According to labour chief Lim Swee Say, “S’poreans should come last” in retrenchment. It reminds me of “one should give up seat to the pregnant and elderly”. Or perhaps, “one should procreate for the nation”. Should is a very overly used word, which practically no ones bothers. Self gain is the norm, while courtesy and patriotism are of short supply.
From the viewpoint of a profit-oriented company, which employs both S’poreans and foreign workers, the worker who is paid more for similar job scope will be the one who goes first.
Often, it is the S’porean who tends to be paid the higher salary, due to their higher bargaining power with the easy availability of work for job-hopping in boom years, and the calculation of wages based on last draw pay.
Foreigners (non-expats) workers, mostly due to the weakness of their currency with respect to Singapore dollar, tend to be paid lower compared to S’porean (but often a lot more when compared with salary back home), and are often more willing workers.
So, if a company is profit-oriented, why would they employ S’poreans in the first place? Ah ha. Each company has a ratio quota, based on the number of S’poreans and PRs already employed, which allows them to employ foreigners.
So, doesn’t the retrenchment of S’poreans prevent them from renewing the foreign worker’s pass? Ah ha. The trick, that is relatively well-known, is to apply PR for those foreign workers who are on employment pass or S pass.
The “excuse” of using the downturn to send workers for training, so that they will be well-trained and ready for boom years sounds hollow. The question is, with our lax employment rules, why spend the money training when you can just grab well-trained workers? Many, employed and unemployed are paying from their own pockets for training in view of keeping themselves employ-able.
