3/19/2013

Fair hiring policies for hiring locals



There is a small column on the front page of ST yesterday with this clip, ‘Governments around the world must ensure citizens get a fair shot at landing jobs in the face of competition from foreign workers. As Singapore grapples with this delicate balancing act, a team of Straits Times correspondents examines how the authorities in Britain, Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and Indonesia are dealing with this thorny issue.’

It is amazing but good that the main media is starting to show an interest in the unfair practices in the job market against the citizens. Does this mean that they were not interested before, did not know that there is a big problem here, or not told to cover this topic? Anyway, now that they are interested, let’s hope they will do more investigative journalism to reveal the plight of the jobless or underemployed PMETs here and give a helping hand to Gilbert Goh in Transitioning.org. Businesses and employers that discriminate against Singaporeans must be exposed and taken to task. After all these PMETs are fellow citizens or could be their friends or friend’s friends or some distant relatives. But no, these PMETs are mostly remotedly linked to some of the correspondents or not at all. Among the correspondents that wrote on the subjects were Jonathan Eyal, Jonathan Pearlman, and Li Xueying from HongKong. I presume Lee Seok Hwai, Tan Hui Yee and Zakir Hussain are Singaporeans.

What did they discover? All the countries practises a similar policy of citizens first to the extent of being protectionist. They believe in looking after their citizens first and foreigners last. How silly of them, no wonder their countries are not as progressive as Singapore. They are losing all the great talents from the whole world. Did I hear that some foreign talents in Singapore are going to scoot when the Govt is going to tighten hiring of foreigners? Would they be welcome in these countries mentioned? Would these countries open their arms in eager expectation to welcome these foreign talents?

Some of the comments in the articles were: ‘Britain operates one of the strictiest foreign labour control regimes in the industrialized world.’ In HongKong there were three hurdles to cross and a Supplementary Law to regulate the inflow of foreign workers so that the job prospects and wage levels of local workers would be protected. And ‘Australia has a varied arsenal of weapons to protect the interests of local job applicants against foreign competition….The President of the Migration Institute of Australia, Ms Angela Chan, said the requirements for sponsoring foreigners were “very tough” and were designed to compel employers to try to hire locals.’ In Taiwan, ‘Locals over foreigners’ is written into Law. ‘Article 42 of the Employment Services Act, which took effect in 1992, says, “no employment of foreign workers may jeopardize national’s opportunity in employment, their employment terms, economic development or social mobility.’

In Thailand, ‘A 1973 decree…forbids foreigners from working in 39 fields, including hair cutting and shoemaking. Neither can a foreigner be a tour guide or a lawyer. Medical professionals must take a test in Thai before being allowed to practice. Indonesia also has strict laws to restrict foreign white collar workers to specific sectors and permits need to be renewed annually. There were only 55,000 foreigners working in Indonesia in 2011.

What does all this information mean? These countries are protectionists and thus unprogressive. No wonder Singapore is number One, the fastest growing global city. And foreigners working here have all the blessings from the Govt. This one no country can beat. And we have a MOM and Tafep. Now who are these organizations protecting? I believe they are protecting the Singaporeans and PRs. And I also believe the MOM knows exactly the practices of the above mentioned countries and must have designed our foreign talent policies in line with their practices.

Singapore and Singaporeans are number One. Would the media go on a crusade to save jobs for our PMETs? Or would these reports be a one off case and nothing will be mentioned again and local PMETs continue to be cast aside while foreign talents take all the plum jobs from them?

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

In Singapore only taxi driver is protected. The want all the jobless PMETs to go and work as a taxi driver.

Anonymous said...

It is the reason why taxi drivers tend to speak fondly of the regime. This is one group as sycophantic as the state media folks.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

The good thing about setting up enterprise in Singapore is that the owner/ operators do not have to concern themselves with stupid laws which make business uncompetitive like "minimum wage" and "anti discrimination".

Businesses are allowed to discriminate on whom they hire and needn't justify their decisions to any unconnected party.

