I refer to MOM's Racial and Religious Harmony Day.
Click on: http://www.therealsingapore.com/content/celebrate-racial-and-religious-harmony-your-workplace-july
I would think that MOM should reinforce inter-nationality harmony workplace especially since the SMRT China bus-drivers bus protest.
In my workplace, I am the minority nationality and have to be careful of such sensitivities.
Apparently, being a Singaporean, I was paid higher than my Malaysian counterparts even though we do the same job scope. It definitely caused some workplace tension among us.
And what they told me, (if they are not lying), is that Malaysians are on E-Pass but they are paid only $2K a month rather than the required E-Pass criteria of minimum S$3K a month. Click onhttp://www.mom.gov.sg/foreign-manpower/passes-visas/employment-pass/before-you-apply/Pages/default.aspx
When I asked them a few questions if they got it wrong and referred to S-Pass (S-Pass criteria is minimum $2.2K a month), they said no and was sure that they are under E-Pass and not S-Pass.
S-Pass is mainly for Myanmar, Philippines and Thailand but apparently, MOM created a separate category of E-Pass for Malaysians and did not disclose it to publicly as they do not wish to create more political dischantment among the Singaporeans.
If that is true, many Malaysians in Singapore are actually on E-Pass and earning only S$2K a month but for some reason, MOM did not wish to reveal details on their web page.
To me, it seems fair that Singaporeans get more priority over foriegners in the workplace because this is our country, but maybe something else also needs to be done to allow foreigners to understand why its important. The difference in pay is definitely causing tension in my workplace between the workers of different nationalities.
CJ
TRS Contributor