TOC News » employment

Tripartite panel contradicts Government on employment practices?

Apr. 9 | I refer to the article, “Bosses hiring foreigners over S’poreans? Not true”. (Straits Times, 8 April). It states that: “More Singaporeans are complaining that employers prefer to hire foreigners over them. But investigations by a tripartite...

In bed with the Economic Strategies Committee

Feb. 5 | One of our resident cartoonists, Sei-Ji Rakugaki, wonders about the ESC through his sketchpad – is this further from reality or closer to the truth? See more of Sei-Ji’s work at My Sketchbook… __________________________________________

Is multiracialism also just an aspiration?

Jan. 4 | Breaking News: HDB resale flat prices rose 3.8 per cent over the third quarter which saw prices going up by 3.6 per cent. (Straits Times) Singapore’s economy shrank 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter to December from the previous three months…...

“Cheaper, better, faster” may just break the camel’s back

Dec. 1 | Latest: The High Court has granted Yong Vui Kong’s application for a stay of his execution. Yong was scheduled to be hanged this Friday, 4 Dec. His appeal to the Court of Appeal will now be heard next Tuesday. TOC will have a report on today’s...

GDP vs GNH (Gross National Happiness)

Oct. 19 | “Cheaper, faster and better”….its the same old story. The last time they promised Swiss cheese if we worked harder and faster but this time they don’t even bother to promise anything. All they can say is we will get to keep our...

Manpower minister is wrong, we do need flexi-work laws

Sep. 1 | Gilbert Goh I refer to the article “Flexi-work law? No need” (ST 28 Aug). I disagree with Manpower Minister Mr Gan Kim Yong that there is no need to implement legislation to reinforce the flexi-work arrangements to promote work life balance. Numerous...

Low-skilled, low-wage workers an “economic problem”, says Lim Swee Say

Aug. 31 | If we have workers who continue to be trapped in the low-productivity job, in the low-wage jobs, in the low-skilled jobs, whether the worker is a local worker or a foreign worker, he is still an economic problem because Singapore’s economy in certain...

Be “faster, better, cheaper”, says Lim Swee Say

Aug. 29 | We must become cheaper not by cutting wages but by improving productivity…. As we go into the second half, the only way to win is to focus on the offensive… The downturn is not over yet. We are at half-time now… We want to make the changes ahead...

Level the playing field for locals and foreigners in employment

Aug. 25 | Announcement: We apologise for not updating this website the last couple of days. TOC is taking a few days’ break. We’ll be back soon. Leong Sze Hian was invited by BlogTV to pen an article for them. We publish it below. Before we talk...

Cutting cheap labour not the solution, says Manpower Minister

Aug. 8 | If we are not careful, it will instead create rigidity and distortion in the labour market, add costs to businesses and undermine their competitiveness…Just reducing the dependence on massive amounts of cheap labour is not the answer to our productivity...

Laid off? Don’t worry. 25,000 jobs in the market, says Manpower Minister

Aug. 5 | There is no need for the affected workers to be disheartened as there are still 25,000 jobs available in the market. Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong on the 2,000 workers laid off by Seagate

After economy recovers, 10 workers should do the work of 11 or 12 – Lim Swee Say

Aug. 1 | From the Straits Times: THE productivity of workers in Singapore is declining and labour chief Lim Swee Say has a suggestion on how companies can help turn it around. It is by doing more to develop new markets for their products. He made the call to companies...

Tighten labour laws to protect older, vulnerable workers

Jul. 23 | Gilbert Goh I refer to the article “CDC sets up new taskforce” (Today 20 July). I applaud the Central Singapore CDC on setting up a taskforce to tackle the growing unemployment situation targeting those belonging to the 40s age group. We must...

Flip-flop on government’s position?

Jul. 16 | Gangasudhan I read with relative interest today of Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong’s comments that was reported in the Straits Times (Job market on students’ minds[1], 16th July 2009). The minister was reported to have said that ‘jobs could...

Applying for a job? “My interests include cooking dogs…”

May. 8 | The following is from The Telegraph. By Murray Wardrop Experts found that 94 per cent of job hunters risked missing out on vacancies through poor spelling, grammar or presentation on their CVs. In some cases, applicants’ attempts to impress potential...

Job satisfaction – inadequate measures to protect workers

May. 7 | Tan Kin Lian / Columnist A Business Times report carried a survey made by a private research firm. It showed the job satisfaction rate of Singapore workers to be the second lowest in the world (the worst is Japan). Although the survey is made among workers...

Singapore ranks second-lowest worldwide for job satisfaction

Apr. 18 | From the Business Times: SINGAPOREANS have long been suspected to be a dissatisfied bunch – and now there are numbers to add to that view. In Robert Half’s latest survey of finance professionals, Singapore ranks second-lowest worldwide for...

An alternative to penalising labour

Apr. 14 | Donaldson Tan / Head, TOC International / London The website of the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) is a good indicator of the state of our economy. It not only publishes quarterly economic statistics, but also lists the economic milestones our...

