Raising wages to address rising costs not a right solution
-
By S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 25 April 2008 2026 hrs
SINGAPORE: Raising wages to address the issue of rising costs may be an enticing option but that is not the right solution, said Acting Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong.
He said adjusting wages upwards to meet rising prices would only result in a "price-wage spiral" and Singaporeans should look at the bigger picture.
"What is more important is for us to have a realistic expectation of wages that reflect the underlying economic strength of our industries and also of our productivity. That will allow us to ensure that our economy will be able to sustain its growth momentum," said Mr Gan.
Since the last two recessions, tripartite partners – the government, unions and employers – have been working hard to encourage companies to restructure their wage systems and to make them more flexible. This would allow companies to respond quickly when there is an economic downturn.
One component that has been built into the structure is the monthly variable component (MVC). Mr Gan said this has worked well but more needs to be done.
He said: "It is not an easy instrument to introduce because companies have to put in place certain mechanisms, particularly in the small and medium enterprises. Many of them take the position that in any case, their wages are quite flexible because they are small and nimble, and are able to adjust the wages as they go along.
"We do acknowledge that some of these companies already have a flexible wage system in their own structure... but it is also important for us to look at other flexible components of the wage system, including reducing the ratio between minimum and maximum wages."
A major preoccupation of the Manpower Ministry is to finalise Singapore's reemployment legislation which is expected to come into effect by 2012.
Mr Gan has assured that it would not be a top-down approach – there will be widespread public consultation with both employers and unions before the final legislation is crafted.
The acting manpower minister also said the feedback received so far has indicated that employers welcome the initiative and see the benefit of employing older workers.
In fact, the employment rate of those aged between 55 and 64 went up by 3 percentage points from 2006 to reach almost 56 percent last year. The tripartite partners hope to achieve a 65 percent target by 2012.
Mr Gan said: "Employers are ready and willing to give it a try, and we are now helping them to introduce this system even ahead of the introduction of the legislation.
"Drafting the legislation is not so difficult. What is difficult is to decide what are the criteria, terms within the legislation and this is something we have to work with the industry and unions so that we can arrive at some common understanding how reemployment is to be implemented."
A tripartite work group has also been set up and it will visit companies to enhance the consultation process before the final law is introduced.
- CNA/so -
of course it wouldn't be ........................ for them ....
why raise wages when you can easily import more foreign peasants to replaced the old, and overpriced local peasants right ....
big picture ? ...
let's invite them to take a look at the big picture from down here .....
-
since ntuc is controlled by govt minister, effectively it shoule be bipartite.
Then if it a govt owned co u only have 'uni-partite' !
there is only one entity that say it all - comprising employer, govt, union. 
The conflict of interest perhaps has make the pap appointed minister in ntuc lacking the political WILL to PUSH for full restoration of CPF despite ROBUST economic growth.
-
haha like that also can
-
... God have mercy on us...
-
i don't know what to make out of that cock and bull story.
-
can one loh
if u have people in ntuc NOT echoing the concerns of workers when received feeback from coffeeshop worker on foreign worker taking away jobs.Come on lah, these workers' pay already very low by Spore standards i.e. exorbitant cost of living here, how low does ntuc expect it to go ?
.ntuc comparing with china wages is morally repugnant.
-
So say the people who gave themselves the biggest wage increase of them all. I wonder if public sector got pay increase or not. Must ask the SAF, public school teacher, various Ministry workers...
-
Survival of the fittest, China style
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gI1CwUBibCDaZQMLZ9CzTKnVGiQQ
Chinese export hub at centre of child labour scandal
"...The factories paid the children between 2.5 yuan and 3.8 yuan (35 and 55 cents) an hour..."
-
when is a good time?
-
I totally agree with the article, that is why i believe that the ministers should not have a pay raise
-
not unless it is about their pay.
-
this is double post, think I posted this before.
-
Originally posted by sunnytv:
By S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 25 April 2008 2026 hrs
SINGAPORE: Raising wages to address the issue of rising costs may be an enticing option but that is not the right solution, said Acting Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong.
