EMPHASIS ON OLDER, LOW-WAGE WORKERS

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SINGAPORE - As the Government invests in continuing education, it will place "additional emphasis" on older, low-wage workers, said Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam yesterday.

This will be done through a new Workfare Training Scheme (WTS), and enhancements to the Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) scheme.

Under the three-year WTS, employers will be given 90 to 95 per cent funding for absentee payroll and course fee outlays. Workers who complete skills upgrading training will be given up to $400 a year in cash grants.

Those with very low skills, including the unemployed, can also sign up for a structured training programme.

The scheme seeks to help older workers, even though it is open to all eligible WIS recipients, who are 35 and above, said Mr Shanmugaratnam.

The WIS itself will see two enhancements. First, WIS will be extended to workers earning up to $1,700 per month, up from the current limit of $1,500.

Secondly, the maximum payouts for the WIS will be increased by between $150 to $400, with more going to older workers. Workers who have worked at least three months in any six-month period in the year, now get between $180 and $2,400.

With the higher WIS payout, a 60-year-old will get $400 more, bringing his total annual WIS payment to $2,800. Likewise, a 55-year-old earning $1,000 monthly will receive an additional 18-per-cent top-up to his pay through the WIS.

Mr Shanmugaratnam called this a "significant intervention".

The enhanced WIS will cost an additional $100 million annually, and will benefit about 400,000 low-wage earners.

Mr Tim Hird, managing director of Robert Half Singapore, said both schemes would help employers retain experienced and valuable employees, while Food Drinks and Allied Workers' Union general secretary Tan Hock Soon said the Government support will "put more workers at ease" about going for training.

But the owner of Crusade Cleaning Services, Mr Peter Ko, said while the schemes are encouraging, "older workers have no motivating factor to upgrade themselves".

However, he is more than willing to send keen younger workers for English-language courses, having previously paid for them out of his own pocket.

Mayor for South West District Amy Khor said the "mental barriers" that employees cannot spare the time for upgrading, or fear they are not educated enough can be overcome "with time". She noted that the WTS funding would "encourage employers", and while the $400 cash grant "is not a huge sum, it is significant for many lower-income families".

From TODAY, Tuesday, 23-Feb-2010

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A crisis of compassion

BUDGET TAI-TAI

The husband's been retrenched — and they didn't do it kindly

Tabitha Wang, voices@mediacorp.com.sg

IT HAS finally happened. The day had started well. My landlord had offered to lower our rent, I'd just won a plushie on Facebook ... then my husband came back with the dreaded news: He'd been retrenched.

There had been no warning. One moment he was working his heart out, grateful for a job, and the next he was called into the office and told to go. No, not fired — because then they'd have to pay him compensation.

He didn't fit in with the culture, they said — which is a bucketful of horse manure because if that had been the case, they'd have told him that during his annual review. They were simply looking for a chance to trim their budget.

Just like that, he will be out of a job soon. Which leaves us stuck after having cut ties and moved here. Worst, as we didn't see it coming, I didn't go for a full-time position in my office when it came up last year so now there is no job security for me either.

It's all the more worrying, given the figures. That same week, it was announced that Hong Kong's jobless rate is now at its highest in three years and expected to rise to 8 per cent, higher even than during the Asian financial crisis in 1998.

So, I am not optimistic about him finding a job soon.

Just as it had been five years ago, the crisis has shown me who my true friends are. One dropped everything to spend a night with me while my husband was away to make sure I didn't do anything stupid, another invited us to her home for a brainstorming session while numerous others generously shared contacts and job opportunities with us.

The ones who drive me up the wall are those who say: "You think that's bad? Wait till you hear about my life" then go on to complain about something banal like some guy not liking her or kid not doing well at school.

Watch your words

If you meet someone who has lost his job, please don't say:

"How are you today?"
(Just as miserable as yesterday, thank you.)

"Found a job yet?" (What? In two days?)

"Why don't you go to church/temple/synagogue?" (To everything there is a season and this is not it.)

My mum said the right thing: "Come home." But it's not that easy. Singapore also has problems of its own, with its unemployment rate at a four-year high.

