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<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgbfr1 width="1%"></TD><TD><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead vAlign=top><TD class=msgF width="1%" noWrap align=right>From: </TD><TD class=msgFname width="68%" noWrap>kojakbt89 <NOBR></NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate width="30%" noWrap align=right>1:19 am </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT height=20 width="1%" noWrap align=right>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname width="68%" noWrap>ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft rowSpan=4 width="1%"> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>42370.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt>Filipinos in Singapore Part 2: The Brain Drain Turns into a Flood
http://bobbygalvez.multiply.com/journal/item/10
The most surprising change in the landscape of the OFWs in is the change in the composition of the OFWs themselves. About 20 years ago, most of the OFWs in worked as domestic helpers and members of entertainment show bands. Hardly was there a hotel that did not boast of a Filipino band performing every night. Whenever I conducted training workshops in the city state, the Filipino show bands were my only company during those lonely nights.
Every time I go back to during those years, I would find myself seated in the plane beside a Filipino domestic helper, most of the time nearly in tears. One of them told me her story of how in six months in , she was never allowed by her boss to go out of the HDB flat and was fed simply with leftover noodles. After contrac TB due to the poor working conditions, she was at last allowed to go home. The tales of misery very often accompanied the DH coming home from . The decision of the Philippine government to temporarily ban the sending of DH to due to this widespread maltreatment prompted the government to take firmer action against abusive bosses. The treatment of domestic helpers had improved a lot since then and the export of domestic helpers was resumed.
I think that the improvement in the treatment of domestic helpers is also due to the change in demographics. Twenty years back, there was only one university in the city state, the NUS. NTU opened only in 1991 while SMU opened only in 2000. Many managers in companies and small business entrepreneurs did not need university degrees to attain their positions of wealth. Even manufacturing supervisors could afford annual vacations in . Thus, you find a lot of nouveau riche now being able to afford their own domestic helpers. There were some Filipino elementary school teachers turned domestic helpers who were even more educated than their bosses. Having maids for the first time, I guess that friction was inevitable due to the clash not only in culture but also expectations. One could recall that the government launched a Courtesy Campaign among its citizens due to their famed rudeness. Initiated by the tourism board to improve the way Singaporeans deal with tourists, former PM Lee Kuan Yew thought that Singaporeans should also be considerate to each other and thoughtful of each other's needs. It is now called the Singapore Kindness Movement. Since then, more universities were allowed to be established and colleges proliferated in the country. Civility crept in. The kindness is now extended to the domestic helpers also.
At present, Indonesian domestic helpers have overtaken the number of Filipino DH. The Indonesian DH gets about S$220-250 per month while the Filipino DH is paid S$300-350 per month. The pay difference is primarily because the Filipino DH speaks better English. Sri Lankan maids cost S$200-240 a month. I think that there will be less and less Filipino maids recruited to because of the new minimum wage of US$400 (Sing$580) for domestic helpers imposed by the Philippine government. No Singaporean will pay S$580 for a Filipino maid without experience and I think that very, very few Filipino domestic helpers will work in for only P9,000. That is already the minimum wage in .
There were also several Filipinos serving in various managerial positions during those times, especially in those multinational corporations that had their regional headquarters based in the city. They were in various industries: hotel, pharmaceutical, consul, architectural, semiconductors, etc
More than 10 years ago, Filipino IT professionals started coming in waves. They would come in as tourists, scan the local newspapers for job openings, and purchase cell phone sim cards at the airports. The new cell phone numbers are immediately placed in their ready resumes and serve as their primary means of contact with their potential employers. They stay in the city for a week, pay only S$100 each as a bed spacer for a one-week stay in an HDB room that accommodates four people. Their presence in the city allows them to get interviewed immediately by the potential employers, thus bypassing the need for headhunters and manpower agencies that they have to pay a one-month’s pay of at least S$1,800. After a few days’ stay, they get newly minted jobs. The practice continues up to the present.
But increasingly, it is now the recruitment companies that come in droves to . They interview hundreds of software engineers, and recruit several dozens. The new hires immediately get their contracts and flight tickets. This has prompted the Philippines-based software companies to complain about the suddenly vanishing employees. The massive departure is not difficult to comprehend, considering that those IT professionals easily get three to four times their pay in the . A recent survey indicated that Filipino IT professionals are among the lowest paid in the world, ahead only of the Vietnamese and Bulgarians. Instead of complaining, the Philippines-based software companies should simply wake up and offer more competitive pay. Philippines-based companies need to act fast as they are losing not only many bright people but also the very young. Many of the IT professionals who move to have age ranges from 26-30 years old.
