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By SIOW LI SEN
SENIOR CORRESPONDENT
Business Times - 29 Jan 2011
AS BT readers mull over their annual promotion and pay increment letters, many will be smiling because their employers are rewarding staff in line with the fastest growth Singapore that has ever enjoyed.
Spare a thought then for the least protected group in our community: the lowly paid foreign workers - the domestic workers, the construction workers and cleaners. They are more than likely not going to get any bonuses nor pay increments for their backbreaking, dirty and sometimes dangerous jobs.
Recently, there was a report of a raid on a workers' illegal living quarters. There have also been stories covering the proposed hike in salaries for Indonesian domestic workers.
According to the report, workers were seen cooking in makeshift kitchens overrun with cockroaches. On every floor of the building, workers could be seen setting up their 'beds' - cardboard boxes or rattan mats lined up in the corridors.
Stairwells were filled with racks of drying clothes, blocking off fire exits. Some workers slept on carpets on sawdust-covered floors, others in storerooms under staircases. Those who were luckier got to sleep in storerooms slightly bigger than the toilet of an HDB flat, which they had to share with another room-mate, sometimes two.
'If we house the workers in Jurong dormitories, it takes them one hour in the morning to reach Bedok,' a supervisor was quoted in the report, adding that 'staying here gives them one extra hour to sleep'.
It's time that Singapore take a leaf from what China has suggested for the bosses of companies who treat their workers like slaves: after raiding an illegal site, the authorities should get the boss and his family to spend a night there.
Better still, to root out such pernicious leanings from our DNA, get our school children to spend a few hours in the illegal living quarters of foreign workers as part of their community awareness programme. Each child will surely be shocked to learn of such cruelty in our midst, all in the name of Mammon.
Even as we plan how to spend our bonuses, reports that 17 employment agencies will increase the salaries of Indonesian maids from $380 a month to $450 - hardly a princely sum - to solve the shortage crunch, saw numerous complaints.
Those against it gave some of the following reasons: Will the quality of the maids improve? And won't this encourage the current group on lower pay to quit so that they can move to another employer for the new salary?
When we receive higher bonuses and increments, I can just hear the howls of protest if an employer dares to utter a word that better quality is expected from us. While it is common to think that we deserve every cent paid to us and more, it is also a fact of life that a pay hike is determined by several factors but seldom due to an improvement in productivity alone.
And don't we usually look with admiration when a colleague, relative or friend moves for higher pay. This, in fact, is the Singapore way.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/mnt...dlink=/sub/views/story/0,4574,423962,00.html?
SENIOR CORRESPONDENT
Business Times - 29 Jan 2011
AS BT readers mull over their annual promotion and pay increment letters, many will be smiling because their employers are rewarding staff in line with the fastest growth Singapore that has ever enjoyed.
Spare a thought then for the least protected group in our community: the lowly paid foreign workers - the domestic workers, the construction workers and cleaners. They are more than likely not going to get any bonuses nor pay increments for their backbreaking, dirty and sometimes dangerous jobs.
Recently, there was a report of a raid on a workers' illegal living quarters. There have also been stories covering the proposed hike in salaries for Indonesian domestic workers.
According to the report, workers were seen cooking in makeshift kitchens overrun with cockroaches. On every floor of the building, workers could be seen setting up their 'beds' - cardboard boxes or rattan mats lined up in the corridors.
Stairwells were filled with racks of drying clothes, blocking off fire exits. Some workers slept on carpets on sawdust-covered floors, others in storerooms under staircases. Those who were luckier got to sleep in storerooms slightly bigger than the toilet of an HDB flat, which they had to share with another room-mate, sometimes two.
'If we house the workers in Jurong dormitories, it takes them one hour in the morning to reach Bedok,' a supervisor was quoted in the report, adding that 'staying here gives them one extra hour to sleep'.
It's time that Singapore take a leaf from what China has suggested for the bosses of companies who treat their workers like slaves: after raiding an illegal site, the authorities should get the boss and his family to spend a night there.
Better still, to root out such pernicious leanings from our DNA, get our school children to spend a few hours in the illegal living quarters of foreign workers as part of their community awareness programme. Each child will surely be shocked to learn of such cruelty in our midst, all in the name of Mammon.
Even as we plan how to spend our bonuses, reports that 17 employment agencies will increase the salaries of Indonesian maids from $380 a month to $450 - hardly a princely sum - to solve the shortage crunch, saw numerous complaints.
Those against it gave some of the following reasons: Will the quality of the maids improve? And won't this encourage the current group on lower pay to quit so that they can move to another employer for the new salary?
When we receive higher bonuses and increments, I can just hear the howls of protest if an employer dares to utter a word that better quality is expected from us. While it is common to think that we deserve every cent paid to us and more, it is also a fact of life that a pay hike is determined by several factors but seldom due to an improvement in productivity alone.
And don't we usually look with admiration when a colleague, relative or friend moves for higher pay. This, in fact, is the Singapore way.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/mnt...dlink=/sub/views/story/0,4574,423962,00.html?
