Eat this "shit" Foreign Talents!

[saratogas]

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has released details on the planned increases in S Pass and Work Permit worker levy rates announced in the 2010 Budget on Monday.

The key changes are the introduction of new tiers and an adjustment of the rates every six months.

The construction sector will see the most changes.

Singapore currently has 1.05 million foreign workers. Of these, 856,000 are Work Permit holders — with 245,000 in the construction industry.

Between July this year and July 2012, the sector will see a 25 per cent reduction in man—year entitlements — meaning the number of foreign workers employed according to project value.

In addition, come 1 July 2011, the government will phase out the unskilled Work Permit holders category in the construction industry and reclassify the remaining ones as "basic skilled".

The ministry will also introduce a new tier for "higher skilled" workers who have relevant experience.

With these refinements, the levy for each "higher skilled" worker will be increased. Come 2012, it will be S$200 — up from S$160 in July this year. For those holding basic skills, it will be S$300 in 2012.

Andrew Khng, president of Singapore Contractors Association, said: "There will be an impact on business costs. But if it is progressively done, the impact will be marginal for the first few months. Then later, we will have to ... modify our work methods.

"We should be looking at more mechanisation and more innovative ways of construction, which I think now is a wake—up call for those contractors who have not been pursuing this because of too much work in the last few years.

"The association will help members to grow in tandem with our call to move towards mechanisation and also to upgrade the skills of the manpower or foreign workers in Singapore."

In manufacturing, the the basic tier will also increase from S$160 in July this year to S$200 in July 2012. For those in the second tier category, the levy will rise from S$180 this year to S$300 in 2012.

Stephen Lee, president of Singapore National Employers’ Federation, said: "They worry that although it is only S$10 per step ... the sheer number they employ is very large, so this will add to the costs.

"Then some companies are a bit at a loss as to how they can increase productivity. So there is a job here for the tripartite partners to work together and work at industry level, especially for those which don’t have in—house capability, to hold their hands to increase productivity."

The ministry said the levy changes will be gradual over the next three years to give businesses time to adjust, and there will be no changes to the levy for foreign domestic workers.

This time you guys are bashed by our Government!

 

[sodoMee]

Wait a min if a foreign worker pays the middleman 12k to get into the country employer gets a cut of 6k per worker what is 200-300 dollars to them?

 

[saratogas]

what is 200-300 dollars to them?

200 pieces of roti prata to eat.

 

[cheekenpie]

If higher skilled bangla becomes more expensive, wont there be an over flow of basic (bascially lousy) bangla?

 

[HeadBanger]

Wait a min if a foreign worker pays the middleman 12k to get into the country employer gets a cut of 6k per worker what is 200-300 dollars to them?

Cummon guys, still donno one of the ways our beloved government getting their cut from all this, among others .

 

[annexa]

Idiots! Employ a $2000 a month FT costs $2200 with the levy. Hire a sinkie at $2000 will cost how much after you add the CPF? $2600? If like this who is CHEAPER? If the salary is $3000, FT is $3200, but sinkie cost almost $4000 after CPF? And the male sinkie must serve 3 months NS resrvist include IPPT and RT!

 

[khunking]

Wait, not so fast. I think the unskilled mercenaries are going to be bumped up into the basic skilled category. Same crap, different format.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has released details on the planned increases in S Pass and Work Permit worker levy rates announced in the 2010 Budget on Monday.

 

[saratogas]

MM Lee said: "Foreign workers also built housing and infrastructure projects like public transport, schools and hospitals all over Singapore. "Without them, these projects could not have proceeded and our economy would slow down, to the detriment of Singaporeans."

Very truth even our MPs get to "work" because of Foreign Talents...even debate about them!

FOREIGN workers and their levies dominated the first day of the Budget debate in Parliament yesterday, with many Members of Parliament voicing concerns that the higher levies would affect business cost and competitiveness.

In their speeches, the MPs questioned the timing and scope of the increase in foreign- worker levies.

The first MP to comment on the Budget statement, Ms Jessica Tan (East Coast GRC), who chairs the Government Parliamentary Committee for Finance and Trade and Industry, said: "Although the rise in the levy is graduated over three years, there is concern expressed by some business leaders that this may impede the ability of companies to leverage upon and capture the opportunities of the recovery, as their capacity will be impacted."

And if the increase is not calibrated, it may "send the wrong signal to companies looking to invest in Singapore or to foreign talent that Singapore is not as open as it used to be", she said.

In this year's Budget, the implementation of a gradual rise in foreign-worker levies over three years was proposed.

The levy rates will go up by between $10 and $30 for most work-permit holders from July, with more adjustments to come next year and in 2012.

