Saw this... quite an interesting read...
http://bit.ly/ZOns6y
I am extremely impressed at NTUC Secretary-General’s aver*sion to
Pow*er*point. I would have switched off at prob*a*bly the sec*ond
slide or so if he had used it.
Instead (you can see an exam*ple of his free*hand pre*sen*ta*tion
in this video at 0:53s) there was a refresh*ingly engag*ing
encounter as Mr Lim Swee Say spent over two hours explain*ing the
role of the NTUC, how he got to become Secretary-General, and what
his aims were in try*ing to improve the labour mar*ket sit*u*a*tion
as well as ame*lio*rate the social costs of eco*nomic
growth.
Unless you’re an econ*o*mist, or labour mar*ket pol*icy maker,
you’re likely to still find the ses*sion as inter*est*ing as
watch*ing the glow*ing logo on top of the NTUC Cen*tre build*ing
change colour. Or less.
I was still curi*ous to know why there was an aver*sion to a
manda*tory national min*i*mum wage, or even dif*fer*ent min*i*mum
wages for dif*fer*ent indus*tries. Some sup*port*ers of min*i*mum
wage already claim that Sin*ga*pore isn’t doing enough to lift the
low*est wages off the floor, like what Hong Kong (HKD 3,580 per
month for for*eign domes*tic work*ers) and Malaysia (USD 281.60 per
month for the pri*vate sec*tor) are doing.
There is no such thing as the per*fect mar*ket, and Mr Upturn The
Down*turn gave a refresher course on labour eco*nom*ics for those
turned off because a junior col*lege eco*nom*ics lec*turer insisted
on refer*ring to some*thing called “Kee-Nee-Sian” eco*nom*ics. (It
was only in my first semes*ter of uni*ver*sity, after hav*ing been
made the laugh*ing stock of my first year econs class that I
started pro*nounc*ing it as stu*dents of John May*nard Keynes
intended.)
Two per*ma*nent ink marker pens and six sheets later, I was aware
of a thing called the Pro*gres*sive Wage Model, as opposed to a
sil*ver bul*let or “shock ther*apy” Min*i*mum Wage Model pro*posed
by some.
Instead of merely boost*ing pay, the labour move*ment has been,
since June last year, aim*ing to improve the low*est earn*ing
work*ers’ “pro*duc*tiv*ity, skills and career prospects” by means
of highly sub*sidised skills train*ing. The NTUC has also been
appar*ently instru*men*tal in get*ting gov*ern*ment min*istries and
agen*cies — them*selves very large employ*ers, to only engage
com*pa*nies who let their staff par*tic*i*pate in skills train*ing
— a move which will earn them accred*i*ta*tion nec*es*sary to win
gov*ern*ment contracts.
The NTUC also has to work in con*cert with Gov*ern*ment to ensure
that jobs are cre*ated, and that these jobs are filled with*out
employ*ers resort*ing to and rely*ing on cheap, imported labour at
the expense of productivity.
It is a tough bal*ance to strike, and whether the Pro*gres*sive
Wage Model is a bet*ter model than a one-stop Min*i*mum Wage as Lim
Swee Say says it is may be a bit too early to
tell.
I will have you all know that it hasn’t got much to do with
Cheap*erer, Bet*terer, Fasterer. The Secretary-General did attempt
to explain his much maligned motto in con*text, but that’s for
another story.