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13-12-2013, 11:00 AM
An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:
Wages and cost of living aside, we may also need to address the issues of very long working hour and poor working and living conditions, particularly of low-wage foreign workers in Singapore. For example, a company which won a top entrepreneur award was also one of two companies that were fined after the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) found workers living in unacceptable conditions.
According to AsiaOne, “investigations revealed that the company had provided the accommodations to its subsidiary companies and sub-contractors while being aware that it had broken several rules, including overcrowding. The site was also operating illegally as a commercial dormitory and was using space that was not approved for accommodation purposes. (The company) has become the first company to be issued a $10,000 composition fine for abetting other companies in failing to provide acceptable accommodation.“
The chronic problem of low wages in Singapore is real. Very clearly, the significantly lower wages and higher prices in Singapore means that when compared to the Nordic countries, the purchasing power of Singaporeans is much diminished. The very simple question to ask is this – if prices are so sky-high in Singapore, and wages are rock-bottom, then what does it mean to the livelihoods of Singaporeans, whom many would have to scrape by to make ends meet?
The strikes and riots are only the beginnings of what is to come of the effects of the larger undercurrent of income inequality and unfair wages that are being paid to workers in Singapore, and if we choose to ignore the real causes – of low wages and oppressive work conditions – and attribute them to lesser factors, such as the overuse of alcohol, the denial of the root causes to the most massive industrial action and civil resistance in Singapore’s recent history will only result in further social unrest, as workers fight back against inequality, and oppressive and unfair treatment.
It is of no use to show statistics that may give the perception that wages are rising immensely, when they are actually not. And as long as the government does not take concrete actions to allow labour unions to be independent and allow them to engage in collective wage bargaining, and/or to implement a minimum wage, to increase the wages of workers in Singapore, Singaporeans can tell for themselves whether their pay has actually increased.
The strikes and riots are only symptomatic as to the larger social effects that will come, if the government doesn’t respond appropriately to the needs of Singaporeans and workers here. Further denial will indefinitely result in much larger social movements, which would undoubtedly overshadow the strike and riot, and the four major protests that have already been held in opposition to the Population White Paper and the Licensing Rule this year. Together, more than 10,000 Singaporeans have joined the protests this year. It wouldn’t be far-fetched to imagine that this figure would be easily overcome at next year’s protests or protests held closer to the next general election, at the rate that things are going.
- http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2013...gapore-part-1/ (http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2013/12/riots-and-wages-in-singapore-part-1/)
Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com (http://sammyboy.com/showthread.php?170332-Riots-and-Wages-in-Singapore-Part-One&goto=newpost).
Wages and cost of living aside, we may also need to address the issues of very long working hour and poor working and living conditions, particularly of low-wage foreign workers in Singapore. For example, a company which won a top entrepreneur award was also one of two companies that were fined after the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) found workers living in unacceptable conditions.
According to AsiaOne, “investigations revealed that the company had provided the accommodations to its subsidiary companies and sub-contractors while being aware that it had broken several rules, including overcrowding. The site was also operating illegally as a commercial dormitory and was using space that was not approved for accommodation purposes. (The company) has become the first company to be issued a $10,000 composition fine for abetting other companies in failing to provide acceptable accommodation.“
The chronic problem of low wages in Singapore is real. Very clearly, the significantly lower wages and higher prices in Singapore means that when compared to the Nordic countries, the purchasing power of Singaporeans is much diminished. The very simple question to ask is this – if prices are so sky-high in Singapore, and wages are rock-bottom, then what does it mean to the livelihoods of Singaporeans, whom many would have to scrape by to make ends meet?
The strikes and riots are only the beginnings of what is to come of the effects of the larger undercurrent of income inequality and unfair wages that are being paid to workers in Singapore, and if we choose to ignore the real causes – of low wages and oppressive work conditions – and attribute them to lesser factors, such as the overuse of alcohol, the denial of the root causes to the most massive industrial action and civil resistance in Singapore’s recent history will only result in further social unrest, as workers fight back against inequality, and oppressive and unfair treatment.
It is of no use to show statistics that may give the perception that wages are rising immensely, when they are actually not. And as long as the government does not take concrete actions to allow labour unions to be independent and allow them to engage in collective wage bargaining, and/or to implement a minimum wage, to increase the wages of workers in Singapore, Singaporeans can tell for themselves whether their pay has actually increased.
The strikes and riots are only symptomatic as to the larger social effects that will come, if the government doesn’t respond appropriately to the needs of Singaporeans and workers here. Further denial will indefinitely result in much larger social movements, which would undoubtedly overshadow the strike and riot, and the four major protests that have already been held in opposition to the Population White Paper and the Licensing Rule this year. Together, more than 10,000 Singaporeans have joined the protests this year. It wouldn’t be far-fetched to imagine that this figure would be easily overcome at next year’s protests or protests held closer to the next general election, at the rate that things are going.
- http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2013...gapore-part-1/ (http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2013/12/riots-and-wages-in-singapore-part-1/)
Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com (http://sammyboy.com/showthread.php?170332-Riots-and-Wages-in-Singapore-Part-One&goto=newpost).