Aside from IT professionals, engineers and health professionals also form the bulk of the OFWs in . The Filipino telecom engineers that I bump into nowadays seem to have worked everywhere from to . It is also estimated that more than half of the 2,000 foreign nurses working in are Filipinos. There is also preponderance in the communication industry: writers, photographers, magazine editors, graphic artists, cartoon illustrators, etc. Currently, you will find Filipinos in almost any industry in , from entertainment to manufacturing.
But the most disturbing trend in the OFW profile in is the recruitment of young Filipino professionals to work as sales ladies in department stores. This is disturbing because these young professionals already have promising careers in the given their background and yet they opt to leave.
Let’s take for example the two sales girls I met at a Lacoste store. One is a Mass Communications graduate of FEU. She has been working in the city for about three months. She is about 24 years old and was already a Team Leader in one of the call centers in when she left. She must have been receiving about P25-30k a month. Let us call her Leah, not her real name.
The other girl is about 26. She is a microbiology graduate from the University of the in Los Baños. She has already worked as an instructor in a university. As an instructor, she gets much less than P20k. Let us call her Anna, again not her real name.
In , Leah gets the minimum wage for an S-Pass holder which is Sing$1,800 a month, or about P54k monthly. S-Pass holders need to have a diploma or the required technical qualification. During her first six months, the placement agency collects S$300 every month as placement fee, equal to a one month’s pay. Leah shares a room in an HDB flat, contribu S$250 a month to the S$500 a month room rent. This is almost the same amount she has to pay if she is boarding a room in . She pays a mere 7.55% in taxes or only about S$136 or P4,080 monthly. Compare this to 25% of her pay or P7,666 of her P30,000 monthly income as a Team Leader in a call center. She could budget S$300 more for food, transportation, EZ link card, and basic needs. From the above, it is clear that Leah would have a lot more extra money to save and send back home by working in than if she stayed in .
Anna, who is now a Shift Head after working for two years, earns a bit more. It is an amount that she could never earn if she continued working forever as a college instructor. You go to Zara, Bata, and the Italian-named stores in and you find more Leahs and Annas. Many of them have been here for only about 3-6 months.
I would have felt OK if Leah had been working in an Ad Agency and Anna in a research laboratory in . At least, they are applying the skills that they have learned in college and furthering their careers. But to see sales girl positions becoming attractive to specially-trained university graduates from the is highly lamentable and distressful.
It is understandable why can not find enough locals to fill the job of department store clerks and sales girls. Most of the Singaporeans now have more than enough opportunity to get a college degree and find office-based jobs that offer higher pay. Thus, there are not enough young people to woman the ritzy stores. One would notice that even McDonalds in employ senior citizens to work its counters. This is the testament to the acute lack of competent labor to fill-up the less glamorous jobs in the city. Add to this the fact that the Filipina salesperson does not need the Courtesy Campaign to know the need to be pleasant to customers.
Before, we have seen the mass exodus of engineers and technicians to the . This was followed by the disappearance of doctors and nurses from hospitals and IT professionals in many companies. But the phenomenon of recrui Filipino professionals for sales positions in department stores for a minimum wage of P54,000 monthly will practically throw wide open the door and windows to a flood of young Filipinas trooping to the city state. This phenomenon will empty every cubicle in and Ortigas offices occupied by a young blood, whether they are graduates of psychology, commerce, history, or interior design. Some of these university graduates might not even cool their heels by working a few years in local companies. They would troop to the city state as soon as they get their diplomas from their respective universities. As this continues, we will now see a brain drain never seen before in the . You would have officemates engaged in a game called “Now you see me, now you don’t.” Employees will perhaps be asked to submit a daily report so that if they don’t turn up the following day, their replacements will know where they left off.
I am convinced that Leah and Anna would soon find more attractive opportunities in the city, more suited to their background. They will get the minimum of S$2,500 (P75,000) for a Q1 Pass Holder. They would be immediately replaced by Filipinas who come in as tourists but armed with university degrees. I am afraid, however, about how fast the Philippine companies can adjust to this new phenomenon. Many department stores along are now under renovation. Once they are finished, they would require hundreds of salespeople. The tide will turn into a flood. The brain drain becomes a deluge. I hope that time is on our side.
