Leong Sze Hian/
I refer to the article “’I understand how the poor feel‘” (Today, Mar 22).
It states that:
“his (MP-hopeful Desmond Choo) father is working as a security officer and would tell him of problems in the industry, such as the difficulties of working a 12-hour shift. Mr Choo, who is also the executive secretary of the Union of Security Employees, pledged yesterday that he will help those in the security industry to “get more out of their work””.
Earnings increase?
Desmond Choo
According to the Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) Labour Market 2010 report released this month, the industry category which had the lowest increase in real earnings in 2010, was Services – Business Services, at – 5.0 per cent, with Services – Transport & Storage in second place from the bottom, at– 1.8 per cent.
Are security guards (security services) under the category of Services – Business Services?
According to the MOM’s Job Vacancies 2010 and 2009 reports, the gross wages of private security officers at the 25th percentile, fell from $1,150 in 2009 to $1,100 in 2010.
This was in spite of the record GDP growth of 14.5 per cent last year, and numerous media reports that the jobs market was very buoyant and wages was rising in line with inflation which hit 5.5 per cent in January..
Nobody wants the job?
Private security officers also had the highest vacancy at 2,180 among all job categories, and was joint highest, at 65 per cent, for vacancies unfilled for at least six months.
Many people have said in internet blogs that the most readily available jobs are security guards.
This seems to be supported by the statistics that this job category had the highest vacancies.
But, what may be puzzling is why many people do not seem to want the job, as indicated by this job category having the highest unfilled vacancies for at least six months?
Long hours?
In this regard, I spoke to some security guards, and was told that generally they work between 48 to over 50 hours a week, with one day off.
If overtime is included, the typical work week is between over 50 to as much as 70 hours.
Such long hours for such low wages!
In this connection, according to the 2010 Census report, 579,884 or about 31 per cent of local workers worked at least 50 hours a week (228,856 worked between 50 – 54 hours, 73,761 between 55 – 59 hours, 134,716 between 60 –64 hours, and 142,551 65 hours and over).
How many of these are security guards?
As I understand that generally, security guards do not earn more than $1,700 a month, inclusive of overtime, meal, transport and laundry allowances, how many of the age 35 and above Singaporeans receiving Workfare because they are defined as older low-income workers, are security guards?
By the way, my classmate from Raffles Institution became a security guard, when he was retrenched in his 50s.
So, in the light of the above statistics, what has the Union of Security Employees done to improve the working conditions of security guards in the last few years?
Perhaps when its executive secretary is elected, more can be done for security guards, as they would have a voice in Parliament.
Maybe all the security guards who live in Hougang, will vote for him.
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vote out the PA before all of us become security guards, road sweepers, table cleaners, toilet cleaners. These are all service jobs and there are plentyful.
1.8 percent increment but 5.5 percent inflation. Wow we still makinga minus 3.7 increment. Well doen million dollars ministers
Do you know the government has been creating many jobs & now, there are so many jobs that none of us locals wanna do? Maybe been chosy is one of the reasons but I do think the main one is that these jobs dont pay enough for an individual to support himself. No, I am not talking about having shark’s fin soup at Imperial nor am I talking about pan seared foie gras in Les Amis. I am just talking about having 3 decent meals in a decent hawker ctr. If an average security guard is drawing S$1100 a month, that would leave him with S$880 to survive after deducting CPF! Now, how could anyone really live for 30 days in Singapore on S$880? That’s why there are so many of these low paying jobs out there but no takers!
We have to pay for HDB, MRT, GST & so many others, so that the government will have enough to pay a do-nothing prata man S$4.25millions a year & another 3 over million for somene that tell us we are daft & insult the Malays! There’s really somthing very wrong here!
Mr. Leong,
Don’t expect anything from PAP new faces. We can safely say most of them are there just for the money. The problem with paying out-of-the-world salaries is that we run the risk of having only Yes men in the PAP govt., so much so that if top management makes a long term mistake, no one dares to challenge it. In the end, we end up paying a devastating price for it.
