Re: Association of Small and Medium Enterprises hits out at Workers' Party population
How did the Govt allow SMEs to depend on cheap labour for so long? These guys are lost and have no idea what to do.
Hi Scroobal,
It's not just SMEs. It goes deeper than that.
Bear with me while I write about how I think this whole problem started.
Back in the late 70s and early 80s, the Singapore government was encouraging people to be more productive. They encouraged women to join the workforce. One stumbling block was that families needed time to cook dinner, mop the floors, wash the toilets, wash the clothes, fold them, iron them etc etc.
The solution to this was to introduce a foreign domestic maid policy. For a relatively small sum (as compared to what one would earn in a paying job), families could hire a maid to take care of all the household chores for them 24/7. Singaporeans started hiring maids and saw the benefits. This was perhaps an early introduction for Singaporeans to the benefits of cheap foreign labor.
This had its intended effect. Mrs Lim would hire a maid, and be able to work longer hours. She would stay till 8pm and finish up before going home. That impressed the manager and she got promoted. Mrs Tan who did not have a maid, often complained to her manager that she had to go home to cook dinner for the family and could not stay late. The manager frowned and told Mrs Tan that she should follow Mrs Lim's example and get a maid to do all that for her. And so it became almost a standard that every worker had a maid at home and would stay late at work. Meetings could be held at 6pm with no worries. Soon the standard work hours became later and later. After all no one had any excuse to go home early.
As time went on, people started to say that they needed the maid in order to work. That's because the standard work hours were now later and later. So hiring a maid wasn't about increasing productivity but rather keeping their jobs. Also socially it became "embarrassing" to be seen washing their own toilets at home. After all "everyone had a maid".
So what was the rationale behind this foreign maid policy? Hire a cheap foreigner to do work that you did not value and could leverage on to spend more time working or have more leisure time etc. It sounds perfectly logical and sensible doesn't it? And because the government has policies to keep these cheap labor open to everyone, it is something that one should take advantage of.
Now move forward a couple of years. SMEs are typically started by local individuals. Some of these individuals could very well have looked at the maids they have at home and say, why can't they apply the same principles to their businesses? They too, might need a janitor to clean their store. Instead of hiring a local cleaner, why not get a "maid"? And then it starts creeping to just about every position out there. Cheaper workers, lower costs, more profits.
And guess what.....the government supported this as well. Because for every few cheap foreigners recruited, the company could hire a Singaporean who is paid better wages. Jobs are created overall. Prices are also kept under control eg plumbing services, electricians, garbage disposal etc. Customers were also happy. A win-win situation overall.
Now I am not going to go into whether it is right or wrong to have this foreign worker policy. The debate has gone on ad nauseum.
What I will say is that, 1 in 7 households in Singapore have a foreign worker in their home and enjoy the benefits. There is a lot of focus on SMEs, the PAP, the government etc. But really, many households have the same issue in their very homes. Are they all clamoring to get rid of their foreign workers at home?
There have been various articles written about foreign workers and all kinds of suggestions and justifications for why it has to be changed:
http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2013/02/rules-managers-turn-immigrants/
The title of this article could easily have read: "Why the rules makes families turn to maids". Same principles involved.
Micro level: family hires maid, to take care of menial household tasks, frees up time for work which pays more, time for leisure, planning for future, pro-creation etc etc.
Macro level: businesses hire low wage cheap workers, takes care of simple low skill work, frees up budget for advertising, marketing, branding, product development, increases profits, plan for business expansion, etc etc.
http://www.mrbrown.com/blog/2013/02/the-joys-of-diy.html
Even Mr Brown himself would readily rely on cheap foreign labor than to do DIY. IKEAs in North America mostly have their customers assemble their own. Few engage the assembly services. Whereas in Singapore it is the other way around. Why is it companies like Home Depot are huge in North America? Because labor is expensive. There is a minimum wage. People would rather DIY than pay those rates if they could avoid it. In Singapore, hiring a plumber, an electrician would not set you back as much as it would in North America. Why? Because of cheap foreign labor. Are Singaporeans ready to do more DIY or pay more for such tradesman services?
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/singaporescene/land-people-fit-singapore-economy-025020996.html
There is this paragraph in this article that reads "Employers could increase output more readily and cheaply by recruiting foreign workers, particularly from lower-income countries, than by investing in capital-labour substitution and upgrading the skills of the domestic labour force. This was and is an entirely rational decision for profit-maximising private enterprises."
I just need to substitute a few words and 1 in 7 households would understand what the SMEs are saying - "Employers could increase their work output more readily and cheaply by recruiting maids, particularly from lower-income countries, than by investing in capital-labour substitution and upgrading their housekeeping equipment. This was and is an entirely rational decision for having maids in every household."
I have noticed that everywhere there is debate on low wage workers and all that, whenever you mention the issue of cheap labor in Foreign Domestic Workers, the debate then goes silent. I have shared this with friends and when they mention the same in other discussion threads they too have noticed it then goes silent.
The day that I believe Singaporeans will accept minimum wage laws, increase the wages of local tradespeople and rely less on cheap foreign workers is when most households no longer have foreign domestic maids, and are either doing their own housework (DIY) or hiring cleaning services (support local businesses).
Otherwise, it is very easy to criticize others eg SMEs but when it comes to making those sacrifices and difficult decisions at home, no one seems to say a word about it.
