[Singapore] Tightening up on mid-level foreign workers

by Teo Xuanwei
Updated 02:24 PM Aug 15, 2011


The bar for letting in mid-level workers from abroad will be raised to temper the seemingly "unrestrained competition" for jobs from foreigners, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said yesterday.

Specifically, the salary thresholds for Employment Passes will be raised and mid-level foreign workers seeking jobs here will need to show better educational qualifications so that we "make sure they come with real skills valuable to us", he said.

Noting how local professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) here are increasingly worried about the competition from foreigners - even in the current full-employment situation - Mr Lee said: "They're probably graduates or diploma holders - not hard up, not unskilled; but not so confident of themselves that they are ready for unrestrained competition. And feeling vulnerable, worried about what may happen. So I think, at this middle level, we need to tighten a little bit further."

The revised terms for new work pass applicants, which kicked in at the start of last month, set the salary thresholds for the three categories of Employment Passes at S$8,000, S$4,000 and S$2,800.

More details of the changes will soon be provided by the Ministry of Manpower, which will also work with tripartite partners to draw up guidelines for fair and responsible recruitment and employment practices so that both foreign and local workers feel "fairly treated and nobody feels that he's at a disadvantage", said Mr Lee.

STRIKING A BALANCE

The impact of the influx of foreigners - on job opportunities and university places, among others - was something Mr Lee spoke about in both his Mandarin and English speeches.

And while the Government understands Singaporeans' anxieties over the competition for jobs and will work on moderating the number of foreigners let in, Mr Lee reiterated the need for the Republic to "bring in enough so that our economy has the manpower to grow and to prosper".

"We need some non-Singaporeans to complement the Singaporeans and to make up our shortfalls," he said, noting that high-end enterprises view talent as their most critical competitive advantage.

He cited how, while we had successfully wooed Microsoft and Google into setting up their regional operations here, their high-end research centres are based in China and India, where there are more talents.

Letting in a certain number of foreign talents is thus needed to boost the talent pool on our shores, and thereby attract high-quality investments, Mr Lee noted.

Still, Singaporeans will remain "the core of our workforce", he assured, adding that the Republic cannot become like the Gulf States where 80 per cent of the workforce is foreign.

The key, Mr Lee said, is to strike a balance between protecting the local workforce and ensuring our economy remains competitive.

At the top end, high-quality professionals and entrepreneurs have to be allowed in because they grow our businesses here and help Singapore compete internationally.

At the bottom end, the Government has already tightened up on the inflow of foreign workers through the raising of workers' levies and dependency ratios.

But at the same time, we also have to be mindful of the impact on companies, especially local small and medium enterprises (SMEs), said Mr Lee. "Because they need the foreign workers the most and if we squeeze out the foreign workers too drastically, we're going to kill the SMEs."

He added that the Government will "do our utmost" to help SMEs adjust, through giving out grants and tax deductions to help them upgrade productivity.

'RISE ABOVE THE TSUNAMI'

Mr Lee also cautioned against the assumption that a slower inflow of foreign labour will automatically lead to Singaporeans getting better jobs or higher pay.

This is because Singaporeans are competing with workers from all over the world, in every rung of the workforce.

Citing how China alone produces seven million graduates a year - double that of our citizen population - with 1.5 million of them in the fields of engineering and science, Mr Lee said the Republic has to keep our skills one step ahead to thrive in the global economy.

"(They Chinese) are hungry, they are competitive and they are competing furiously with one another," he said. "So it's really a tidal wave, a tsunami coming in our direction and the only way to get out of the trouble is to rise above the tsunami by training ourselves, developing expertise and doing things which they can't do yet in China but we can do now in Singapore and making a living for ourselves in order that we can improve our lives."

Restricting the number of foreign workers here also comes with costs, in the form of slower growth, and thereby give us less resources to improve our lives, he added.

Some companies may be deterred from investing or expanding their operations in Singapore and choose to shut down and move their business and investments elsewhere, for example.

Staying open to the world has ensured Singapore could attract firms that are "global winners" to invest here, said Mr Lee.

Lucasfilm Singapore, for instance, hires 500 people from 36 different countries. Of these, 225 are Singaporeans, who work as animators, visual effect artists, digital matte painters and engineers. And the firm has helped to produce many prominent movies, such as the recent blockbuster hit, Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon.

Showing an eight-second clip from the movie which more than 10 people from the firm worked, Mr Lee said it was "only possible because we have this very diverse team with all the people from all around the world put together to make it happen. So let's stay open, keep current with new ideas and trends, stay ahead of the competition and let's stay a confident, forward-looking and successful society."


Via: http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC110814-0000867/Tightening-up-on-mid-level-foreign-workers