As Singapore heads into an economic downturn,  will the government slash CPF wages in a bid to keep people in their jobs?

According to a Reuters report:

Singapore will convene its National Wages Council (NWC) in early January, four months ahead of schedule, in what economists say may be a prelude to a cut in employers’ pension contributions.

‘Given the weakening economic situation, there is a need for the NWC to take stock of the new situation and review its May guidelines to help companies and workers manage the downturn,’ the Manpower Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

The ministry did not immediately respond to questions about the detailed agenda for the NWC’s January meeting.

‘At the last crisis, they cut the CPF (Central Provident Fund) and I won’t be surprised if they did it again,’ said Joseph Tan, Singapore-based Asia chief economist for private banking at Credit Suisse.

‘Between cutting wages and letting people go, the government’s preference is to keep jobs.’

The government last cut employers’ contributions to the CPF, the retirement fund for Singaporean workers, by 3 percentage points to 13 percent in October 2003 to help firms cope with the effects of the SARS outbreak.

Do you think CPF wages will be slashed from the current 14.5% to 13% (of the SARS period)? Will this help keep jobs or do we need another alternative?

A Chinese construction company in Singapore has recently been accused of withholding salaries from its workers, and not paying its workers for working overtime.

So what, you might say. It’s not as though this is not the first time a company has been found of breaching the employment rights of foreign blue-collar workers.  Shouldn’t they file a complaint against their employer with the Ministry of Manpower and get their grievances resolved as soon as possible?

But that is where things  get murky and complicated, says local gay activist Alex Au (of Yawning Bread),  in a story that is now circulating around the local internet.

According to the Yawning Bread report, it talks about how this particular group of foreign workers have faced stonewalling ministry officers, police detentions for “overstaying” and unreasonable bosses.

While some people have criticised this piece to be biased and one-sided, I highly urge you to read the story for yourself to get a sense of the injustice that some blue-collar workers face here working under errant bosses and companies in Singapore.

Cases like these are especially worrying, as International Organization for Migration predicts that labour migration with the bulk of workers coming from China, Philippines and India will continue to remain strong. This is due to “an increasing scarcity of local workers available or willing to engage in low- or semiskilled employment such as in agriculture, construction, hospitality or domestic care,” the report says.

What should be done to errant employers like this, and how else can the law be changed to protect blue-collar transient workers?

Part one of the story.

Part two of the story continues here.