May 17, 2012

MR LEONG SZE HIAN: ‘The article (‘Special-needs kids plan: 98 sign up’; May 4) states that the Special Needs Trust Company, ‘which entrusts the funds with the Public Trustee’s Office, has made an average interest payout of about 3 per cent over the last four years’. As funds disbursed from the nominee Central Provident Fund (CPF) account earn interest of up to 4 per cent a year, with an extra 1 per cent on the first $60,000, why are the parents of eligible special-needs children still being advised to place funds with the Public Trustee’s Office, which pays 1 to 2 percentage points less than the CPF’s Special Needs Savings Scheme?’

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WE THANK Mr Leong Sze Hian for his concerns on the wages of staff in the NTUC Social Enterprises (‘NTUC should set the example by paying its staff more’; Tuesday).

As part of the labour movement, NTUC Social Enterprises pay fair and competitive wages to staff.

With bonuses and allowances, the average monthly gross wage of a full-time retail assistant/cashier in FairPrice exceeds $1,000 to reach as high as $1,750. At Unity, it also exceeds $1,000 to reach as high as $1,700 for full-time pharmacy assistants.

We also provide staff and welfare benefits. These include staff discounts on purchases at our stores, as well as comprehensive medical and dental benefits.

Unity extends some of these benefits to the spouses and children of staff; FairPrice offers study grants to the children of staff.

During tough times like the period of global inflation in 2008, FairPrice distributed $1.5 million worth of FairPrice vouchers to help staff cope with the rapid rise in cost of living.

NTUC Social Enterprises value every worker and strongly believe in training and enhancing our productivity. This is the best way for us to secure better wages for our staff while helping our customers stretch their dollar.

Rebecca Teo (Ms)

Director, Human Resources

NTUC FairPrice Co-operative

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Sampling of readers’ suggestions

Reader “Clown” – Thank you for your suggestion to check the recent resale transactions. According to the HDB’s web site, the 3-room resale flat transactions in his street over the last two months range from $316,000 to $395,000.

Getting a court order

Reader “just a suggestion” – Thank you for your suggestion to apply for a court order. Billy has been communicating with the Legal Aid Bureau, and its last letter to him about two months ago said “We refer to the letter dated 13 February 2012 from your Member of Parliament which we received on 21 February 2012. You had previously applied for legal aid to commence Court proceedings such that (your wife’s) share of the matrimonial flat is transferred to yourself as the sole owner of the said flat. The Legal Aid Bureau had considered your case and refused aid to you. You were informed in our letter that you have to furnish a copy of the Divorce Court Order granted by the US Courts which would prove that you are no longer married to (her). This order is necessary before any court proceedings in Singapore can be commenced to deal with the matrimonial flat. You were also informed that once you obtain a copy of the said Court Order, you can reapply for legal aid. Please note legal aid was refused for your last application because you did not produce the Divorce Court Order.

Billy has given the Legal Aid Bureau, a copy of a “Notice of Entry of Judgement” which he received from the United States in the mail, indicating that a (marriage) dissolution was entered in the Supreme Court of California, Orange County, U.S.A.

However, apparently the Legal Aid Bureau does not accept this document as the “Divorce Court Order” that they require.

Focus on helping Billy now

Reader “Chan Joon Yee” – Thank you for your remarks. I concur that we should focus on Billy’s predicament and unfortunate circumstances, and give our views and suggestions.

Billy had communicated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) to seek their help to locate or contact his wife. Is it possible to ask MFA and the Singapore Embassy to help to obtain A copy of the “Divorce Court Order” from the United States, that the Legal Aid Bureau requires?

Does anyone know how to get a copy of this document from the US?

More suggestions

Do keep your suggestions coming, so that we can try to help Billy to not become homeless, on the HDB’s Compulsory Acquisition date of 16 May 2012.

We also hope that the HDB will give him more time to liaise with the Legal Aid Bureau and MFA.