Let's face it, as consumers we discriminate when we buy -- we want bang for our buck, we want maximum value for the exchange of our hard-earned money i.e. maximum benefit or "profit".

Similarly, businesses have every right to DISCRIMINATE for the exact same reasons as individual consumers.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

Don't talk cock lah. Business can discriminate as they like, particularly in employment of foreigners and the govt cannot regulate or do anything about it?

You think this is antartica or the outback?

Anonymous said...

They are not different from the media folks. They too broadcast the propaganda as much as they spread the propaganda to their passengers.
Their masters obviously know that taxi drivers are effective and useful tools.

Veritas said...

Hi RB, the day PAP choose to develop finance, we are already cursed by God. I make this comment base on Bible. The MNC banks that discriminate local is a tip of iceberg of what is to come.

All Abrahamic religion hates financier. The Chinese civilization hates financier as well. We called the earlier Chinese bankers like, 当店, 银号, aka pawnshop. They carry a very negative notation.

If you study western civilization, bankers were widely hated and despise before WW2.

Today, bankers in SG is the most priceless catch for female bachelor. PAP has already corrupt us to an unsalvageable extend.

All banks charge 30% interest as a rule of thumb. People hate them. Today, its still the same. Bank still charge around that much. But by means of fractional reserve banking, we are being conned into the illusion that we are being charged 5% interest.

The reason is the state is bank and bank is state. The state do what the bank wanted them to. This system will come to end in 10 years.

Something that Bible loath will not survive long.

Anonymous said...

More than two thirds of humans are not interested in the bible.
Sinkies cannot depend on superstition to live, so are others.
Nevertheless, the bible as a story book, is quite interesting to read. At least it is much better than comics.

Anonymous said...

The bible and koran are two very dangerous books to read.

Veritas said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Veritas said...

More than two thirds of humans are not interested in the bible.
Sinkies cannot depend on superstition to live, so are others.
Nevertheless, the bible as a story book, is quite interesting to read. At least it is much better than comics.


LOL....Today becoming a real Christian is not cool at all. I am attack by church, as well as gentile.

I remember I blurb out in Sunday schools that in Bible, killings could be justified, like the verse "Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands"....

Everyone was stunned and become very suspicious of me. FYI, I no longer go to church. The last time I went was a mormon church. The mormon has shown a much more high standard than every of the Singapore church I went. When I was there mormon performed Handel's Messiah. Shame to all SG church especially Citi Harvest, they play music that I often mistaken to be from a band of Satanic rock star.

Anyway, this is my personal story.

Anonymous said...

Redbean can do his readers a favour by moderating away all superstition from this site. Those unhealthy beliefs and make beliefs are no guiding light, on the contrary is the truth.

Anonymous said...

Wow!
There are fake christians as You claim to be a real one?

Veritas said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Lol.......

Anonymous said...

Veritas may like to attend 7Day Adventist Church for a different xperience.

Anonymous said...

@Veritas

What is your view about Bhagavad Gita and 封神榜?

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

John Stossell: No mimimum wage or anti-discrimination laws in Singapore

http://freakoutnation.com/2012/12/06/john-stossel-on-fox-u-s-should-emulate-singapore-no-discrimination-laws-against-disabled-or-minimum-wage/

(Of course this makes union types freak out)

>> You think this is antartica or the outback?

No, this is Singapore.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

Veritas, Matilah both have strong views that sit on the readers at times. Just ignore when one finds them uncomfortable. The issues of race and religion are always sensitive and can rub people up the wrong way. Some will swear with all they got, some will curse with all they got.

I hope the readers here are discriminating enough to find their own truths and own views. No one needs to agree with anyone and disagreement is fair game as long as people do not become personal and vulgar.

Thanks everyone.

Veritas said...

Back to top, today, the world has 1.62 Billions of South Asian, 300 millions more than Chinese.

There are roughly 7 millions in USA and Europe. So top 0.4% of Indians are in the west. The top 0.4-1% of Indians can fill in any type of PMET jobs in SG.