It would be better to have people with true passion to run our country. Corruption there will always be, whether we pay them well or not. How long could a politician get away with corruption before he is caught? Not long! The damage from corruption is not as damaging as a party with all yes men endorsing a harmful policy that would only bring us over the cliff in the long run.
DON’T WORRY, HE IS HERE TO MILK THE BLOODY SYSTEM,
FOR ALL THAT HIS FATHER HAD SUFFERED,
ALL THESE YEARS……….
Yeah, using father as security guard to win vote?
If he has the slightest feeling of shame, he would not want to be the collaborator of a evil regime. Shame cad!
If Mr Desmond Choo will walk his talk and become a security guard, I will vote for him… GUARANTEED.
To all the ministers and MPs who blame singaporeans for not taking up jobs created, please walk the talk and take up the jobs which you created. That includes jobs like cleaners, security guard, service jobs.. retrenched PMETs and graduates are doing these jobs. Why can’t you ?
Talk is cheap. Lead by example.
The job of a security guard is anything but secure.
this ass is looking forward to replacing Lim BH who should have retired a long time ago.
They are all coming in to pap for the pay.
I was a security guard getting flat $1250 for 12-hr duties, 6 days a week, i.e. $48 per day. No medical benefits, at most 7 days leave (which you need to apply at least 1 week in advance & contingent on the company getting stand-in). Otherwise you’re forced to take no-pay-leave. Doesn’t take a genius to figure that most people take up this job only as last resort.
The latest happenings in the security industry is companies being allowed to hire PRCs and fast-track them for PRs (as only citizens & PRs can be licensed as security guards). No prizes for guessing that companies love PRCs — they don’t mind being security guards as long they’re being paid over 5,500 RMB (more than a fresh grad back in china) and are willing to cheong long hours, sometimes even taking on back-to-back 12-hr shifts (which is not allowed by MOM).
Security guards vote for him…then can get N.S slaves to vote for former CDF???
>>this ass is looking forward to replacing Lim BH
Who wouldn’t…after seeing them so free doing papaya dance & get to dress up as Zorro…
Thanks mr leong,SCAMN exposed by one of their own!.Few years ago,it was reported that the skills upgrading for security guards cert will make them qualified guard,thus more pay.but it seems all the skills upgrading is to no benifit but only to the company which conducted the courses.Ah choo should check with ah swee what good is it to have a guard certification?then we have the cleaners scamn which mr freak i think, claimed that by knowing and mixing the chemical will certify them as better cleaners and earn more pay!left hand keeps importing rubbish,right hand can pay rubbish.win win for them.Amazing mortal.
Something is very wrong indeed!
Alot of people telling me they got no jobs!
Vote the PAP out before all become homeless!
Ask them MP’s to do volunteer work!
My bf security gaurd;
work non-stop 24hrs swift;
hardly make enough for food & all;
work until like a zombie;
no choice; no other work available.
Ask the Reptilian to resign;
that’s the agenda of the elites;
1st create a problem,
then try to solve it creating more problems;
1st tell people born 2,
then tell people born more,
next they gonna raise CPF to 68;
(excuse being to safe old men from indulging in China chickens..)
First then control birth rights,
next they control $;
Who needs them to control our $$$?
I am 40, I quite my job last year to do a degree to upgrade myself, hoping that the extra income will be useful form y kids education. I was earning S$3,750.00. After my got my certificates, i have been unemployed for five months and have just aexcepted a job that pays S$3,000.00. The firm i have joined is a local one but mor ethan half of the employees r from the philippines or India..
Desmond Choo’s father is working as a security officer and would tell him of problems in the industry, such as the difficulties of working a 12-hour shift. Desmond Choo, despite being the executive secretary of the Union of Security Employees, has not done anything to help the plight of security officers! His father should give him a big slap on his face to wake him up.
oh yes his father should have fed the cockroaches then instead!look at the guards plight.OLD man struggling to walk yet have to stand for 12Hrs shift,Traffic control under the sun with long seelves and tie?After 8 hrs of standing,guards can hardly walk,should something happen…..most likely it will be the body is weak.funny industry.
