Dismayed at a Straits Times’ reader’s deprecating attitude towards Singaporeans and the rules that are meant to protect them

March 2, 2009 by admin
Filed under: Coffeeshop Talk 

Written by Ng E-Jay
02 March 2009

I am dismayed at Straits Times’ forum contributor Mr Francis Han’s deprecating attitude towards Singaporeans and the rules that are meant to protect their interests.

In his letter entitled “Why bosses use phantom workers” published on 01 March 2009, Mr Han gave his opinions concerning the scam carried out by some unscrupulous employers in which they secretly inflate their quota of foreign workers by putting “phantom” Singaporean workers, mostly retirees, on their payrolls.

Far from condemning such insidious acts which abuse the foreign worker quota system and allow an unnecessarily large number of unskilled foreign labour to enter our shores to displace Singaporeans who are genuinely looking to make a living, Mr Francis Han says that “this so-called scam to get around a quota system for hiring cheaper foreign labour is not a case of fraud, but a win-win situation, as they help some older folk here by contributing to their CPF, as well as gain reliable workers“.

Mr Han makes absolutely no qualms about putting down the Singaporean worker, for he also says that despite various costs incurred by employers hiring foreign workers such as the foreign worker levy or the cost of accommodation, “employers may still prefer to hire foreign workers as they are deemed more reliable than locals“.

I couldn’t make this up even if I wanted to.

Mr Francis Han is advocating that employers pay lip service to rules and regulations if they can benefit materially from doing so, and he displays his complete contempt for local workers by saying that such practices are justifiable because foreigners are more reliable than locals.

This is blatant insensitivity towards Singaporeans who are struggling to make a living and who find themselves competing against a horde of unskilled foreign labour due to an inability of the authorities to properly enforce existing regulation.

And to even raise the notion that rules can be bent if there are selfish benefits to be obtained is also blatant disregard for the rules meant to safeguard the interests of Singapore citizens.

We do not need forum writers to tell us why employers use phantom workers. What we want is to see this practice stopped once and for all so that Singapore citizens have a fair chance of competing for jobs in their own motherland.

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Comments

12 Comments on Dismayed at a Straits Times’ reader’s deprecating attitude towards Singaporeans and the rules that are meant to protect them

  1. Alan Wong on Mon, 2nd Mar 2009 11:53 am

    2. The use of phantom workers is widespread and is not only limited to the small players. For one, I know that all the big players in the construction industry including those with A1 & A2 licences are fully aware of this loophole. I presume that the Govt and especially the MOM are fully aware of this abuse and it appears to me that they just prefer to keep one eye close and the other eye half opened as it would not be to the Govt’s interests to really take action as this would escalate costs further and the implications can be widespread as many industries would be affected. I’m sure it would be the last thing for the Govt to take action as many GLC’s are also involved.

    The issue of phantom workers

  2. The Singapore Daily » Blog Archive » Daily SG: 2 March 2009 on Mon, 2nd Mar 2009 11:55 am

    3. [...] Strangers in a Strange Land – Chemical Generation Singapore: The Migrant Workers’ Fuse is Lit – Sgpolitics.net: Dismayed at a Straits Times’ reader’s deprecating attitude towards Singaporeans and the rule of … [...]

  3. Iklan Mudah Blog » Blog Archive » Daily SG: 2 March 2009 on Mon, 2nd Mar 2009 12:18 pm

    4. [...] Strangers in a Strange Land – Chemical Generation Singapore: The Migrant Workers’ Fuse is Lit – Sgpolitics.net: Dismayed at a Straits Times’ reader’s deprecating attitude towards Singaporeans and the rule of … [...]

  4. Alan Wong on Mon, 2nd Mar 2009 12:27 pm

    5. Continue…

    How I know, one would ask ?

    Well under MOM’s regulations, all construction companies are required to provide adequate welfare to protect their workers for accommodation, insurance, airline tickets and they need projects to be awarded in order that they can get their quota to apply for foreign workers. But how to win projects if their costs is high as it would not be cheap and resourceful for construction companies to maintain their foreign workers on their own.

    So enter the middlemen companies who are tasked with bringing the workers whether skilled or unskilled. So what is done is that the big players who has won bids will sell their surplus of their quota to these middlemen companies for big sums of monies (the monies may end up in somebody’s pockets) to allow them to bring in the workers. These workers are in turn supplied to the highest bidder who needs these workers desperately under the guise of dummy sub-contracts.

