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ST PHOTO: MUGILAN RAJASEGERAN
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THE simmering discontent on the part of some locals towards foreign workers got an airing from none other than Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday.
'They are not here to steal our jobs, but to help us enlarge the economic pie,' he said in the Mandarin portion of his speech at the May Day rally.
Mr Lee, who also spoke in English and Malay, said that Singaporeans should look at foreign workers objectively.
His remarks were prompted by recent media reports about coffeeshops hiring more foreign workers, and the tension arising between locals and foreigners working in them.
Addressing the issue at a tripartism forum two weeks ago, former labour chief Lim Boon Heng had told the story of two women - one local and older, one younger and from China - at a coffeeshop in Jurong West.
The one from China sold beer and drew in the customers, thus keeping the coffeeshop in good business, which in turn helped the local drinks lady keep her job, said the Minister in the Prime Minister's Office.
PM Lee noted that some people disagreed with Mr Lim's argument, and said he himself did not think it a good thing 'to have more pretty beer ladies who encourage people to drink more'.
But he noted that Mr Lim had a serious point: Foreign workers were of value to Singapore.
Because they are hard-working and willing to work long hours, coffeeshops can stay open late or even round the clock. The airport, seaport, factories, offices, hotels, restaurants and retail outlets here can offer better service and business hours.
Even smaller businesses, such as neighbourhood shops, can reduce business costs and stay afloat if they hire some foreign workers on top of locals, said Mr Lee.
Foreigners make up 30 per cent of Singapore's workforce, a figure that has remained unchanged for years. But there has been a surge in their absolute numbers as more come to fill new jobs that were created in record numbers last year.
Mr Lee assured Singaporeans however that the Government was controlling the inflow of foreign workers with levies and limits set on the number employers can hire.
Labour chief Lim Swee Say also weighed in on the issue, saying that foreigners were an 'easy target' for Singaporeans to blame when things go wrong.
But they are not the problem, he noted. 'Let us be very clear. Foreign workers...are our partners because they are here working together with us...that makes us the number one workforce in the world.'
Apart from foreign workers, Mr Lee also paid attention to another group: low wage workers. About 350,000 earn less than $1,200 a month.
Unionists, he noted, were very concerned as this was not an easy problem to solve.
The Prime Minister however reminded the 5,000 unionists and workers gathered at Downtown East for the rally that there were measures such as the Workfare Income Supplement scheme and training programmes to ensure that low wage workers could reskill for higher paying jobs.
In an oblique reference to opposition parties, he said the Government did not go in for 'wayang, grandstanding, issuing statements (without being) accountable for results'.
Still, he urged people to look at the low wage worker issue in context: The majority of Singaporeans are doing well and household incomes have risen across the board.
The unemployment rate for residents is 'very low' at 2.9 per cent and employment is at a record high.
'More Singaporeans are employed than ever before, despite all the foreign workers here,' he noted.
sueann@sph.com.sg
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