Desmond Choo father is security guard ? Are you sure?
I thought I read from sin min daily that he is the son of former PAP MP Choo Wei Kiang (whampoa constituency), who was convicted of corruption and left PAP some years ago.
Can someone clarify?
Choo Wei kiang – 朱为强
Saw this on the net lol.
Adam Johnstone Jun 20, 2010 @ 12:23 pm | delete
LMAO why would you care about 10 dollars and 50 dollars a day ?!?? wow you guys need to get a life bad. I am a security guard that patrols for a oil rig company and make $430.00 a day and all i have to do is sit in my truck and drive around and make sure there is no criminal activity or and by the way i just turned 18 last month XD
After reading all the ignorant comments by readers, i think the website operator should stop all these unnecessary and silly comments by nonsensical people who is too free to judge ppl and talk nonsense here.
read up and educate yourself first before you make comments. it sounded really uncivilized and crude! I wonder about the moral educations you guys had! If you are so good about politics, then join a party and prove the PAP wrong!
Lee, 23 March 2011
for all your rants, you have nothing constructive to contribute either.
if PAP is so good they would have shut all the critics’s mouth up long ago. but strangely the critics’ ranks grew & grew over the years, & its all very grating on the ears of those who are not up to the task, but stubbornly cling onto their post cos the money’s too good to let go.
He is saying personal things to get empathy from the people.
This is not professional.
Lee, 23 March 2011,
Websites like The Online Citizen and Temasek Review serve a vital purpose in letting concerned citizens air their views on vital issues about how our country is being run. We have a one-party govt. which has monopolized every organ of our country, including the mainstream media, the army, police, grassroots organizations, etc. With ministers, bureaucrats and MPs paid handsomely, no one dares to speak out against failed policies. With the opposition crushed time and again by heavy-handed tactics, the PAP stands alone in running our country to their whims and fancies. It can treat us like play dough, rolling us up into a ball, flattening us, or tearing us up into pieces, as it wishes. Don’t you think this is unhealthy and dangerous?
We have to thank the Temasek Review and The Online Citizen for giving us the avenues to air our views and grievances, and hopefully to give feedback to the ruling PAP party, to build our nation.
Talking about nation building, isn’t it absurd that after 50 years of nation building, the PAP govt. is telling us that we are not a nation yet? If Singapore is not a nation yet, it is absolutely the PAP’s failing! Because they reduced everything to dollars and cents, i.e. numbers. The danger with that is, they will eventually reduce Singapore to a big fat zero!
What moral has one got when one demanded minimum pay of millions and refused minimum pay for the poor to live with the minimum standard of living?
What moral has one got when one payed only S$8 for a first class heart by-pass and used means testing to refuse others from C class subsidies?
What moral has one got when one said he is deaf to all critcism and expected the union workers to listen to him?
What moral has one got when one’s mistake has caused the HDB flats to increased sharply and still insisted that HDB flats are affordable?
What moral has one got when one blown the YOG’s budget by 4 times and will not raise the public assistance?
there is 1 security guard that is paid millions looking after S’pore’s National Reserves. other non-core duties (go extra mile, get extra millions, wow) include cutting ribbons, smiling during photo sessions, hand-shaking (not to mention leg-shaking during free time).
with no kung-fu skills, no PR skills, no sense of duty & not even a security license, how did that dude get the job?!
how many times do i have to repeat myself,
THEY ARE HERE TO MILK YOU AND THE SYSTEM
LOOK AT ALL THE SO CALLED FThrash and PR’S,
ALL HERE TO MILK THE SYSTEM !!!
The real reason why I quit police force to join NTUC is because I was rejected by Public Service Commission in 2010.
I failed to make the cut for the elite Administrative Service, you know, where the pay package is big. If I’d become an Administrative Officer in 2010, I would get 8-month bonuses this year, on top of a 5-figure salary each month.