Leong Sze Hian

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~ By Leong Sze Hian ~

I refer to the Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) Employment Situation First Quarter report. (here)

It states that “An estimated 59,100 residents, including 52,800 Singapore citizens were unemployed in March 2012. The seasonally adjusted figures were 64,000 for residents and 57,700 for citizens”.

This means that about 90% of unemployed residents were Singaporeans.

Unemployment rate rose more for citizens

The seasonally adjusted overall unemployment rate also increased much more for citizens from 3.0% and 3.2%, from December 2011 to March 2012, compared to from 2.9% to 3.0% and 2.0% to 2.1%, for residents and the total workforce, respectively.

“Total employment is estimated to have grown by 27,400 in the first quarter of 2012. The increase was lower than the seasonal high of 37,600 in the fourth quarter and the 28,300 in the first quarter of 2011”

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Percentage share of redundancy at a 13year high for PMETs

Actually, the percentage share of Redundancy for PMETs rose to a 4-year high, from 31.1% in 2007 to 41.7% in 2011. What is perhaps even more alarming is that it is at a 13-year high, from 18.6% in 1998 to 41.7% in 2011.

It may be interesting if the data can be further broken-down to indicate what percentage of the PMETs were Singaporeans.

Is the redundancy due to higher productivity?

Since “Restructuring of business processes for greater efficiency (34%) was the top reason for redundancy in 2011”, does it mean that raising productivity may not just raise wages, but may also contribute to redundancy?

Also, since “high labour cost (30%)” was the second highest reason, does it mean that after wages are raised due to increased productivity, it may also contribute to subsequent redundancy, due to higher labour cost?

Singapore is losing its competitiveness

As to more workers were affected (1,830) than the year before (1,470), involving overseas relocation, does it mean that we may be losing our competitiveness to the top relocating destinations of Malaysia, China and India?

PMETs are more vulnerable to redundancy

“Close to six in then (57%) residents made redundant were holding PMET jobs, slightly higher than PMET’s representation in the resident workforce (52%)”

Are degree holders most vulnerable?

By educational attainment, degree holders had the highest share, at 33.4%, of residents made redundant. So, does it mean that the more educated one is, the higher the chance of being made redundant?

Are older workers more vulnerable?

“One way of determining the vulnerability of locals to layoffs is to take the ratio of their redundancy share to employment share” – Residents age 40 – 49 had the highest Redundancy Vulnerability Ratio, at 1.28%, followed by age 50 & over at 1.09%.

So, older workers were more likely to be made redundant.

PMETs took longer to be re-employed

The Rate of Re-entry into Employment of Residents Made Redundant (Within 12 Months of Redundancy) improved for all Occupational Groups except PMETs, and also for all Educational Attainment categories except for degree, diploma & professional qualifications.

Degree holders took longer to be re-employed

The rate declined the most for degree holders from 67.1% in 2010 to 62.7% in 2011. So, the more educated one is, the harder it would seem to get re-employed and harder to get job in same industry. The percentage of residents laid off who managed to get re-employed in the same industry, declined from 55% in 1998 to 30% in 2011.

So, it appears that it may be harder to get re-employed in the same industry, with most residents (70%) having to shift industry.

“The share of those who took 3 months to re-enter employment (from 10.7% to 11.8%) or longer (from 15.0% to 15.5%) saw slight increase, while the share taking 2 months dipped (from 21.3% to 19.5%)”. So, it would appear that some people may be taking longer to find re-employment.

The Average (Mean) Time Taken By Residents to Secure a New Job within 12 Months of Redundancy, 2011, was highest for PMETs, at 2.24%.

So, the conclusion is that more educated one is, the longer it would take, to get re-employed.

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May 8, 2012

About that call

‘NTUC should set the example by paying its staff more.’