This will amount to an average increase of $100 in levies for workers in the manufacturing and service industries over the next three years.

From July, there will be two levy tiers for S Pass workers, versus the single rate of $50 currently.

The rates for the first and second tiers will be $100 and $120 from July, to reach $150 and $250, respectively, by 2012.

The levy increases are meant to push companies towards hiring fewer foreign workers and improving the productivity of all their workers and businesses.

But it will take companies and workers some time to innovate and achieve greater productivity, so companies in certain sectors will still have to depend on foreign labour for growth, MPs pointed out.

Nominated MP Teo Siong Seng, who is also the president of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry, said: "The one area we are not so comfortable with is the realisation that the foreign-worker levy would be used as a price mechanism to control the growth of the foreign workforce.

"While we can understand the rationale for wanting to stem the growth (in the numbers) of foreign workers, the levy hike could be quite damaging to growth in the medium and long run for some industries."

He pointed out that foreign workers do "back-breaking jobs that no Singaporeans would like to do".

He added: "We are concerned that if the levy hike causes a cutback in the employment of foreign workers, this would affect operations and growth if there are insufficient local workers to replace them, especially with our low birth rate.

"For those companies which need foreign workers, they have no choice but to pay the higher levy. That can only mean that operational costs will be increased and they have no choice but to increase the selling price of their goods and services."

This might ultimately result in a loss of customers and business opportunities to Singapore's competitors, he said.

Besides, businesses may not take the hike in foreign-worker levies in the right spirit. Instead of increasing productivity, some businesses may just pass on the increased cost to their customers or cut the salaries of their foreign workers, MP Liang Eng Hwa (Holland-Bukit Timah GRC) warned.

Lower salaries "may lead to quality foreign workers shying away from Singapore". "We may end up with the bottom rung of the foreign workforce," he said.

While MPs mostly called for a careful calibration and timing of the foreign-worker levy hike, Workers' Party chief Low Thia Khiang (Hougang) suggested that the Government should take the "bold step" of removing the "foreign-worker levy completely".

He criticised the use of the tiered levy system to manage the foreign-worker population as "too complicated".

He added: "It does not look like a system designed to control the growth of foreign workers, but as a source of revenue for the Government.

"The Government should just use the dependency ratio to control the growth of foreign workers in Singapore."

The ratio can be decided based on industry sectors and company size, to allow foreign workers to supplement local manpower when necessary, he said.

His suggestion drew a firm rebuttal from MP Josephine Teo (Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC), who is also the Assistant Secretary- General of the National Trades Union Congress.

She said: "How does Mr Low propose that the Government allocate the foreign-worker quota efficiently to businesses without a levy mechanism? Would it be right for civil servants to pretend to know all about market demand and supply?"

All Foreign workers (talented or not) should be grateful to our MPs. Or should our MPs be grateful to these FTs? Very confusing.

 

[fishbuff]

productivity? in sg? do we have manufacturing plants across the island that compete on prices? just how many factories are there in sg now?

pleeeeeasssee.... it is all but a farce. the govt use it as an excuse to expand its population.

i cant believe just how gullible singaporeans are..

 

[ccchia]

Productivity is low and declining in Sinkapore, because of all the unskilled and ignorant FTs that we have been importing thru the years. Remember several years ago when our productivity was quite high??

Also, as an example of poor productivity in the gahmen, note that we have 3 PMs and 4 ministers in the PMO to help our poor, unproductive Pinky Loong to do his job. This is compared to elsewhere in the world, where the PM is paid more than 8 times less and has only himself to do the PM role, single-handed (without needing Daddy, SM and several other million dollar ministers to help out).

 

[AhLim32]

Finally! I totally agree with the statement below!

"Most Singaporeans do not feel angry against low-skilled foreign workers... It is more aimed at those who come in as white collar workers and get the jobs that Singaporeans can do," he said."

We see cheap alot of cheap IT 'professionals' and business outsourcing crap people in Singapore... why are we importing these workers??? The argument Singaporeans do not want to do these jobs is crap... it's because these companies INSIST on bringing in foreigners - their fellow countrymen!

I was at Gleaneagles the other day... the payment processing counter staff were all - ALL - Indians... not local Tamils, but Indian nationals. Alot of the older Singaporeans who spoke dialect/mandarin or Malay could not understand them.

So why are we hiring these people? I'm sure most unemployed Singaporeans would leap at the chance for these jobs... and the job is NOT difficult, so we should be able to train locals to do these jobs.

I think if we outsource certain functions to overseas companies, we have to MAKE SURE they have a quota on the foreign workers they can bring in!

