Job recruitment by local SME: PRs and Malaysians only (No Si

Johnreturn35 SG

January 16, 2010

In yet another sign that Singaporeans are being squeezed out of the labor market in their own country, a local Small Medium Enterprise (SME) put up a recruitment ad seeking only PRs and Malaysians, but not Singaporeans.

Wang Foong Foodstuffs Supplies Pte Ltd has put up an advertisement for an account assistants on internet job portal JobsDB.com on 15 January 2010.

It is offering a full-time job with minimum GCE “O” level and one year of working experience.

There are plenty of Singaporeans who qualify for the job, but unfortunately they are being discriminated for being Singaporeans in their own country.

Apparently the job vacancy is opened only to PRs and Malaysians. Singaporeans are not welcomed to apply:

An account assistant is not a job shunned by Singaporeans. Neither is it a specialized position which can only be filled by a foreign talent. Why then did Wang Foong indicate specifically that only “PRs and Malaysians are welcomed”?

Are Singaporeans less qualified for the job than PRs and Malaysians?

Such advertisements are not uncommon in Singapore’s job portals. Some companies even advertise overseas to recruit foreigners directly like the case of Courts which put up an advertisement in Johor to recruit Malaysians for various positions based in Singapore.

Due to the ruling party’s liberal pro-foreigner policy, local companies prefer to employ foreign workers instead of Singaporeans to keep labor costs down.

According to a recent article in Wall Street Journal, the relentless influx of foreign workers in Singapore has helped to depress the wages of ordinary Singapore workers leading to a lower quality of life. (read article here)

In an interview with Mr Kenneth Jeyaretnam, an economist by training and the Secretary-General of the Reform Party, he opined that immigration has “kept our economic growth high but, at a tremendous cost.”

Another economist, Choy Keen Meng from NTU added that “relying on foreign labor to help boost growth is unsustainable” and that a “better model would involve the reining in immigration and accepting that Singapore is becoming a more mature economy like the U.S. or Europe, with a long-term growth rate of 3% to 5% a year.”

Though it is impossible to expect Singaporeans to compete directly with foreigners in terms of labor costs, PAP minister and NTUC Secretary-General Lim Swee Say continued to exhort Singaporeans to be “cheaper, better and faster”.

The monthly median wage of the average Singapore worker is only $2,600. Singapore has the highest income gap among the 30 most developed countries in the world, contributed partially by the influx of foreigners who now make up 36 per cent of its population, up from 14 per cent in 1990.

Leaders from the ruling party appear not to be too concerned about Singaporeans having an increasingly hard time competing with the foreigners so long as they achieve the target population of 6.5 million.

In an interview last year with National Geographic magazine, Singapore’s octogenarian leader Lee Kuan Yew said it is a “good idea” that Singapore has welcomed so many Chinese immigrants as they are more “hard-driving” and “hard-striving” than the locals.

“If native Singaporeans are falling behind because “the spurs are not stuck into the hide,” that is their problem,” he was quoted as saying in the article “The Singapore Solution.” by Mark Jacobson.

[Source: National Geographic]

http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/01/16/job-recruitment-by-local-sme-prs-and-malaysians-only-no-singaporeans/

Johnreturn35 SG

January 15, 2010

Furniture retail mart Courts will be launching a mass recruitment in exercise in Johor Bahru on 18 January 2010 for Malaysians to fill various positions in Singapore according to a tip-off we receive from a reader.

Singaporeans need not apply even if you travel across the Causeway for the interview as they are open to Malaysians only.

One may think that these jobs are those shunned by Singaporeans and Courts has no choice but to turn to Malaysians to fill the vacancies, as is often used by leaders of the ruling party to defend its pro-foreigner policy and regurgitated faithfully by the state media.

In his latest speech on 31st December 2009, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong promise Singaporeans that his ruling party will ‘manage and moderate’ the inflow of foreign workers, so that Singaporeans are not overwhelmed by the sheer numbers. said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Thursday.

“We need the many foreign workers who work here, to build HDB flats and MRT lines, to work in factories especially on late shifts, and to help man the IRs,” he added.

[Source: Straits Times, 31 December 2009]

Is Singapore Courts recruiting Malaysian workers to work in factories on late shifts?

Let us take a look at the positions offered by Courts to the Malaysians:

The vacancies needed to be filled by Courts are: product specialists, cashiers, operation executives, assistant accountants, credit officer and customer account assistants.

