http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/business/38293-maybank-singapore-passes-on-savings-to-staff
The Malaysian Insider, 22 Sep 2009
Maybank Singapore passes
on savings to staff
SINGAPORE, Sept 22 — Instead of
pocketing everything, Maybank Singapore is passing on part of the
savings from the Jobs Credit Scheme to its unionised staff in extra
bonuses and training.
Some 400 of its unionised employees — or slightly more than a third
of its 1,300 local staff — will get 0.5 to 1.5 months’ more in
bonuses, depending on their performance.
This is on top of the 2.5 months
bonus payout that banks in Singapore, including Maybank, have
agreed with unions in the banking sector.
With the additional payments, the
bonuses of unionised staff at Maybank Singapore will match those of
the bank’s non-unionised staff and
executives.
The latter are getting an average 3.5 months’ bonus, which is
“competitive compared to the market”, according to Maybank’s local
human resource head Wong Keng Fye.
The extra bonuses to be paid out
to the unionised staff add up to half the S$1.3 million (RM3.2
million) Maybank Singapore got from the Jobs Credit Scheme for its
unionised staff. The rest of the money will be deployed for staff
training.
Maybank Singapore is
believed to be the only bank here to use the savings from the Jobs
Credit Scheme to dish out higher bonuses to unionised staff in the
current economic downturn.
In the manufacturing sector, Murata Electronics reported last month
that it shared some of the cash gains from the Jobs Credit Scheme
with its workers in Singapore, offering them a one-off bonus
payment of S$300.
This came after the Japanese disk-drive maker revised its annual
earnings forecast from a loss of 8 billion yen (RM303 million) to a
loss of one billion yen.
Murata’s managing director Masatoshi Koike, who indicated orders
have risen in recent months after dropping to as low as 15 per cent
at one point, said schemes such as Jobs Credit have been timely in
helping companies cope with the recession and minimising
layoffs.
Introduced by the government in January, the S$4.5 billion Jobs
Credit Scheme is intended to help employers in Singapore save costs
and jobs in the face of declining business.
Maybank Singapore has continued to post financial growth despite
the downturn. Its operating profits here rose 35.6 per cent for the
financial year ending June 2009.
But the bank’s Wong said the extra bonus is not just a reward for
the workers’ contribution to the good financial results.
“Beyond financials, the management of the bank recognised the
efforts of staff in supporting some of the initiatives that the
bank had undertaken to excel in the area of service excellence and
worklife balance,” he said.
This year, Maybank Singapore
became the first in the industry to achieve triple certification
for business excellence in quality, service and developing
talent.
“Maybank was also the only bank that received accolades for its
series of pro-family and work-life initiatives in the workplace by
clinching the Work-Life Excellence Award 2008 for the second time,”
Wong said.
Staff turnover at Maybank Singapore has also been consistently
below the industry average.
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