But there is another route, I can also make such wealth and more by joining NTUC and running for MP.
So, of course I understand how the poor feels.
I don’t get it. If he knew the plight of the security guards, surely he knows who allowed it to happen? Why then did he join those who made his father suffer?
lobo76, 23 March 2011
cos a snake (PAP) shedding old skin to reveal the new layer of skin (renewel?) is still a snake?
:D
why are there so many whining pmets here? I believe there are many degree, masters and diploma more 40s professionals over here. Why are you guys hiding behind the scence and whining? Do you think this would bring about change by whining?
Let vote for the PAPs!
Union of Security Employees WOW…..
So they sit in for about 8hours a day, hardly do anything for the industry and get paid.
Is it possible to get their financial statements to check the number of employees they have and their wages paid p.a.
How is this Union funded?
I bet over 50% of people coming to toc don’t really bother about this kind of issues. Most are just interested in holding on to their $5K-$10K jobs, thinking of how to get bigger increments, bonuses & promotion. And about property prices, coe prices and how to upgrade condo, car etc.
I saw this many years ago and that’s why I very early on downgraded out of reservist even hough I’m superfit. Many and more of my friends are also doing the same and throwing away their m16s, sar21s and army uniform. Why sacrifice and potential death and permanent disability for a city-state and people that don’t care.
Singapore is a place just to earn money. If cannot earn big bucks then at least just want to be left alone in peace.
Being a citizen, I do not want to see all these politics and hope more and more people of integrity can come forward to serve the nation, without selfish intentions.
Only this then is living not a torture.
Now he is saying this to try to win votes, but if they vte him in, he may become a greater mortal and forget about lesser mortl, MIW style
I used to work as a part time security guard before. It was one of the shittiest jobs I have ever done.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why. Officially, its an 8 hour shift, the added 4 hours are considered OT but daily, I was given a wage of $60 per shift. Some are paid less depending on what type of contractual agreement has been signed between the security firm and the building/condo/facility being “guarded”
I worked as a security guard in the early 2000s to 2004. Let me point out the following
- The so called “qualification process” is just a 7 days wayang course conducted by various agencies before an interview. This is more like a super wayang program that you sit through with a pre-programmed memorization of “what to say” during the police interview and you are then certified as a security personnel.
- Security guards get NO medical leave. If you fall sick and don’t work, you don’t get paid.
- Many buildings are running on a paper thin skeletal strength. Thats why its impossible to run three shifts of 8 hours.
- Vicious cycle of “next shift” guards turning up late. Is it of any wonder why guards are fatigued and sick often? 12 hour monotonous jobs, and the next shift turns up 1-2 hours late, forcing the previous shift to clock 14 hours +.
- Many many unofficial “double shift” are not reported. There are plenty of instances where there just isn’t enough personnel that the previous shift has to clock another 12 hours. How can you expect this person to remain alert and serve the purpose of guarding the building?
The mere principle that the government says that we need to pay them such high wages because that would attract qualified personnel.
Its the same in the industry that if I believe that this job has “proper” unionized wages. You will attract more people to it. Its a f**king no brainer isn’t it?
Simple reason: If you pay a Singaporean a decent enough wage to feed his family, would he not take up a job?
Walau …I want to speak up for the security officer before Desmond do.
How can you people take his picture and put it for discussion here?Cannot even let him drink a cup of Mai lor peacefully meh?
Some time this may cost his job hor.Luckily in demand,can go everywhere.If not,who pay me?
If agongkia stands against Desmond Choo in a SMC straight fight, I’ll rather vote for agongkia.
Lewis Sir,
can I know how is it that you can spent 4 years in security if it is the shittiest job?
Guard are entitled to MC too.
OT cannot be force.
Many double shift cases are demanded by the guard themselves .
Who care for the poor?
Thanks for the vote.
Sorry,I posted my second comment before seeing your comment,ie.at the same time.
I just hope that guard’s income is not affected by those who paint a wrong picture.