Now these are not highly specialized positions which can only be filled by professionals and talents not available in Singapore or menial jobs shunned by Singaporeans.

Any Singaporean equipped with a ITE or “O” level certificate will be more than qualified to take up these jobs. Why is Courts recruiting Malaysians instead of Singaporeans?

The ruling party blamed Singaporeans for being fussy, demanding and inflexible and urged us to accept any jobs which come along our way.

According to unverified sources, Courts is offering a basic salary of between S$900 – S$1,400 for these positions, minus the CPF.

This amount translates to between RM$2,160 – RM$3,360 (SGD$1 = RM$2.40) which is higher than what the Malaysians will earn back home.

Can a Singaporean survive on this kind of salary? Of course the locals will be unable to compete with the foreign “talents”.

To be fair to Courts, it is a company and it has to keep its labor costs low and since the ruling party allows it to employ large number of foreigners to keep its business profitable, why not make full use of it?

Singaporeans should not be taken in by PM Lee’s “sweet talk” that Singaporeans will remain his government’s “priority” as even when he is saying this, companies based in Singapore are still recruiting foreigners en masse!

If the ruling party did not open the floodgates to foreigners and give companies so much leeway to employ foreigners, then they will have no choice but to employ Singaporeans.

Instead of saving on labor costs, they will have to innovate to increase their productivity with the local workforce they have.

The period of transition will be painful for some, but eventually everybody will benefit because the companies will be able to raise their profit margin by producing more in the same period of time while Singaporeans are gainfully employed with a decent pay to support themselves and families.

With a higher pay and standard of living, Singaporeans will be inclined to have more children, thereby boosting our birth rate and decreasing our perennial dependence on foreigners.

Unfortunately, nobody in the PAP seems to realize the intangible social benefits of having a highly trained, well paid and happy workforce as they are too obsessed with GDP growth rates which can be artificially increased temporarily by importing large numbers of cheap foreign labor, but we will soon lose our competitive edge once our neighbors like Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam catch up with us.

For unemployed or retrenched Singaporeans who are still looking for a job, they will stand a better chance giving up their Singapore citizenship to become a Malaysian and apply for a job based in Singapore in Malaysia instead where Singapore companies are having a field day recruiting their “talents” and “baby-producing machines” for the ruling party.

EDITORS’ NOTE:

If you come across any such advertisements employing PRs and foreigners and NOT Singaporeans in the future, please email us and we will write a story on it. We have to keep harping on the matter again, again and again till we shatter the myth propagated by the state media forever once and for all.

http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/01/15/singapore-courts-mass-recruiting-malaysians-in-jb-next-monday-to-fill-vacancies-based-in-singapore/comment-page-2/

Johnreturn35 SG

January 14, 2010

The Straits Times reported today of a 26 year old Myanmar national Yin Yin Oo signed up for free English classes at a Community Club because she needed “help” in spoken English.

She has been working in Singapore as an “accounts executive” for over a year.

While it is not revealed what she does exactly, it is highly unlikely that she is a professional accountant by training when she admits that “she was at the ‘intermediate’ level in reading and writing”.

In all likelihood, Ms Yin is probably doing some simple book-keeping at a local SME which employed her due to lower wage demands.

With due respect to Ms Yin, her job can be easily taken over by any Singaporean with a ITE or “O” level certificate.

The ruling party has been defending its “foreign talent” policy on the ground that foreigners are needed to fill vacancies in certain sectors shunned by locals such as construction, nursing and IT support services.

However, in the past few years, we have seen an increasing number of foreigners on S-passes (S for semi-skilled) flocking to work in Singapore.

These semi-skilled foreign workers compete directly with Singaporeans for jobs which otherwise belong to them such as nursery school teachers, administrators, clinic assistants, IT engineers and “accounts executives”.

They are in high demand due to their lower wages which help to raise the profit margins of small businesses.

A PRC nursery school teacher commands a monthly salary of only $1,200 to $1,400 compared to Singaporean who fetches more than $2,000.

Given a choice, any employer will hire the cheaper PRC and save $800 – $1,000 in wages monthly.

It is impossible for local workers to compete with these so-called “foreign talents.” A PRC living alone in Singapore can survive with that kind of salary, but what about a Singaporean with a family to feed?

The question is: why are these PRCs allowed to work in Singapore at all when their qualifications are a suspect in the first place? (like the infamous Zhang Yuanyuan who came to Singapore armed with a diploma from an unknown institution in China; she got her PR within 2 months of application)

The Manpower Ministry should release more information on the number of foreign workers in Singapore on S-passes, their occupations as well as the percentage who are granted Singapore PRs to enable Singaporeans to better assess if these foreigners are indeed “talents” or “thrash”.