He said adjusting wages upwards to meet rising prices would only result in a "price-wage spiral" and Singaporeans should look at the bigger picture.
"What is more important is for us to have a realistic expectation of wages that reflect the underlying economic strength of our industries and also of our productivity. That will allow us to ensure that our economy will be able to sustain its growth momentum," said Mr Gan.
Since the last two recessions, tripartite partners – the government, unions and employers – have been working hard to encourage companies to restructure their wage systems and to make them more flexible. This would allow companies to respond quickly when there is an economic downturn.
One component that has been built into the structure is the monthly variable component (MVC). Mr Gan said this has worked well but more needs to be done.
He said: "It is not an easy instrument to introduce because companies have to put in place certain mechanisms, particularly in the small and medium enterprises. Many of them take the position that in any case, their wages are quite flexible because they are small and nimble, and are able to adjust the wages as they go along.
"We do acknowledge that some of these companies already have a flexible wage system in their own structure... but it is also important for us to look at other flexible components of the wage system, including reducing the ratio between minimum and maximum wages."
A major preoccupation of the Manpower Ministry is to finalise Singapore's reemployment legislation which is expected to come into effect by 2012.
Mr Gan has assured that it would not be a top-down approach – there will be widespread public consultation with both employers and unions before the final legislation is crafted.
The acting manpower minister also said the feedback received so far has indicated that employers welcome the initiative and see the benefit of employing older workers.
In fact, the employment rate of those aged between 55 and 64 went up by 3 percentage points from 2006 to reach almost 56 percent last year. The tripartite partners hope to achieve a 65 percent target by 2012.
Mr Gan said: "Employers are ready and willing to give it a try, and we are now helping them to introduce this system even ahead of the introduction of the legislation.
"Drafting the legislation is not so difficult. What is difficult is to decide what are the criteria, terms within the legislation and this is something we have to work with the industry and unions so that we can arrive at some common understanding how reemployment is to be implemented."
A tripartite work group has also been set up and it will visit companies to enhance the consultation process before the final law is introduced.
- CNA/so
< "What is more important is for us to have a realistic expectation of wages that reflect the underlying economic strength of our industries and also of our productivity. > Does he have a realistic expectation of himself? He is paid a million and yet he can only come up with such ordinary solution. -
del
-
they raised their own 1st then tok cok
-
Europe's IT staff are the highest paid in the world today. Same skills, they are the highest paid in the universe. their cost of living is also the highest. But they are able to prosper and able to pay their IT staff the world's highest salaries. that is , even when cost of living, taxation are taken into account, their IT salaries are still the highest in the world.
Even so, Europe does not need the high and overwhelming proportion of lower cost employees from Asia. Their European Union protects their rice bowl.
This is progress.
-
SDP’s May Day mesage
Gandhi Ambalam, Chairman,
Singapore Democratic Party
Friends and fellow Singaporeans,May Day is an annual event to honor the workers of the world. In Singapore, it is only appropriate that our workers, who hold up our economy, are honored and have their rights protected.
There are about 2.5 million workers in Singapore. But they are left with no rights under the PAP which, ironically, came to power on the backs of our workers in 1959.
After winning power, one of the first things that the PAP did was to remove some of those basic rights – the right to decent wages, the right to proper annual leave, medical care etc.
What was worse, the PAP introduced draconian laws in the late 60s such as the Employment Act, the Trade Unions Act and the Industrial Relations Act to deny our workers their rightful entitlements.
These three pieces of archaic legislation that are still being retained at present are in fact used by the employers to exploit our workers. In other words, our workers became victims of big business, including Government and Temasek-linked companies.
Over the years, instead of improving the lot of our workers, the PAP has further exploited them through the National Trades Union Congress.
The PAP set up the NTUC in 1961 after arresting trade unionists and deregistering their genuine trade unions that existed then.
The NTUC has been a failure in representing the interests of our workers. Despite being around for 47 years, the NTUC has been able to bring under its fold only less than 20 per cent of our workforce.