    This will explain why one foreign construction worker applied under the name of a Major Construction Company A may be injured in the construction project of another Major Construction Company B even though there is no link between A and B. And when it comes to these foreign workers getting injured in work accidents, these Major Construction Company will cooperate and will even forge dummy contracts to protect their own interests as some of these insurance claims can be massive.

    So at the end of it, all these has surfaced as a result of the Govt’s over-regulation and control for foreign workers without weighing the pros and cons of it. More like it, it appears to me that the Govt is more interested in the levies that they stand to collect but not the ensuing problems that it may bring to the industry players. We should not blame these errant bosses for finding ways and means to beat the system.

  5. admin on Mon, 2nd Mar 2009 12:53 pm

    6. Hi Alan Wong,

    Thanks for your very detailed comments!

    I also suspect that large GLCs are also involved, although of course I have no proof.

    I feel that existing regulation has not been enforced strictly enough, and this has created a massive oversupply that only puts low skilled Singapore citizens at a disadvantage.

    Abuse of the quota system in fact HURTS foreign workers equally too, because many of them have to pay thousands of Singapore dollars just to come to Singapore, and if the quota system is abused, many of them end up without jobs or are abandoned by unscrupulous employers.

    The root cause of all these is the “growth at all cost” system of economic management employed by the ruling party, where they will do anything to shore up our GDP including opening the floodgates and being lax in regulation, but without caring about the welfare of Singapore citizens.

    E-Jay

  6. Alan Wong on Mon, 2nd Mar 2009 1:07 pm

    7. Just like you need a COE to buy a car, you need to pay a levy when you want to hire a foreign worker or maid. All these adds up to costs. And under the name (guise) of control, the Govt is the one that is the ultimate benefactor. No wonder most of the SMEs are lamenting that it’s hard to survive in Singapore. And it didn’t make any sense to me as to why JTC is selling its properties to Mapletree
    Investments just in order that to raise the rent, when the Govt is still the ultimate owner.

    To sum it all, IMHO, the Govt is the culprit of it all. It all boils down to money, money and more money for the Govt coffers and in turn bigger salaries for the Ministers.

  7. admin on Mon, 2nd Mar 2009 3:06 pm

    8. Very good point, Alan.

    E-Jay

  8. Very Damn Disillusioned on Mon, 2nd Mar 2009 3:45 pm

    9. There is a Chinese saying ’shang liang bu zheng, xia liang wai” meaning if the top beam (of a building) is not straight, then those down below will be equally crooked. If the nation’s top elites are bend on “economic practicality” and every policy is justified by economic benefits devoid of humane values of compassion and empathy, so the greedy business bosses would equally justify their profit maximization mindset with this type of argument with no sensitivity for corporate citizenship or social justice. For 20 years, the ruling elites have been saying they want to build a gracious society but sadly the society we have today is drifting further away from that goal. Values such as ‘a gracious society’ , ‘filial piety’, gratitude, ‘Asian ethics’ are now just slogans used conveniently at various times.

  9. admin on Mon, 2nd Mar 2009 5:06 pm

    10. Dear Very Damn Illusion,

    I fully agree.

    E-Jay

  10. cj on Fri, 6th Mar 2009 10:46 pm

    11. for phantom workers, company have been trying to get cpf refund saying they paid wrongly in the first place. they are trying to erase evidence and redo they evil deed again by paying cpf into other phantom cpf members account.

  11. The Singapore Daily » Blog Archive » Weekly Roundup: Week 10 on Sat, 7th Mar 2009 11:17 am

    12. [...] Strangers in a Strange Land – Chemical Generation Singapore: The Migrant Workers’ Fuse is Lit – Sgpolitics.net: Dismayed at a Straits Times’ reader’s deprecating attitude towards Singaporeans and the rule of … [...]

  12. Iklan Mudah Blog » Blog Archive » Weekly Roundup: Week 10 on Sat, 7th Mar 2009 12:22 pm

    13. [...] Strangers in a Strange Land – Chemical Generation Singapore: The Migrant Workers’ Fuse is Lit – Sgpolitics.net: Dismayed at a Straits Times’ reader’s deprecating attitude towards Singaporeans and the rule of … [...]

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