MR LEONG SZE HIAN: ‘I understand that NTUC FairPrice and NTUC Unity Healthcare’s wages for their retail staff are among the lowest in their respective industry sectors (‘Raise pay or risk losing low-wage staff: NTUC’; last Friday). Apparently, a retail employee is generally paid less than $1,000 a month, and part-time staff earn about $5 an hour. If this is so, NTUC should set the example by paying its staff more, instead of exhorting employers to pay more or risk losing their low-wage staff.’

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Billy (not his real name) is a 41 year old Singaporean male, who married a foreign spouse. After marrying him, she obtained permanent residency (PR) status.

Subsequently, she left Singapore on a flight to Los Angeles in 2007, and has not been contactable since. Her PR status has also lapsed.

As Billy has not been able to earn enough due to business failure to pay for his HDB 3-room resale flat mortgage, he has been served with a Notice of Vesting & To Take Possession.

The compulsory acquisition compensation at 90 per cent of valuation is $229,000.

However, according to Billy, the valuation for his flat is about $330,000, excluding cash-over-valuation (COV).

Since his wife is a joint tenant of the flat, he is unable to sell or rent out his flat. She did not contribute a single cent for the flat or the household expenses.

Despite numerous communications and appeals to the HDB, Legal Aid Bureau and his Member of Parliament (MP), his flat will now be repossessed on 16 May, as per the HDB’s final communication to him on 2 May.

Billy said “What’s the point of everybody keep asking me to appeal, when I always face rejection all the time?”

Because of the low acquisition compensation of $229,000, Billy is unable to buy even the cheapest resale 2-room flat in the open market.

If he can get his flat’s current valuation of about $330,000 plus COV, it is likely that he may be able to buy a resale 2-room flat.

Recently, Billy was denied his right to vote in the Home Improvement Programme (HIP) for his block, as the letter said that: “Please note that you are not eligible to vote because you are served the Notice of Intention due to mortgage arrears.” “However, you will be required to pay the cost of the HIP and LUP works if the poll for the HIP and LUP works are successful.”

Leong Sze Hian

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Other distinquished members of the Advisory Board include Jacques Potdevin, former president of the European Federation of Accountants and Vincent J Derudder, Chairman of the European Federation of Financial Advisers & Financial Intermediaries.

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At current birth rates and without immigration, our citizen population is projected to shrink by around 2025. By 2020, as more citizens exit the working-age band of 20 to 64 years than those entering, the pool of working-age citizens will start to shrink. Our TFR has been below that needed to replace ourselves2 since 1976. An immigration inflow of between 20K and 25K new citizens each year will keep the citizen population size stable. An inflow of 25K new citizens per year would keep the size of our working-age citizen population relatively stable”

“The shrinking working-age population and increasingly aged population will result in a deterioration of the citizen old-age support ratio. As of June 2011, there were 6.3 citizens in the working-ages of 20-64 years, to every citizen aged 65 years and above. With current fertility and no immigration, there will only be 2.1 workingage citizens to each elderly citizen by 2030 (See Scenario B in Chart 8). Immigration has a mitigating effect on the old-age support ratio”

Would that include just new citizens or PRs as well?

Why is it that the population scenarios are only based on immigration of new citizens? Why not include permanent residents (PRs) as well. Wouldn’t PRs also mitigate our population issues, instead of just relying entirely on new citizens?

I think one perspective of the issue is not so much of new citizens or PRs, but rather the quality of the new citizens or PRs.

In this connection, I once met an elderly cleaner Singapore resident in a food court who told me that his daughter who is also a cleaner obtained residency status because she married a Singaporean, and both he and his wife, who is also a cleaner, were given residency.

Impact of immigration on Singaporeans

We should consider carefully how to balance the need to increase the population, with the impact on citizens, such as the deterioration of the standard of living of more Singaporeans, declining real wages, rising cost of living, etc.?

We also need to re-evaluate the huge sums of money, like scholarships and tuition grants for foreigners, that are expended towards the “new citizens” immigration policy, against the needs and welfare of Singaporeans.

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