---------------------

Door narrows for foreign workers in Singapore

By Martin Abbugao (AFP) – 6 hours ago

SINGAPORE — Construction workers from Bangladesh, hotel staff from the Philippines, waitresses from China, shipyard welders from Myanmar, technology professionals from India -- Singapore has them all.

For years the rich but worker-starved city-state, built by mainly Chinese immigrants, had rolled out the welcome mat for foreigners, whose numbers rose drastically during the economic boom from 2004-2007.

But with one in three of the five million people living on the tiny island now a foreigner and citizens complaining about competition for jobs, housing and medical care, the government is taking a fresh look at its open-door policy

With the grumbling getting louder and general elections expected to be called before they are due in 2012, the government has unveiled measures to reduce reliance on foreigners and assure citizens they remain the priority.

"There are social and physical limits to how many more we can absorb," Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam told parliament in February.

He said the government will make it costlier for companies to hire foreigners by raising the levies they must pay for every non-Singaporean or non-resident they hire.

The government also earmarked 5.5 billion Singapore dollars (3.9 billion US) over the next five years to upgrade Singaporean workers' skills to boost their productivity, make them more competitive and raise incomes.

It imposed measures to cool down rising home prices, also blamed on foreigners buying into the property market, and pledged it will further tighten the process of accepting permanent residents and new citizens.

Of Singapore's population of nearly five million last year, 533,200 were permanent residents and 1.25 million were foreigners on employment passes, along with their families, official statistics show.

"I think it is shaping up to be one of the hottest issues in Singapore today," political commentator Seah Chiang Nee told AFP.

Economist Song Seng Wun of CIMB-GK Research said that apart from helping local companies rise up the value chain, the new measures will also address potential election issues.

Singapore's last elections, held in 2006, saw the ruling People's Action Party returned to power for six years, continuing its uninterrupted rule over the island since 1959.

"The government has to be seen doing something in areas that are potential flashpoints," Song said.

Disenchantment over foreign workers gained momentum during a severe economic slump that began in the third quarter of 2008, when trade-reliant Singapore became the first Asian economy to slip into recession.

Drastic job and salary cuts were implemented, affecting many white-collar workers.

In coffee shops, Internet forums, letters to newspapers and sessions with members of parliament, citizens became more vocal about the rapidly growing numbers of foreigners in their ranks.

The most common complaint is that Singaporeans are losing jobs to foreigners who are willing to accept much lower salaries.

"Foreigners are a damn pain in the butt. I seriously wonder if they are here to work or just snatch jobs from our locals," said one posting on the popular online forum sammyboy.com.

"The country is fast becoming an unfamiliar place to many Singaporeans. The sense of national pride is disappearing by the day," said a posting by Nur Muhammad on The Online Citizen.

Seah, who runs the political website www.littlespeck.com, said much of the resentment comes from Singaporeans who have to compete directly with foreign engineers, accountants, hotel managers and IT professionals.

"Most Singaporeans do not feel angry against low-skilled foreign workers... It is more aimed at those who come in as white collar workers and get the jobs that Singaporeans can do," he said.

Citizens have also complained about having to share space in crowded trains with a large number of foreigners, or compete with them for places in government schools and public housing.

Foreign labourers are accused of loitering, spitting in public and leaving litter behind. Another sore point for locals is dealing with waitresses and sales people who can hardly understand English.

Some employers have argued they do not hire Singaporeans for certain jobs because locals are choosy and often lack the natural social and communication skills in service professions like manning hotel front desks.

In some ways, Singapore is a victim of its own success.

A campaign in the 1970s for families to have only two children was so effective that the country is now well below the 60,000 babies needed per year just to naturally replace the resident population.

Efforts to reverse the trend have failed as increasingly affluent couples marry at a later age and opt for just one child or none at all.

Officials, economists and business executives admit that with Singaporeans procreating less, the country will need foreign workers in the long term, while making sure citizens' interests are addressed.

Singapore's founding leader Lee Kuan Yew, who advises the cabinet of his son Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said in January that "we've grown in the last five years by just importing labour."

"Now, the people feel uncomfortable, there are too many foreigners," Lee said.

"The answer is simple: We check the flow of foreigners, raise your productivity, do the job better, so that instead of two workers, eventually you'll do it with one worker, like the Japanese do."

 

[Baroko]

I am truly flabbergasted that a first world country with mega salary Ministers are now fire fighting the problem. Haven't someone thought of and forseen the repercussions of opening the flood gates to foreign workers? Or are the rulers attending Le Cordon Bleu Culinary courses in France?

 

[Watchman]