Speaking to reporters, labour chief Lim Swee Say pointed out the idea of equal pay for the same job, will cause a lot of discrepancies, unhappiness and unfairness.
The labour movement called for a news conference to address various issues concerning migrant workers which surfaced after the SMRT bus drivers saga.
One of them is about wages.
The bus drivers from China were unhappy about being paid different wages compared to those of other nationalities.
Mr Lee said: "From the Singaporean workers point of view, we work in Singapore, we earn salary in Singapore, but at the same time their families also live in Singapore. So as a result they have to bear the cost of living in Singapore.
"Whereas for foreign workers, a bulk of their income is actually sent back to their home countries to support their families and of course, the cost of living in their home countries is very different from that in Singapore."
"Therefore, the labour movement, the unions have expressed a lot of concern. We are highly uncomfortable with this idea of same job, equal pay, because we feel that this will disadvantage our local workers and their families."
Instead, Mr Lim said that fair and reasonable wages is the way to go, and went on to explain the wage disparity.
Mr Lim said: "Firstly, foreign workers working in Singapore, some are on longer-term employment, some are on short-term contract. Malaysian workers, for example, are a traditional source of supply.
"Many of the Malaysian workers when they work in Singapore, even for those on work permit scheme. In fact many of them do renew their work permit time after time, and over time, settle down to become PRs in Singapore.
"Therefore, over the years, they are able to accumulate their expertise, their experience and thereby able to add more value to the businesses, and therefore, they are treated differently from the non-traditional sources."
Mr Lim added that among the workers from non-traditional sources, the market recognises workers from different countries also have different strengths and weaknesses.
Competition for foreign workers exist not only in Singapore across companies also between Singapore and other regional countries.
Foreign workers have a choice of whether to work in Singapore or elsewhere.
The labour movement called for a news conference to address various issues concerning migrant workers which surfaced after the SMRT bus drivers saga.
One of them is about wages.
The bus drivers from China were unhappy about being paid different wages compared to those of other nationalities.
Mr Lee said: "From the Singaporean workers point of view, we work in Singapore, we earn salary in Singapore, but at the same time their families also live in Singapore. So as a result they have to bear the cost of living in Singapore.
"Whereas for foreign workers, a bulk of their income is actually sent back to their home countries to support their families and of course, the cost of living in their home countries is very different from that in Singapore."
"Therefore, the labour movement, the unions have expressed a lot of concern. We are highly uncomfortable with this idea of same job, equal pay, because we feel that this will disadvantage our local workers and their families."
Instead, Mr Lim said that fair and reasonable wages is the way to go, and went on to explain the wage disparity.
Mr Lim said: "Firstly, foreign workers working in Singapore, some are on longer-term employment, some are on short-term contract. Malaysian workers, for example, are a traditional source of supply.
"Many of the Malaysian workers when they work in Singapore, even for those on work permit scheme. In fact many of them do renew their work permit time after time, and over time, settle down to become PRs in Singapore.
"Therefore, over the years, they are able to accumulate their expertise, their experience and thereby able to add more value to the businesses, and therefore, they are treated differently from the non-traditional sources."
Mr Lim added that among the workers from non-traditional sources, the market recognises workers from different countries also have different strengths and weaknesses.
Competition for foreign workers exist not only in Singapore across companies also between Singapore and other regional countries.
Foreign workers have a choice of whether to work in Singapore or elsewhere.