A recent article by Wall Street Journal suggested that the influx of foreigners into Singapore in the last few years has led directly to the stagnation of wages of blue-collar workers, widening of the income gap between the rich and the poor, overall decrease in labor productivity and standards of living. (read article here)

Singapore companies must start thinking of ways to boost their productivity and reduce their over-dependence on foreign workers.

Ms Yin will probably not be able to find work in any other first world country with the exception of Singapore.

More stringent criteria should be put in place so that we only recruit foreigners in selected sectors which genuinely face manpower shortage due to difficulties in employing locals.

DISCLAIMER:

Mingalaba! We are not against any race or nationality. The gist of the article is simply to highlight the ruling party’s lax immigration guidelines in allowing too many foreigners on S-passes to work in Singapore when their jobs can easily be taken over by locals. To be fair, Burmese are generally quite hardworking, honest and genial by nature compared to some others. For those of us who have been to Burma, you will agree that Burmese are among the most hospitable people in the world. We apologize if you we have hurt the feelings of our fellow Burmese friends in anyway. Khay-zu-din-ba-leh!

http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/01/14/myanmar-national-with-poor-command-of-english-working-as-accounts-executive-in-singapore/comment-page-12/#comment-57177

January 14, 2010

Foreigners, PRs and new citizens are flocking to free language classes organized by Community Clubs sponsored generously by Singapore taxpayers to help them “integrate” into Singapore society.

In 2008, foreigners, permanent residents and new citizens made up 55 per cent of participants in English classes and 47 per cent in the Chinese ones, a People’s Association (PA) spokesman said.

Minister for Youth Development, Community and Sports Dr Vivian Balakrishnan unveiled a $10-million Community Integration Fund in October last year to make new immigrants and PR feel “welcomed” and “happy” in Singapore.

The fund will be used to organize events for the newcomers as well as to provide free language classes for those who are unable to speak English and has already been tapped on by various grassroots organizations including a Residents’ Committee in Yew Tee, to hold free weekly conversational English lessons for new immigrants from China, Myanmar and Vietnam.

The Straits Times reported a Myanmar national Yin Yin Oo, 26, who has been an accounts executive in Singapore for more than a year, saying that she was at the ‘intermediate’ level in reading and writing, but needed help with spoken English, so she signed up for the classes at the community club.

It is not known how she managed to get a job in Singapore in the first place if she needs “help” with spoken English as there are more than qualified Singaporeans around to be “account executives”.

Unlike other countries like Australia and Canada which require prospective immigrants to pass an English proficiency test before they are even allowed to work there, Singapore has no such rules.

Due to the ruling party’s lax criteria for immigrants, even English iliterate PRC construction workers, masseurs and cleaners are given Singapore PRs and citizenships.

According to a Wall Street Journal article on 13 January 2010, the relentless influx of foreign workers ”has kept local blue-collar wages lower than they would be otherwise, exacerbating Singapore’s gap between rich and poor.”

Singapore has the highest income-gap among the thirty most developed countries in the world. Though it is the second richest nation in Asia after Japan, its citizens have a low domestic purchasing power comparable to other first world countries. (read UBS report here)

A recent report by the International Labor Organization revealed that Singaporeans work the longest hours among Asian countries, more than the Japanese, Koreans and Taiwanese, but are paid less than them.

The median monthly pay of an average Singaporean worker is only $2,600 compared to $180,000 for a Singapore minister. It has hardly increased over the lat decade.

Singapore’s octogenarian strongman Lee Kuan Yew dismissed the importance of the widening income gap at a ministerial forum last year on the grounds that it “matters little” so long the government continues to create jobs for Singaporeans.

Despite the increased competition faced by Singaporeans from foreigners in every sphere of life, the ruling party does not appear to care much as long as Singapore’s economy continues to grow. (A substantial portion of the PAP ministers’ multi-million pay package is pegged to Singapore’s GDP growth).

In a recent interview with National Geographic magazine, Lee said it is a “good idea” that Singapore has welcomed so many Chinese immigrants as they are more “hard-driving” and “hard-striving” than the locals.

[Source: National Geographic]

http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/01/14/english-iliterate-foreigners-flock-to-cc-language-classes-sponsored-by-singapore-taxpayers/

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