The NTUC seems to be everywhere and doing everything including running supermarkets, selling anything from insurance to duck rice, and even running massage and funeral parlors - everything except looking after the interests of our workers.
What is most obnoxious is that NTUC is in collusion with the government to indiscriminately let in foreigners to take away the jobs of our workers. One-third, or more, of the workforce in Singapore is made up of foreigners.
The uncontrolled influx of cheap foreign labor has led to our workers reduced to doing contract and casual jobs.
It is common to see our workers holding two jobs with long working hours just to survive. In contrast, our ministers demand millions of dollars in what they call salary.
The PAP government manages one of the most centrally controlled economies in the world and it often intervenes and manipulates market forces with the result that our workers are left high and dry at the mercy of the employers.
There’s no minimum wage. The PAP government and the NTUC are sacrificing the workers’ right to earn a decent living wage by retaining labor intensive industries whose needs are met by the foreign cheap labor.
Most of the jobs created go to foreigners, leading to economic hardship and displacement of Singaporeans.
This downhill path of depending on cheap labor is badly hurting the morale of our workers and their productivity.
Another bugbear is inflation that has hit a 26-year high. To a certain extent the problem is global. But the major responsibility for this high inflation has to be borne by the Government that has introduced a slew of increases for govt services including ERP gantries, GST, transport costs, hospital charges and exorbitant fees at institutions of higher learning while foreigners are provided with subsidized and free education with taxpayers’ money.
The continued neglect of Singaporeans have led to families finding it increasingly difficult to cope with the constant upping in the price of essentials while their incomes remain stagnant or further suppressed by the foreign cheap labor.
School children go hungry because they can’t afford to pay for the food at the canteen. Can you imagine all this is happening in a First World country that Singapore claims to be?
The Government claims that a record number of 234,900 jobs were created last year, up from 176,000 jobs in the previous year.
But of these only 38 per cent of them went to locals, which include permanent residents. We are not given the unemployment rate for citizens.
Here I remember what the founding chairman of the PAP, Dr Toh Chin Chye said some time back.He said that he did not believe the statistics and data put out by the government and that we don’t know whether we are on solid rock or thin ice!
But billions of dollars of our reserves are being used to rescue sinking Western banks and financial institutions ravaged by the sub-prime crisis. But when it comes to helping our poor with an additional $30 in allowance a month, extensive debate takes place.
The Singapore Democratic Party wants our workers to regain their lost rights and free themselves from the clutches of the greedy, exploitative and dictatorial PAP and its approved NTUC.
The fact that PAP ministers and MPs are running the union makes a mockery of the labor movement.
Our workers must be allowed to form independent trade unions to protect their interests. Employers, including those from the US, Germany and Japan have their own organizations in Singapore to ensure that their demands are met. But our workers have no say in their own country.
Forty-nine years of PAP rule and domination has led to a mass exodus of our bright and young to other countries.
This is due to PAP’s economically, socially and politically stifling attitude.
Those who are unable to emigrate find themselves increasingly displaced by foreign workers who are prepared to accept low wages.
What happened to PAP’s core value of placing community interest first before self?
Like other PAP promises of more good years, a golden period and that no one will be left behind, this one is also an empty rhetoric.
Let’s not be fooled by the PAP and its NTUC on this May Day.
It’s time that we say enough is enough. Let us unite to call for the repeal of the archaic and draconian anti-labor laws that shackle the labor movement.
We are in a different age where innovation and creativity are crucial talents if our country is going to compete in the league of First World nations.
To do this we cannot have a First World for the PAP with Third World wages for our workers.
On May 1, my colleagues and I will be at Toa Payoh Central to mark Workers’ Day.
We will have the Tak Boleh Tahan petition calling on the Government to stop exploiting our workers.
Come and join us for the day and support the campaign. I look forward to seeing you.
Together, let us work towards a free and democratic Singapore where prosperity belongs to all.
Thank you. Happy MAY DAY.