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http://bobbygalvez.multiply.com/journal/item/10
The most surprising change in the landscape of the OFWs in is the change in the composition of the OFWs themselves. About 20 years ago, most of the OFWs in worked as domestic helpers and members of entertainment show bands. Hardly was there a hotel that did not boast of a Filipino band performing every night. Whenever I conducted training workshops in the city state, the Filipino show bands were my only company during those lonely nights.
Every time I go back to during those years, I would find myself seated in the plane beside a Filipino domestic helper, most of the time nearly in tears. One of them told me her story of how in six months in , she was never allowed by her boss to go out of the HDB flat and was fed simply with leftover noodles. After contrac TB due to the poor working conditions, she was at last allowed to go home. The tales of misery very often accompanied the DH coming home from . The decision of the Philippine government to temporarily ban the sending of DH to due to this widespread maltreatment prompted the government to take firmer action against abusive bosses. The treatment of domestic helpers had improved a lot since then and the export of domestic helpers was resumed.
I think that the improvement in the treatment of domestic helpers is also due to the change in demographics. Twenty years back, there was only one university in the city state, the NUS. NTU opened only in 1991 while SMU opened only in 2000. Many managers in companies and small business entrepreneurs did not need university degrees to attain their positions of wealth. Even manufacturing supervisors could afford annual vacations in . Thus, you find a lot of nouveau riche now being able to afford their own domestic helpers. There were some Filipino elementary school teachers turned domestic helpers who were even more educated than their bosses. Having maids for the first time, I guess that friction was inevitable due to the clash not only in culture but also expectations. One could recall that the government launched a Courtesy Campaign among its citizens due to their famed rudeness. Initiated by the tourism board to improve the way Singaporeans deal with tourists, former PM Lee Kuan Yew thought that Singaporeans should also be considerate to each other and thoughtful of each other's needs. It is now called the Singapore Kindness Movement. Since then, more universities were allowed to be established and colleges proliferated in the country. Civility crept in. The kindness is now extended to the domestic helpers also.
At present, Indonesian domestic helpers have overtaken the number of Filipino DH. The Indonesian DH gets about S$220-250 per month while the Filipino DH is paid S$300-350 per month. The pay difference is primarily because the Filipino DH speaks better English. Sri Lankan maids cost S$200-240 a month. I think that there will be less and less Filipino maids recruited to because of the new minimum wage of US$400 (Sing$580) for domestic helpers imposed by the Philippine government. No Singaporean will pay S$580 for a Filipino maid without experience and I think that very, very few Filipino domestic helpers will work in for only P9,000. That is already the minimum wage in .
There were also several Filipinos serving in various managerial positions during those times, especially in those multinational corporations that had their regional headquarters based in the city. They were in various industries: hotel, pharmaceutical, consul, architectural, semiconductors, etc
More than 10 years ago, Filipino IT professionals started coming in waves. They would come in as tourists, scan the local newspapers for job openings, and purchase cell phone sim cards at the airports. The new cell phone numbers are immediately placed in their ready resumes and serve as their primary means of contact with their potential employers. They stay in the city for a week, pay only S$100 each as a bed spacer for a one-week stay in an HDB room that accommodates four people. Their presence in the city allows them to get interviewed immediately by the potential employers, thus bypassing the need for headhunters and manpower agencies that they have to pay a one-month’s pay of at least S$1,800. After a few days’ stay, they get newly minted jobs. The practice continues up to the present.
But increasingly, it is now the recruitment companies that come in droves to . They interview hundreds of software engineers, and recruit several dozens. The new hires immediately get their contracts and flight tickets. This has prompted the Philippines-based software companies to complain about the suddenly vanishing employees. The massive departure is not difficult to comprehend, considering that those IT professionals easily get three to four times their pay in the . A recent survey indicated that Filipino IT professionals are among the lowest paid in the world, ahead only of the Vietnamese and Bulgarians. Instead of complaining, the Philippines-based software companies should simply wake up and offer more competitive pay. Philippines-based companies need to act fast as they are losing not only many bright people but also the very young. Many of the IT professionals who move to have age ranges from 26-30 years old.