That means Singaporeans PMET must be able to outgun top 0.4-1% of Indians. And that is about 10 millions Indians.

And many Indians apply a job here will more than 10 years experience. There are more prefereable than our fresh grad. If we do not protect our young people, soon we will be kick out.

Veritas said...

@Veritas

What is your view about Bhagavad Gita and 封神榜?


Never read the former but later is a nice book.

Veritas said...

Actually we have already solve to a small extend the PRC PMET problem. Before PRC came here. Now salary here is so screwed and Shanghai Beijing getting so well paid that many PRC despise Singapore.

I have already got quite a few PRC colleagues who went back. During my time, NTU got the really got PRC scholars. Now standards are so bad that many PRC loss out to Singaporeans. PRC scholar do not prefer here because its better to go Shanghai Beijing if they cannot make it to USA.

Similarly I believe PAP would like to solve the FT Indian problem in similar way. Screw out salary until it is worse than the slum of India. Then Indians will stay home.

Already, our MRT is getting more crowded than Beijing and Shanghai. Our HDB is a joke compared to appartments in Beijing Shanghai. Our salary is a joke. And to many PRC, especially engineers, Beijing Shanghai has more opportunities.

PAP government got to rethink the talent policy. We get talent previously because of our high salary. Now everything is screwed. In near future, even Dalits in India could be better paid than us.

Anonymous said...

Met a Taoist Priest at a wake n consulted him about rituals. He suggested that I read read 封神榜 to understand abt rites n rituals.

He cautioned me not to read the said book in the bathroom n bedroom. When asked, he explained that the two places are where women bare themselves as well as where sexual activities take place and therefore they are unclean. He said the book is too sacred to be in such places.

In my mind, the moron priest shud have also remind the bookshops not to sell the book to ladies nor have it in the library.

However, his greatest flaw must be that he overlooked the author of the story book must certainly had born from the womb through the birth canal of a female.

As for the Bhagavad; killing is oso justified.

Veritas said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Veritas said...

To protect local jobs and to prevent SG from being flooded by foreigners, I see PAP has make several improvement.

So long we make living condition here worse than the slump of FT, they will stay home.

1) Sell 99 years HDB cage @ million dollar.

2) Reduce our salary to Dalits level. PAP is making significant improvements. Today a waiter in Beijing Shanghai could make around SGD400 - 500, not too far away from our cleaners. If RMB appreciate, Singaporeans cleaners will be even more under paid than PRC.

3) Make our living space as crowded as possible.

4) make car price as expensive as possible. All my PRC colleagues doing the same job as me has a car. I do not think they would want to relocate here.

The days of Singapore are numbered. There is really not much advantage we have. When China let RMB rise further, we cannot even find PRC prostitute in Geylang. If PAP do not wake up, we are going to head towards rubbish heap.

Anonymous said...

To protect Singaporean' future;
Vote Opposition.
Protect ourselves from the Pro Alien gahmen.

Anonymous said...

When reading any religious books or LKY books just try to question whether they make any sense or not. Most books are written with certain intention or propaganda in mind. Just fish out the good stuff (truth) and discard the nasty stuff (myth).

A good gov should be concern about creating job opportunities for own people not foreigners. Agree?

Certain jobs such as taxi drivers are protected jobs for now but we will not know when they will also allow others to practise it. This kind of things have happened so many times before.

Anonymous said...

By creating a society that is foreigners first, all the talented and intelligent locals will be fored to leave. THis is what the papists want to achieve cos they are afraid of clever people who will rise in power and replace them. Do you think this is good for the state? I doubt so. Do you think they have executed their duties according to the constitution? I doubt so.

Veritas said...

Few people know that Singaporeans are increasingly becoming the clown among PRC.

My colleagues in China have cars. They are just engineers. They came to Singapore and are surprise at how pathetic we are.

The PRC (and same to my former German colleagues) walk into our office. They are so shock that most Singaporeans executive do not have access to windows.

13 years ago, PRC already despise HDB. You go to any 2nd tier village in PRC like Xiamen, Fuchow, Wenchow...etc... PRC are staying in shining and beautiful condos. Don mention about Beijing Shanghai.

