Discussion Forum

All talk.

By the way, let us not forget that it was MOM who  s c r e w e d  up in the first place. Who was the one who crafted the free-for-all open door policy??

IF THEY ARE SERIOUS, THEY WILL ENACT LEGISLATION.

Why did true-blue Singaporeans end up in such a sorry state of being discriminated by foreigners in their home ground?!?!

Employers are  c o c k y  as they have abundant supply of cheap n fake FT. The solution is to cut off the supply of fake foreign talents. The real talents and foreigners doing jobs that Singaporeans don't want are welcome though.

MOM is useless. Cannot do job one lah.

They only know how to approve VISA and Work-permit.

What else can be done to further encourage fair employment practices among companies?

It is not hard to identify if fair employment practice is being practice.

1) if it is already not done, empower TEFEP to conduct manpower audit where they do a site visit and get them to take a look for themselves. If a department has a lot of young staff in the office, questions should be asked why this is so? If a department seems to have a lot of foreigners, questions should be asked why this is so too?  the same applies for other possible discrimination practices. questions should be asked. a pro-active approach is needed.

Getting members of the public to come forward to complain, not everybody dares, especially if they are still under employment.

2) manager and management attitudes are very important. Appointment of managers has to be taken more seriously.

A company should not appoint staff to be manager as a promotion or recognition of how well they do their work, but whether they can manage people and resources. A young manager saying that they cannot handle older staff or any manager saying that they prefer a female over male, prefer male to female employees should never be allowed. TEFEP should come up with measure has to be in place to prevent this. For instance perhaps requiring all Human Resource managers to take a monitoring role. All Human Resource specialist once they become managers should be registered members under some kind of Human Resource body like doctors and lawyers where they are required to follow a code of conduct. If they do not follow such code, their licence to practice, or in this case to be a Human Resource manager or director should be terminate. 

3) companies hiring need to have realistic expectations. some companies have job ads where they expectations in terms of qualifications and experience and what they are willing to pay seems so far apart. if they have such expectations, only those willing to lie in interviews, or those from overseas where it maybe easier to get the experience, will apply. 

4) companies should not be allowed to advertise that they want someone to speak or write both english and chinese in job ads. This is not fair to non-chinese, especially considering that English is the national language and many locals these days are able to speak and write in it. As a modern and multi-racial society this should not be happening. MOM and TERP should encourage the use of English in the work environment. 

Solution to 3 & 4:
all job advertisements whether published online, in the newspapers and so on or advertised through employment/recruitment agencies should be required to submit a copy of the advertisement to MOM or TEFEP for approval or vetting. All companies looking to hire should be required to the name of the company advertising, reveal the location of the company, and working hours as a mandatory requirement, even if they use an employment/recruitment agency to advertise on their behalf.

It looks like the death of Singaporeans and Singapore are imminent. So sorry for the younger generation.

Most of the management positions in MNCs are held by foreigners. They prefer to hire people from their own clan. What can you do to them?? Verbal warning? Fine $100,000 which to them is small change? Throw them in jail?

Can you ask MOM who approved the foreigners to work here?

Nevertheless, Mr Tan acknowledged the challenges faced by employers who need to have access to foreign talents due to limitations in competencies and skills in certain areas.  He said that the challenge is to find the right balance  between these different considerations, which are valid to one degree or another.

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We have a very big problem of mal-hiring practices that is discrimatory in our own backyard. The problem has grown so big that it has become a socio-economic issues. Whether people who are in their 30s, 40s or older being discrimated have an effect on how people look and feel about the issue. And even on those who are single and those who are in their 20s or just joining the workforce. The issues has over the years evolved and taken "a life of its own" and it is one of the achilles heel to increasing our population birth rates. The bubble has "piggy-backed" on another bubble and grown so huge in our own "backyard". Policy makers also need to realise that importing foreigners and converting them into Singapore citizens is only a temporary solution. Why is this so? Because other countries are also doing likewise. Sooner or later, there will be a problem resorting to such an approach because there is only a finite number of people to import into Singapore.

Then there is also the issues of national security. Will there be a danger of importing terrorists into our own backyard? This sort of thing happen in other countries...even years later when some of their immigrants have been "naturalised" in that country. The only thing is that hopefully such thing don't happen...but the problem is, hope is not a "safe option"...Relevent authorities have to be real careful in the selection of those becoming Singapore citizens.

Perhaps the relevant authorities can give more "firepower" on a Hire-Pay-Learn scheme for our singapore citizens who have been retrenched, and to those who are thinking of switching line. This approach not only helped those that have been retrenched, to quickly get themselves hired, but at the same time, they will be trained for a job in a new sector or even in the same sector which they have worked before, and at the same time the companies that are involved in this scheme can send them for courses in part paid by the government and the employers. This would go a long way in giving a leg up to these group of retrenched workers and retrenched professionals. Lately, we have been talking about local talent development, and this is one of the approach we can use. Perhaps what relevant authorities can do, is to also give these companies some incentives, reduced tax, etc with regard to that period of time they have participated in this scheme.

If problems are not solved at the root cause, "enclaved situations" may arise, and will take "a life of its own", and then there will be more and more negative-domino-issues coming...and more mightily challenging to tackle. To say that other countries also have this problem, and Singapore is going to take reference and accept as it is....is being self-defeatist. Recently, we have talked about resilent or resignation....Is the situation one of resignation and resorting to short cuts by importing immigrants to "top up" our population?

Until then, netizens.

When Singaporean companies accept an international contract, should it be mandatory that  they employ local managers/ engineers to bring abroad? When Singaporeans gain overseas experience, apply these risk taking, conflict solving management skills then they are capable competitors for higher- level high-interest positions in future domestic projects/programs.

Frankly speaking, what do you expect MOM to do? Really get tough and really take firm action against these companies????? Not possible...not at all.

I was employed in Singapore for "1DAY"