The top ten anamolies of our labour situation here:
1. No minimum wage: We don't have minimum wage yet even though third-world neighboring countries like Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam already have that in place to protect low-waged workers. We have a progressive wage system whereby our workers have to justify their increase in wage through enhanced productivity. If we apply that to our own ministers I am sure many will have much reduced salaries.
2. Low to zero unemployment record: According to MOM, for the past few years we have close to zero unemployment rate. Anything below 2% unemployment rate is deemed to be zero unemployment for the country but yet on the ground we see many of our friends and relatives staying jobless or taking up part-time work in order to survive. Let us have the truth please MOM!
3. Ageism: The whole society is focused on being young and productive here and if you are 40 years old you are considered over the hill. Many mid-aged well-qualified and experienced PMETs could not convince employers that they could do the job even though they are willing to take a pay cut. In Singapore, its tough to look for work at age 40 and by the time you are jobless by age 50, you don't even have to send out resumes anymore as it will most likely end up in the dust-bin.
4. Overqualified cabbies: I have a group of cabby friends who are engineers and IT specialist who ditched their degrees and diplomas for a job behind the wheel because of the lousy pay and stressful work conditions here. As cabbies, they ironically earned more than their professional jobs and enjoy the luxury of freedom from overbearing bosses. One of them is only 35 years old.
5. Unions exist but lack teeth: Our unions exist but are mainly toothless under the destructive nature of our tripartite system. It exists but our workers' rights are pushed to insignificance and employers use it to their advantage. Many have given up on our unions and NTUC merely exists because of their Fairprice discount card and chalet priviledges. We say cut your NTUC memership card in two!
6. Most under-mined local workforce in the world: Our local PMETs suffered these few years after the floodgates open for foreign talents to enter our workforce. Many are unceremoniously replaced by incoming foreign talents and they have no one to complaint to as our government allows it. Existing foreigners working here refer their own kind and many Singaporeans suddenly find that they are the minority workers in their own country. Incoming foreigners also undermined our wages as they are willing to work for much less due to our strong currency. There are now close to 1.2 million foreigners working here from low-end labourers to high-end CEOs.
7. No proper workers' rights: Our employment laws are so loose that sometimes employers get away with fraudulent terms that implicate the workers. For example, it's common for employers to insert clause such as compensation to be paid to the company when the worker resigns before the expiry of a contract. Such terms are not only improper but unfair to the rights of a worker. For a first world economy our labour rights are really third world!
8. Most overworked and under-paid workforce: Our country earns the undesirable tag of being the most overworked workforce in the world and our wages have remain stagnant for the past few years. Our people commonly work more than 50 hours a week and 60 hours are not uncommon. Our security guards usually clock in at least 60 hours a week because of the shift system and over-time and they only earn close to $2000 a month. About 380,000 Singaporeans now earn $1380 and below putting them in the bottom 15% earners of our workforce.
9. Most elderly workforce in the world: We did a Christmas eve gift distribution for our elderly workers and found many of them in the city area. Most work as retail or service staff for pittance wage. Maybe some decide to work to spend their free time wisely but we are sure that there is a high number of them who could not retire on their own without working. This is a shame and independent retirement here is a fallacy for many. Down with our CPF system...
10. Lowest number of leave per annum: Most companies here offer only 14 days per year of annual leave to our workers compared to an average of 20 days for most developed countries. We also need to produce medical certificates for sick leave compared to many countries which merely require a phone call for the first five days of sick leave. Welfare in many SMEs is lacking and our workers are treated like those depicted in George Orwell's Animal Farm.
Gilbert Goh