Toyota vs Mercedes

Thought that the article below made quite a lot of sense, compared to some of the nonsense (such as that LTA guy which appeared on Frontline) that we have been subjected to in recent days. It is all very well getting people to retrain and retrain and retrain. But if employers value a cheap Toyota Corolla rather than a Mercedes Benz which is expensive but offers much more, there really is not much point in upgrading yourself to become a Mercedes.

From The Straits Times

She's all for hiring foreigners but...
LINK QUOTA TO FIRM'S PRODUCTIVITY

Labour MP Josephine Teo wants the Government to think twice before giving companies higher foreign worker quotas. She tells GOH CHIN LIAN what led her to write on this issue in a recent NTUC newsletter

By Goh Chin Lian

AS MRS Josephine Teo steps into a lift, a powerful stench sends her reeling as a cleaner - a foreign worker - walks away.

'It was so smelly. I was thinking, 'Was it him? Was he the sweaty one?''

Later, she sees him cleaning the windows of the building with a black dish cloth that was once white, and realises her mistake. The cloth was the smelly one.

'I asked myself, how can they use this smelly cloth and make the whole elevator smell so bad when it didn't smell so bad before he cleaned it?' she tells Insight.

The incident happened six months ago when she was on her way to a meeting at a 'high-end' office in the Central Business District.

But it remains vivid in her memory, and is fodder for the labour MP - along with her encounters of messy hawker centres and dirty public toilets - when she tackles Singaporeans' resentment over jobs landing in the lap of foreign workers when locals can do them just as easily.

'By all means, if bringing in foreigners helps raise standards and output, go for it. But let's think harder when they don't.'

MRS JOSEPHINE TEO, on being careful about raising the foreign worker quota
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'If the productivity levels have not improved or even declined, is continued reliance on foreign workers desirable, or indeed sustainable? Wouldn't we worsen the situation by further relaxing the criteria?'

MRS TEO, on her proposal that the Government scrutinise a sector's productivity levels before granting it more foreign workers
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'Security, landscape and the town councils - they are the ones that have moved. How about the rest? I think they can move faster.'

MRS TEO, on the need for more sectors to redesign jobs to raise productivity and, in turn, salary levels
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At the core of the problem is employers' indifference to improving productivity, she indicates.

Most would rather pay foreign workers a pittance and accept shoddy standards, than improve the job with proper training and tools, expand its scope - and pay Singaporeans more to do it.

Although Mrs Teo eschews words such as 'indifference' or 'pittance', they underscore the stubborn attitude of bosses that prompted her to write a commentary in a recent weekly newsletter of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC).

In urging the Government to think twice before raising the foreign worker quota, she wrote: 'By all means, if bringing in foreigners helps raise standards and output, go for it. But let's think harder when they don't.'

She took pains, she confesses, to strike a balance in the column to avoid being labelled a typical 'very anti-foreign worker, standard unionist type'.

Indeed, her opening line at the interview was: 'I fully appreciate the contributions of foreign manpower in Singapore at all levels.'

She traces the awareness to her 15 years of working in several government organisations, such as the Economic Development Board (EDB), which markets Singapore to foreign investors, and the China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park.

While the Suzhou locals did not always like foreigners and people from other Chinese provinces taking up jobs, they accepted it because 'everybody saw their salaries, their work conditions and their lives improve'.

'Also, for about two years, 2000 and 2001, when my household had three children under the age of four, we coped with the help of two foreign domestic workers!' adds the 39-year-old with a laugh.

'And now that I have only one maid, I have to equip her with better tools like Magiclean dry wiper sheets so she does not have to spend so much time mopping.'

But beyond these experiences, it is her current positions that have led her to see 'a lot more from the worker's standpoint'.

A first-term MP for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC, she is also executive secretary of the Singapore Industrial and Services Employees Union, and assistant secretary-general of the NTUC with an elected seat in its top policymaking body representing workers' interests.

She is also the labour organisation's director of human resources.

She cited especially an encounter with a resident at her Meet-The-People Session. The man complained bitterly about foreign workers, after he was forced to take a $1,200 job when his company closed down and he lost his $2,000 job.

'If my boss didn't have a worker from China, then he'd be short-handed and have to pay me $2,000,' he told her.

But for Mrs Teo, the more pertinent question is: Are these jobs paying the right salary level for a Singaporean to feel he can survive on it and do reasonably well?

For instance, why are there still cleaner jobs that pay $450? 'Part of the reason is that we allow people who are willing to take the job at $450 to come in,' she says.

The way to curb such practices, she argues, is for the Government to step in to demand that companies show proof that their productivity is improving before agreeing to raise their foreign worker quotas.

But does this not amount to micro-managing?

Probably challenged many times on this point, her answer was swift: 'If you're bringing in so many foreigners, shouldn't you take a closer look at which sectors aredeserving of them and which sectors you should maybe let them die an even faster death?'

If shutting the door on foreign workers may be too harsh, Mrs Teo believes such companies should, at least, be given a 'warning sign that it's not sustainable'.

Her proposal for closer government scrutiny stems from her 10 years at EDB, where she was a senior officer and later, head of human resources.

EDB officers, she explains, would look at a project's value-add per worker - which measures productivity levels - before agreeing to a request for investment incentives.

'Hence, with manufacturing, I'm less worried,' she adds.

Her main concern is the services sector. 'It's so broad. Is all the value-add per worker that good? I don't know.'

The sector covers businesses in such diverse areas as transport, wholesale trade, foodcourts and beauty shops. Further, it has many 'small employers' who she believes can raise productivity by redesigning and upgrading jobs for Singaporeans.

'Yes, it may be true that it will be hard for SMEs, but there are SMEs that have made the effort and they have succeeded,' she says, citing the BreadTalk bakery, snack-food chain Old Chang Kee and apparel chain Crocodile.

Other examples can be found in the security and landscaping industries where, in the past three years, NTUC has driven hard - and succeeded - in getting many low-paying jobs upgraded.

NTUC is not sitting still, she adds, disclosing that she is working on a project to upgrade the jobs in yet another service industry:building maintenance.

Since the end of last year, she has been visiting building owners to quiz their maintenance technicians about their job, salary and work conditions.

'My argument is this: Every year, we invest billions of dollars in building factories and tall, beautiful buildings. So, in the next 10 years, Singapore's building assets will grow significantly in value.

'How do you preserve their value? Only if you take very good care of them. So if I were a building owner, I'd be interested in high-quality building maintenance services.'

Industry players have informed her thatowners are willing to spend more on such maintenance, but they face a shortage of technicians who can do the job well, notwithstanding the hiring of foreigners, mainly from Myanmar.

Crucial to tackling this problem, she says, is getting providers of building maintenance services to jump on the job-redesign bandwagon.

Her mission is to convince them to transform jobs like changing a light bulb and carrying out rudimentary checks to managing maintenance schedules or projects.

It would then justify a pay packet bigger than the current $1,000 to $1,300 paid monthly to technicians. The jobs can then be reclaimed for Singaporeans.

She hopes her work will, in a way, deliver a pre-emptive strike before employers cry out for more foreign workers as a quick fix-it, instead of raising standards or productivity.

'Before they ask for more, I will offer them the opportunity to bring more Singaporeans to the sector first.'