-
I wish to bring people to attention that:
1. cost of living has irrefutably gone skywards manys times.
2. IT salaries are kept low with overwhelming number of influx.
3. although cost in europe is higher, their salaries are also much higher giving them more nett income than asians. thats why when u see ang more in asia, you regard them like gods. like superior than you. because even a normal IT staff of europe are richer than the same asian counterpart, who surely earns less salary. Europeans still earn more even after minusing the tax and cost of living.
4. its not really fair to say that the ERP here is lower than London's because the pore employees do not earn as much. Thus, its not right to have same high level of ERP toll which has been increasing.
-
Originally posted by sunnytv:
By S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 25 April 2008 2026 hrs
SINGAPORE: Raising wages to address the issue of rising costs may be an enticing option but that is not the right solution, said Acting Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong.
He said adjusting wages upwards to meet rising prices would only result in a "price-wage spiral" and Singaporeans should look at the bigger picture.
"What is more important is for us to have a realistic expectation of wages that reflect the underlying economic strength of our industries and also of our productivity. That will allow us to ensure that our economy will be able to sustain its growth momentum," said Mr Gan.
Since the last two recessions, tripartite partners – the government, unions and employers – have been working hard to encourage companies to restructure their wage systems and to make them more flexible. This would allow companies to respond quickly when there is an economic downturn.
One component that has been built into the structure is the monthly variable component (MVC). Mr Gan said this has worked well but more needs to be done.
He said: "It is not an easy instrument to introduce because companies have to put in place certain mechanisms, particularly in the small and medium enterprises. Many of them take the position that in any case, their wages are quite flexible because they are small and nimble, and are able to adjust the wages as they go along.
"We do acknowledge that some of these companies already have a flexible wage system in their own structure... but it is also important for us to look at other flexible components of the wage system, including reducing the ratio between minimum and maximum wages."
A major preoccupation of the Manpower Ministry is to finalise Singapore's reemployment legislation which is expected to come into effect by 2012.
Mr Gan has assured that it would not be a top-down approach – there will be widespread public consultation with both employers and unions before the final legislation is crafted.
The acting manpower minister also said the feedback received so far has indicated that employers welcome the initiative and see the benefit of employing older workers.
In fact, the employment rate of those aged between 55 and 64 went up by 3 percentage points from 2006 to reach almost 56 percent last year. The tripartite partners hope to achieve a 65 percent target by 2012.
Mr Gan said: "Employers are ready and willing to give it a try, and we are now helping them to introduce this system even ahead of the introduction of the legislation.
"Drafting the legislation is not so difficult. What is difficult is to decide what are the criteria, terms within the legislation and this is something we have to work with the industry and unions so that we can arrive at some common understanding how reemployment is to be implemented."
A tripartite work group has also been set up and it will visit companies to enhance the consultation process before the final law is introduced.
- CNA/soLOL...
-
Raising wages to address the issue of rising costs may be an enticing option but that is not the right solution, said Acting Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong.
They themselves raise their fucking minister pay to highest in the world, now come and talk this type of cock to me.
Really need to wake up.
Sleep too long already.
In their own dream world already.
-
The true cock and bull story is the SDP one, when has PAP ever MANIPULATED the market?
Isn't it because they left it to market forces that people are kao-behing?
So if the govt leaves it to the market, SDP will kao beh. If the govt attempts to MANIPULATE, also kao beh. What they want? Isn't a minimum wage a manipulation of the market?
And I dare SDP to try to tackle the inflation.
-
How about unleashing "FTs" onto the job market?
-
Originally posted by Poh Ah Pak:
How about unleashing "FTs" onto the job market?
Honestly I can't stand reading either articles.One is nothing but bull-shit praising the govt, the other is nothing but bull-shit throwing dung at the govt.
-
That is politics wah.
Mainstream media spreads state propaganda to brainwash us, opposition spreads propaganda to retaliate.
Nothing special.
PAP propaganda power is strong.
SDP propaganda power is weak.
So 66.6% vote PAP lor.
I think PAP should fuck off.