We have more than 1 milion foreign workers here, trying to live their dreams of better wages and providing for their loved ones. Sadly, many transient workers face unjust treatment by their employer and had their dreams cut short.
Transient worker -
One who moves from job to job, maintains no fixed home, and is not associated with any particular business locality.
http://twc2.org.sg
One such organisation that provides assistance to foreign workers in time of needs. TWC2 promotes equitable treatment for migrant workers in Singapore. We help those in need and advocate better policies. Labour is dignified. It is minds that need to be changed.
In Colossains 4:1, "Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven."
Though we may not own a company, we do have regular contact with a variety of people. As believers, it is important to be ethical in our dealings. We can also, with God's enablement care about others' well being through prayer, encouragement and meeting their physical needs.
Galatians 6:9-10; Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
God blesses us so that we can bless others.
On the subject of being FAIR
Professor Lim Chong Yah reiterates need for 'shock therapy'
Six months after his call for the Republic's economy to be put through "shock therapy" ignited intense public debate - with the Prime Minister and several ministers criticising his proposals as risky and unsustainable - Professor Lim Chong Yah yesterday reiterated that they were needed to stem worsening income inequality and arrest an over-reliance on low-cost foreign labour.
Speaking at the Singapore Policy Forum co-organised by the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the Economic Society of Singapore, Prof Lim argued his case for freezing the salaries of top earners for three years and called again for the institution of a minimum wage system.
Suspending raises for top earners - those who make more than $$15,000 a month - would prevent top-tier salaries from pulling further away and widening the wage gap, he said.
Salaries at the top, "already at times at stratospheric heights, should not move into a morally indefensible position of unconscionable but perfectly legal rewards", he added.
A temporary pause could see top executives choosing to pay out dividends to shareholders and themselves, and would also prevent a "spiralling effect" on the pay cheques of those who earn less, said Prof Lim, who helped overhaul Singapore's wage policy in the late '70s.
In turn, these higher wage costs could eventually make Singapore's companies and economy less competitive internationally, he added.
He noted that such a measure "can work in Singapore" because of its strong tripartite relations, giving the example of how the entire nation took a voluntary pay cut across the board in 1985 and 1998, when Singapore was mired in deep recession.
Yesterday, Prof Lim, the founding Chairman of the National Wages Council (NWC), repeated his call for another facet of his "shock therapy" - minimum wage - to be implemented.
Addressing some 200 economists, policymakers, students and guests at the forum, Prof Lim praised the NWC's recent move to recommend a minimum S$50 raise for those drawing less than S$1,000 monthly.
However, he added that if the wages of workers in the bottom tier "remain stubbornly very low in two or three years' time ... perhaps a minimum wage scheme should be seriously looked into".
This, he said, is because Singapore's Gini coefficient - cited as an indicator of income inequality - has worsened steadily, from 0.422 in 1980 to 0.473 last year, and is within touching distance of the "dangerous" threshold of 0.5.
Prof Lim, who had unsuccessfully advocated a minimum wage policy in 1972, proposed a baseline amount of S$1,000 and said he had arrived at it by examining similar schemes wages in other countries.
For instance, it was about one-quarter that of Australia, one-third that of France, and half of Japan's. Compared to Newly-Industrialising Economies, the S$1,000 figure was slightly lower than South Korea's, but higher than Taiwan's and Hong Kong's. He noted, however, that if inflationary pressures turn out to be more serious, then even S$1,000 would be too low.
Prof Lim also stressed that productivity improvements keeping pace with the wage increase were an "absolute necessity", adding that improving workers' skills must continue.
While he acknowledged the Government's "Herculean efforts" to correct the income inequality, by way of the Workfare Income Supplement scheme and the GST Voucher scheme, to name a few, Prof Lim contended that such social spending could lead to the Government having to raise taxes eventually.
And this scenario, as compared to a temporary wage freeze for top executives, was more likely to "frighten (talent) away", he said, citing the adverse impact of France's "draconian measure" of unveiling a 75-per-cent super-tax rate.
The Albert Winsemius Chair Professor of Economics at NTU also proposed the NWC continue recommending pay raises in quantitative terms for two more years.
He said "the road ahead has to be clear that we are taking this route" so that those employers who "depend heavily" on cheap foreign labour can plan ahead and rethink their modus operandi.
Prof Lim added: "The disadvantage of announcing one year's pay increase without the commitment to the two more years would hardly have favourable impact on economic restructuring."
Government's call to increase productivity not only requires a mindset change (away with using cheap labour) but realistic action to control income gaps.
Fair
No party needs to pay costs in Hougang by-election case; In Mdm Vellama's case, the judge said the questions raised in her application "concerned public law issues of general importance", so there shouldn't be a winner or a loser...
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