5 Minutes With… Leong Sze Hian on pay rise survey

Apr. 8 | On Tuesday, Channelnewsasia reported a survey conducted by London-based research ECA. The survey found that Singapore is placed 43rd out of 53 countries in terms of pay rise ranking for 2009. TOC spends five minutes with financial and statistical expert,...

5 Minutes with… Leong Sze Hian on the economy and jobs

Apr. 3 | TOC asks financial expert and analyst, Mr Leong Sze Hian, to help make sense of the latest slew of statistics from the Ministry of Manpower. TOC: We’ve been bombarded with government statistics lately on the state of the economy. In simple terms, how...

Employers still discriminating against older workers

Mar. 29 | Gilbert Goh Having met more than a dozen unemployed Singaporeans either through my unemployment support site transitioning.org or my own personal contacts, I observed that there are two main issues that frustrate them. One is the huge influx of foreigners...

Better to help needy than give handouts to fresh grads

Mar. 16 | “THE Government will encourage banks and other financial institutions hit by the recession to take on new graduates by offering to subsidise the recruits’ allowances for up to a year,” reports the Straits Times on 13 March 2009. It goes on,...

How many jobs went S’poreans?

Mar. 15 | According to investment bank Credit Suisse, Singapore’s population grew 18%, to about 4.8 million, from 2004 to 2008. More than three-quarters of that growth, Credit Suisse estimates, came from newly arrived foreigners taking lucrative positions...

A global sickness

Feb. 23 | The whole (Resilience) Package will prevent damage to our economy during the downturn, but we cannot cure the problem because fundamentally, the sickness is not our sickness. It is a global sickness and you have to wait until the US picks up, and Asia...

Last to go

Feb. 18 | Malaysia’s understanding of Singapore’s “unwritten policy” on retrenchment of foreign workers is that Malaysians will be let off last. Malaysian Human Resource Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam

Can I work till 65, please!

Jan. 24 | Richard Ee Statistics show that we have one million ‘baby boomers’ going into retirement. What are the job opportunities for them? The Baby Boomer Survey* characterised a late baby boomer (born 1947-64) as one who is better educated (34% have some...

Life’s learning curve

Jan. 13 | Gilbert Goh As more jobs go under and many people will remain unemployed in this down time, there is this air of gloom around us. I took a taxi yesterday and was bombarded by the cab driver’s complaint of a drastic drop in take home pay as many...

Letters to TOC (Jan 05)

Jan. 5 | Where does the sizeable income generated from the ERP currently go to? I have several questions on the current state of the public transport system in Singapore that I have struggled to find answers for. The Government, in one of its justifications...

Growing income gap threatens social fabric

Dec. 29 | Ravi Philemon / Writer Forty years ago, there was a very different Singapore. Singapore was a third world country with a GNP per capita of less than US$320. The city’s population was then growing rapidly, unemployment was rising at over 13 per cent...

Options for employers

Dec. 23 | This is our advantage. There is no other country I know that has such a range of options open to employers, with unions that are willing to support such measures. Lim Boon Heng

Re-thinking our economic expectations

Dec. 19 | Andrew Ong Recent news have been filled with retrenchments, retrenchments and more retrenchments. It is quite disturbing to read how companies have heartlessly ‘axed’ their employees whom they deem as “excessive” in order to ride through the slowdown. Judging...

No salary increase for part-time workers in 9 years?

Dec. 15 | Leong Sze Hian / Columnist There are 76,200 unemployed, 292,800 workers earning $1,200 or less, and 126,800 part-timers earning a median income of $600. This in total is 495,800, out of the total resident work force of 1,928,300. So, does it mean that...

Jobs aplenty. It’s S’poreans who aren’t “confident” enough!

Dec. 13 | In the hotel sector, front line jobs, service jobs, quite a lot of jobs are available so Singaporeans need to have the confidence so that they can obtain those jobs. Tharman Shanmugaratnam

Tripartism not the cure-all for employees

Dec. 11 | In tomorrow’s top story, guest writer PN Balji takes a look at “born-again citizens” (or new citizens) and the influence they may have on Singapore politics. Gilbert Goh I refer to the article, “Labour chief says legislations is not the solution”,...

S’poreans and foreigners both paying the price

Dec. 9 | Gerald Giam / Senior Writer On 4 December at a National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) forum for employers and unions, NTUC chief Lim Swee Say and Acting Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong were both reduced to imploring employers to retrench foreign workers...

Re-training – just an excuse

Dec. 5 | The “excuse” of using the downturn to send workers for training, so that they will be well-trained and ready for boom years sounds hollow. The question is, with our lax employment rules, why spend the money training when you can just grab well-trained...

A corner where we band together in bad times

Nov. 26 | This is your space – to share your views or stories about the recession, being retrenched, how to cope with everyday living. You may be going through it, or may have some good advice for those going through it. You may be an employer who has jobs for...

First-world compared to… ?

Nov. 10 | We all have to accept some sacrifices and cutbacks. But compared to our counterparts in neighbouring countries, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam, our low income earners are much better off. Lee Kuan Yew

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