

anon — Tue, 12 May 2009 11:21:31 +0000

“SL on May 12th, 2009 4.14 pm It is not surprising that even a chicken rice store assistant is a FT. I ask her why are you willing to work in Singapore. She said “your government encourages them to work here as low skilled worker”, drawing few hundreds of dollars, and return after 2 years. I thought such jobs our local aunites and uncles can do without much a problem. The problem is GOV cant tax our local aunties and uncles since their salary will be lower than 20k but they can tax the FT using worker levy and charges.”

thanks SL, thats really insightful.

By: ACACIA

ACACIA — Tue, 12 May 2009 09:47:25 +0000

Kopi, can’t agree more with you. What is he saying as “a last resort” . Where was the support of the SME’s from the government. They were more in favour of building the MNCs. That would be the first things for the SME’s to do, retrench the staff. At this point many are struggling to survive. No matter how much they want to cut the staff’s pay, getting rid of one or a few would be a better bet to stay afloat.
The government know that if this prolongs it’s going to be a political thorn at their side, they know it and citizens are not buying it anymore. The FTs are also getting wet in their pants, its going to be a double blow for them. Losing their jobs and change in employment policies, locals “first” ? It might happen.

By: Lim says "Swee"

Lim says "Swee" — Tue, 12 May 2009 09:13:40 +0000

Quote
….. here in Singapore, we cannot afford to gamble the job of workers. What we have to do is to continue to stay on course. We continue to commit to this policy of retrenchments as a last resort,” he said.
Unquote

Gamble the job of workers??? Stay on course??? What course? Sorry, I cannot understand. Somebody please explain what LSS was saying.

We continue to commit to this policy of retrenchments as a last resort,” he said. Who is “We”??? Employers are committed to this policy??? I am scratching my head now. Will someone please help me to figure this out.

By: jason

jason — Tue, 12 May 2009 08:44:28 +0000

Dear SL,

good point but how many of our local uncles and aunties are willing to be chicken rice stall assistants? I would say many of them would be over qualified for such menial work.

By: vkool10%

vkool10% — Tue, 12 May 2009 08:37:34 +0000

lim swee swee want to say anything u also listen ask u to jump down hdb u also jump

By: twinkeytot

twinkeytot — Tue, 12 May 2009 08:19:37 +0000

its a dog eat dog island here, locals who are high position will gladly fire another fellow local co-worker for sake of safe keeping their jobs only to recruit another FT to get the job done

By: SL

SL — Tue, 12 May 2009 08:14:58 +0000

It is not surprising that even a chicken rice store assistant is a FT. I ask her why are you willing to work in Singapore. She said “your government encourages them to work here as low skilled worker”, drawing few hundreds of dollars, and return after 2 years. I thought such jobs our local aunites and uncles can do without much a problem. The problem is GOV cant tax our local aunties and uncles since their salary will be lower than 20k but they can tax the FT using worker levy and charges.
I acknowledge that we need to have foreign workers but at what expense to our local population. Can the million dollar ministers in PM office care to explain? You tell the companies not to retrench our workers till the last hour, on what ground? Either talk is so cheap from SweetSAY to the obedient lemmings or he has a PLAN for us all. I really cant see the light at the end of the tunnel.
This minister in my view is truly not worth the tax payer monies.

By: Lesser Mortal

Lesser Mortal — Tue, 12 May 2009 07:52:20 +0000

I do not understand what is this policy of retrenchment as a last resort. I believe no companies recieve any concrete directives or measures from the government to ensure that retrenchment is the last resort. I guess it is also not viable for the government to give such a directive. JCS or Spur also do not ensure that retrenchment is the last resort. So I hope Mr. Lim Swee Say do not give such a statement when there is no basis to commit to such a “policy”.

I vaguely remember ( I might be wrong with the figures) that Mr. Lim said that he set the target for retrenchment to 49,000 which is below the experts’ estimates of more than 50,000. Again he had no basis and no full control over the numbers to make such a target. I believe there was a report saying that the unemployed LOCALS (not including FT) exceeds 70,000 recently. Duh??? Again I am not good with numbers but at least I dont go around making empty claims.

By: honest retired teacher

honest retired teacher — Tue, 12 May 2009 07:47:30 +0000

@ Johnathon Lim, May 12th

Your form teacher is right about Lim S S being a yes man in PAP like the rest.
Try to understand your teacher is not at liberty to elaborate, so excuse him or her.
As a student , scrutinise Lim S S and ask yourself what has he done for ordinary workers besides talking, bearing in mind he earns $2M ++ per annum.
Is Lim S S in the PMO to give advice, take instructions or be the fall guy ?
Actually none of the above. Ask your teacher why and he or she will be dumbfounded like me. Till now I am clueless how a village idiot can represent workers’ interests.

By: berhan

berhan — Tue, 12 May 2009 07:17:16 +0000

tell that to garhem’s contract staff too, FT are welcome to join, equally qualified locals are asked to leave

By: CJ

CJ — Tue, 12 May 2009 06:59:24 +0000

Just shut…., and quietly enjoy your sky high salary.

By: I Can Honestly Say . . .

I Can Honestly Say . . . — Tue, 12 May 2009 04:59:10 +0000

retrenchment was my ex-employer’s FIRST AND ONLY option and the compensation was only the mandatory one month after 6 yrs of loyal service.

NO talk of paycut, shorter working hours etc.

US MNC ok….donch pray pray ah….you can commit and believe any policy you want…at the end of the day, do you have any veto power over all these decisions made by these ‘grateful’ employers who enjoy tax rebates and other corporate incentives?

I serve my NS reservist diligently, we sweat for our nation, who sweat for us?

BS.

By: kkk

kkk — Tue, 12 May 2009 04:19:04 +0000

It’s a tough job: the economic is not doing well, and you can’t prevent companies from firing, and you have to try to say words pleasant to the ears, (and he didn’t seem to be very successful here…)

i won’t try too hard to ask you put yourself in his shoes: there is only so much empathy you can have. but the govt also only has so much patience. that’s the problem.

By: CJ

CJ — Tue, 12 May 2009 03:30:59 +0000

He should just shut up, not say anything negative, and further darken the economic gloom.
Since he hasn’t anything concrete to help the average worker, he will do better NOT saying anything NEGATIVE.

Everyone knows the situation without this overpaid “newscaster”.
Shut up already, LSS!