March 8, 2010
During a discussion about Budget 2010 on YPAP Facebook, a 28 year old Singapore man who have served two and a half years of National Service lamented that he had been taking on contract jobs for the last few years because all the permanent jobs are going to foreigners.
It brought a sharp rebuke from a probable Indian new citizen/PR Mr Sinha Shekar who replied that “there is nothing called permanent jobs” and called on Singaporeans to make themselves more “marketable and move ahead”.
There is nothing fundamentally wrong in Mr Sinha Shekar’s statement except that no matter how Singaporeans try to make themselves more “marketable”, they will always be on the losing end so long the ruling party’s pro-foreigner policy remains unchanged.
Singaporeans have been exhorted repeatedly by PAP leaders to make themselves “cheaper, better and faster” and to go for re-training to upgrade their skills.
While continued education, training and upgrading should make one more marketable theoretically, the outcome is less than desirable in reality as evident by recent figures released by the Manpower Ministry which shows that only 6 per cent of the workers receive a pay rise after attending training courses conducted by SPUR.
At the end of the day, employers still do not see the value to pay more for highly trained and qualified Singapore workers when they can easily hire an unskilled foreign worker, thanks to the ultra-liberal labor policies in Singapore.
Despite some cosmetic changes introduced lately to placate angry Singaporeans such as raising the levy for foreign workers, it will have minimal impact on the ground as the cornerstone of the ruling party’s policies remain essentially the same.
During a parliamentary session last year, Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong dismissed calls from MPs to tweak the manpower policies to put locals first:
“Singapore has to remain an attractive place for businesses, so as to retain those which are here and attract new investments which will bring in more and better jobs for Singaporeans. We cannot get rid of all other competitors just because they run faster than us and make it into a locals-only game,” he said.
[Source: TODAY, 14 February 2010]
His message still applies today. Because Singapore is an export-oriented economy heavily dependent on foreign direct investments, it has to make itself attractive to businesses by keeping labor costs low and in order to do so, Singapore must remain open to foreign workers.
Unlike other countries such as Australia, Canada, Japan and South Korea which have imposed strict curbs on the influx of foreign migrant workers, Singapore welcomes them with open arms and even expect its own citizens to compete with them directly.
It will be political suicide for any governments in a functioning democracy to implement laws which disadvantage the local workers, but not so in Singapore where the ruling party holds an absolute majority in parliament and there is no opposition to check on it.
The S-pass scheme was introduced in 2004 to recruit foreign workers at the diploma level who command a basic salary of $1,800 and above.
These group of semi-skilled foreigners are taking up jobs which can otherwise be filled by Singaporeans. Contrary to what is reported in the mainstream media, Singaporeans are not shunning them – the terms offered are simply not attractive enough.
Without the easy availability of foreign workers, employers will have no choice but to pay more to hire locals and to invest in innovation to boost productivity, but in an open and unregulated labor market like Singapore’s, foreigners will forever enjoy an unfair advantage over locals:
1. Foreign workers cost much less than Singaporeans and they can well afford to be as they live alone and do not need to support their families here in Singapore.
2. For the same reason, they are willing to work for long hours including the weekends as their loved ones are not here to spend time with time.
3. Unlike Singapore males, they do not have to be away for up to 4 weeks a year to fulfil their reservist obligations.
A Singaporean worker may have undergone countless of courses to upgrade his skills, but if he is going to cost more than a foreign worker, a prospective employer will still opt for the latter eventually.
The onus is on the government to revamp its unfair and discriminatory labor policies against Singaporeans completely to level the playing field so that Singaporeans are able to compete fairly with the foreigners.
In Australia, a new rule was introduced lately to curb the intake of skilled migrant workers. Companies will have to pay a hefty levy amounting to the difference between the salaries of native Australians and foreigners to the government to ensure that locals are not disadvantaged.
Furthermore, the hiring of foreigners is restricted to only selected industries where there is a real shortage of local workers. Australians always have priority in jobs unlike in Singapore where its citizens have to put up with lower wages because the ruling party has opened the floodgates to foreigners.
While Singaporeans should make themselves more marketable constantly, they must be allowed to compete with others on equal terms and not on bended knees.
The government should consider implement the following measures to level the playing field and to make Singapore workers more marketable:
1. Phase out S-passes gradually so that foreign PMETs do not compete with Singaporeans for jobs which can otherwise be taken up by them.
2. Increase the levy for foreign workers to match the difference in wages between them and Singaporeans to neuter their unfair advantage in labor costs.
3. A grant for each NSmen hired by companies to increase their employability.
4. Remove PRs from the “resident” workforce, dependency ratio and all statistics used by the Manpower Ministry to prevent companies from exploiting loopholes in the regulations.
5. Impose a minimum wage for Singapore workers with the difference topped up by grants from the government.
The right to livelihood is a basic human right all Singapore citizens are entitled to and right now they are being denied it by the misguided policies of their own government.
Temasek Review