As Hong Kong's economy is still faring slightly better than Singapore's, we probably stand a better chance staying put.

Besides, the stories I hear coming from Singapore are equally depressing. One guy, a vice-president in a big firm, was summoned into his boss' room and scolded for bad performance.

That, after 20 years of brilliant appraisals.

The boss kept at him until he agreed to resign. That was the boss' aim all along so that, as in my husband's case, they wouldn't have to pay compensation. The company was still making money and the truth was, the boss wanted to put his own man in that post — the credit crunch was just an excuse.

Never mind that the poor guy had two young kids and that his wife's contract was already not going to be renewed.

In the face of the 2Cs, credit crisis, it seems that employers are missing the third C: Compassion. The worst are opportunists who see the crisis as an excuse to fire even through the firm is still profitable.

So newsflash, employers: When making someone redundant, don't come up with pathetic "it's not me, it's you" excuses like bad performance or not fitting in with company culture. Just tell the real reason: You want him out because well, maybe your mum wasn't married to your dad.

The excuses may help you sleep at night but think about the poor employee who will have to piece back his self-respect before he can look for another job again.

Well, I firmly believe that what comes around, goes around. So, employers, how you treat your staff in these trying times will find a way to get back to you.

The day you lose your job, your hair falls out, your kids turn juvenile delinquents and you have to take up residence with my old friend Mr Loony in the lift lobby, know that your former employees will be queuing up for front-row tickets to your downfall.

Tabitha Wang wants to know if anyone has any openings for an editorial director, financial analyst or business/finance academic.

From TODAYOnline.com; see the source article here.

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Call for a review of foreign worker policy

What do I say about this?

That in the past… (1) Locals can be so choosy in their jobs, (2) Anytime they don't like anything in their current job, they can quit, (3) They are so spoiled in that they can easily find a new job right after quitting from the previous one, (4) They can demand for their salary, (5) They don't like getting barked at or 'coerced', or 'pushed' in their jobs, (6) Anytime they feel they are the underdog, they quit! And finally, (7) Locals are so arrogant that they are afraid to 'lose face' – they don't take jobs that are low-down, dirt-level, and menial – especially the service sectors.

With the influx of foreign workers, and mostly workers who will work their bones out no matter what, and remain in their jobs no matter what, this posed a 'great distress' to the locals' arrogance and self-conceit: many talented and persevering foreigners can do the job at a lower pay, with none or less complaints, more compliance than murmuring, security to the employer with less turnover, better output due to better skills, less cost with less trainings needed for new employees every now and then… name it – they don't have it!

This is my view. My opinion. And again, it is based on my experience and observation. They are threatened, but wake them up by what they fear most: doing the low-down, dirt-level, menial and 'serving-others' job, and they'll keep mum and whimper like a beaten dog that will go away with its tail between its legs.

It is more of a culture than a personal trait… born to be arrogant… proud… NOT ALL, but most… and cannot even deliver!

Anyway, if this should come, let it be. They will rule their country in a way that they deem best – for their countrymen.

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Should Singapore tighten its "liberal" foreign worker policies? Some Members of Parliament think so and have called for a Government review.

Jurong MP Halimah Yacob urged for a review of foreign worker quotas to reflect today's situation of higher unemployment and weaker job creation. She warned of a "hollowing out of skills" among locals, should large numbers of foreigners occupy jobs in a particular sector.

"There are now so many foreign workers even in the services sector that Singaporeans are beginning to feel squeezed out," she said. For their part, Singaporeans must be prepared to work in new sectors or work further away from home.

Ang Mo Kio MP Inderjit Singh believes Singapore needs more pro-active measures such as a minimum-wage system to make some jobs more attractive to locals — a call the Opposition has made in the past — as well as reserving certain jobs for Singaporeans.

Middle- and lower-income groups here will be worse off over time with the current liberal policies due to "artificially depressed" wages — a result of "competition for low value-added jobs from foreigners", he said. NEO CHAI CHIN

From TODAYOnline.com, Top News – Tuesday, 26-May-2009; see the source article here.

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