Aside from IT professionals, engineers and health professionals also form the bulk of the OFWs in . The Filipino telecom engineers that I bump into nowadays seem to have worked everywhere from to . It is also estimated that more than half of the 2,000 foreign nurses working in are Filipinos. There is also preponderance in the communication industry: writers, photographers, magazine editors, graphic artists, cartoon illustrators, etc. Currently, you will find Filipinos in almost any industry in , from entertainment to manufacturing.
But the most disturbing trend in the OFW profile in is the recruitment of young Filipino professionals to work as sales ladies in department stores. This is disturbing because these young professionals already have promising careers in the given their background and yet they opt to leave.
Let’s take for example the two sales girls I met at a Lacoste store. One is a Mass Communications graduate of FEU. She has been working in the city for about three months. She is about 24 years old and was already a Team Leader in one of the call centers in when she left. She must have been receiving about P25-30k a month. Let us call her Leah, not her real name.
The other girl is about 26. She is a microbiology graduate from the University of the in Los Baños. She has already worked as an instructor in a university. As an instructor, she gets much less than P20k. Let us call her Anna, again not her real name.
In , Leah gets the minimum wage for an S-Pass holder which is Sing$1,800 a month, or about P54k monthly. S-Pass holders need to have a diploma or the required technical qualification. During her first six months, the placement agency collects S$300 every month as placement fee, equal to a one month’s pay. Leah shares a room in an HDB flat, contribu S$250 a month to the S$500 a month room rent. This is almost the same amount she has to pay if she is boarding a room in . She pays a mere 7.55% in taxes or only about S$136 or P4,080 monthly. Compare this to 25% of her pay or P7,666 of her P30,000 monthly income as a Team Leader in a call center. She could budget S$300 more for food, transportation, EZ link card, and basic needs. From the above, it is clear that Leah would have a lot more extra money to save and send back home by working in than if she stayed in .
Anna, who is now a Shift Head after working for two years, earns a bit more. It is an amount that she could never earn if she continued working forever as a college instructor. You go to Zara, Bata, and the Italian-named stores in and you find more Leahs and Annas. Many of them have been here for only about 3-6 months.
I would have felt OK if Leah had been working in an Ad Agency and Anna in a research laboratory in . At least, they are applying the skills that they have learned in college and furthering their careers. But to see sales girl positions becoming attractive to specially-trained university graduates from the is highly lamentable and distressful.
It is understandable why can not find enough locals to fill the job of department store clerks and sales girls. Most of the Singaporeans now have more than enough opportunity to get a college degree and find office-based jobs that offer higher pay. Thus, there are not enough young people to woman the ritzy stores. One would notice that even McDonalds in employ senior citizens to work its counters. This is the testament to the acute lack of competent labor to fill-up the less glamorous jobs in the city. Add to this the fact that the Filipina salesperson does not need the Courtesy Campaign to know the need to be pleasant to customers.
Before, we have seen the mass exodus of engineers and technicians to the . This was followed by the disappearance of doctors and nurses from hospitals and IT professionals in many companies. But the phenomenon of recrui Filipino professionals for sales positions in department stores for a minimum wage of P54,000 monthly will practically throw wide open the door and windows to a flood of young Filipinas trooping to the city state. This phenomenon will empty every cubicle in and Ortigas offices occupied by a young blood, whether they are graduates of psychology, commerce, history, or interior design. Some of these university graduates might not even cool their heels by working a few years in local companies. They would troop to the city state as soon as they get their diplomas from their respective universities. As this continues, we will now see a brain drain never seen before in the . You would have officemates engaged in a game called “Now you see me, now you don’t.” Employees will perhaps be asked to submit a daily report so that if they don’t turn up the following day, their replacements will know where they left off.
I am convinced that Leah and Anna would soon find more attractive opportunities in the city, more suited to their background. They will get the minimum of S$2,500 (P75,000) for a Q1 Pass Holder. They would be immediately replaced by Filipinas who come in as tourists but armed with university degrees. I am afraid, however, about how fast the Philippine companies can adjust to this new phenomenon. Many department stores along are now under renovation. Once they are finished, they would require hundreds of salespeople. The tide will turn into a flood. The brain drain becomes a deluge. I hope that time is on our side.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