PRC told me that HDB estate is like a slump.

Not only that, many engineers told me Singapore is a bad place for engineering. PRC and Silicon valley has a lot of opportunities but here we are stagnant.

Also PRC are surprise that our old Ah Ma are still working. You go PRC, all their old man are taken care off. They start to despise us.

We need to introspect we has we does during the past 10 years. Today, PAP are still conditioning us to stay in smaller and smaller cage.

Eventually Singapore is going to be the biggest slump in the planet after we population hike 7 million. Already PRC are mocking at our salary.

It seems that Kuan Yew and sons style is to make Singaporeans ever and ever more miserable. Its seems that PAP thinks being miserable is good for Singapore.

If we continue down the road, even Indians Dalit is not going to come here.

Anonymous said...

I think is not a slump only, it is a concentration camp. Once you cannot contribute, you will be put to death. Papists think like Emperor Qing who wants to stay in power forever so they made the talented locals leave the country so no one can threaten their power. THey made people think that education is useless cos also ended up as taxi drivers. This prevents any social mobility.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

@445:

>> When reading any religious books or LKY books just try to question whether they make any sense or not.

Apart for a few odd instances, of course they won't make any sense whatsoever. Simple reasons:

1. Politics never makes sense, good luck applying your expensive Havard PhD "logic". You'll be doing mental kung fu for years, and you still won't be any wiser.

2. Religion: ALL (no exceptions) religions are based on MAKE BELIEF right from the get-go.

It starts with MAKE BELIEF, MADE UP points, which all of a sudden become "irrefutable facts". Then the pundits proceed by building systems of morality, conduct, laws, edicts, bat-shit crazy stories, presume to predict the future, condemns all non-believers and skeptics.

To make sense of religion, you either need BLIND FAITH, or be a mental kung fu master.

In short, both politics and religion are BULLSHIT...but they NEED MONEY...lot's of it, forever and ever....

Anonymous said...

'My colleagues in China have cars. They are just engineers'

Let me add to this. In Malaysia, even just a customer service officer can even own a car. In Spore, a professional ( such as engineers, accoutants, programmers) can only dream about such things as cars, housing or having family. This regime is just too toxic.

Anonymous said...

Singaporean PMETs are not only competing against
other economies but also from foreigners in Singapore.

Singaporeans are asking for fair playing field.

In poor global outlook, the disadvantage is more obvious. Yet the government did little to ensure Singaporean's competitiveness
is preserved.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

@923:

>> how come still blindly believe in pap?

I assure you it is not "blind". Perhaps I know stuff you don't. ;-)

Politics and religion are bullshit. But their "true believers" keep the crap alive and the dogma guides their actions, which they execute in the physical reality of the REAL WORLD, which does have indirect effects on non-believers like me.

True believers of politics and religion also have a habit of playing DIRTY -- usually using whatever (ends-justifies-the-means) is necessary to "kill off" their dissidents, opposition and competitors.

So even if you're an anti-political anti-theist like me, you'd be wise to learn all you can about politics and religion so you can be better prepared.

To me PAP vs The People, or The People vs The PAP has been a never-ending source of daily comedic entertainment for me.

People scream curses at the PAP. Yet they've managed to prosper for 50+ years, adding more and more power to themselves. And the people still scream -- and throw out empty threats...and the PAP still win.

Sometimes election lose a few seats, perhaps a ward or two. Wah. Opposition happy like fuck. Emboldened they let their imaginations run amok.

Come Monday, parliament opens and they come out with more policies to screw the people....more screaming and yelling from the angry mob.

...and on it goes. More hilarity and entertainment (aka wayang2)

You fuckers are a bunch of hopeless cunts lah. Your own cuntree you never take care. CPF also -- gone. Never take care of your own self interests -- always expecting "someone else" to "look after" you.

"The fools and their money are soon parted"

...and you have the gall to blame the PAP, and play "victims forever".

The Sheeple Get The Dictators They Deserve