Companies urged to reward workers who have performed well

Companies urged to reward workers who have performed well

SINGAPORE: Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong has urged companies to reward workers who have performed well.

And he said many employers are in favour of some form of payout to retain good workers.

As an example, Mr Gan highlighted the modest one-off year-end payment of 0.25 month, capped at S$750 for civil servants.

Mr Gan said: "I think we all understand that the economic outlook for next year still remains uncertain. In fact, that is what we already expected. For those that can afford (it), with very positive business outlook, they should consider giving some recognition, which could take the form of a one-time payment."

Mr Gan was speaking to reporters at the sidelines of a community event in Keat Hong constituency on Sunday.

On the recently-announced Employment Assistance Programme, Mr Gan stressed that the scheme - which requires companies to pay their older workers if they cannot rehire them after retirement - is "not an easy way out" for companies to get rid of their older workers.

The scheme is part of guidelines for companies to put in place re-employment measures, ahead of legislation in 2012.

Mr Gan said: "We recognise that companies' situations differ from one another, especially companies already facing financial difficulties, business challenges, some of them will not have the positions for the older workers. And in such a situation, we have to find a way to help older workers to find new employment." - CNA/ms
By Hoe Yeen Nie/Seet Sok Hwee, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 29 November 2009 2313 hrs

1 yr ago, on this day..Ms Lo Hwei Yan was brutally killed by Islamist Terrorist

1 yr ago, on this day..Ms Lo Hwei Yan was brutally killed by Islamist Terrorist


Singapore: News of her body being found on the 19th floor of the Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai filtered through to Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) at about 8pm on Friday night.

Ms Lo Hwei Yen was found dead by Indian security personnel.

About one-and-a-half hours later,Ms Lo’s husband, Mr Michael Puhaindran, identified the body as that of his 28-year-old wife, making her the first Singaporean to have been killed in an overseas terrorist attack.

“We would like to convey our sincere condolences to the family of Ms Lo. This is a tragedy for all Singaporeans,” said a spokesperson from MFA, which alerted the media shortly before 6pm of a press conference later in the evening.

Before addressing the media, MFA had conveyed the tragic news to Ms Lo’s father-in-law, grassroots leader Mr S Puhaindran, and Ms Lo’s aunt. Family members were grieving at the Marine Parade home of the grassroots leader and were too distraught to speak to the media.

Ms Lo, a lawyer at Singapore-based offshore firm Stephenson Harwood, had been taken hostage on Wednesday night when armed militants took the Oberoi Hotel where she had been staying with guns and grenades.

The terrorists had threatened to harm her if Indian security forces continued to storm the building, said MFA’s director of Consulars, Mr Jai Singh Sohan.

Upon receiving the threat, MFA conveyed it to the Indian government.

“We could not confirm this (demand) earlier as the situation at that time was fluid and fast-evolving. It was not appropriate for us to do so at that time for operational reasons,” he said at the press conference.

MFA officials did not reveal more details about where exactly on the 19th floor Ms Lo’s body was found or how she died.

Earlier reports on Indian television said Indian commandos had engaged in fierce gun battles with the terrorists on the 19th floor of the hotel. An Australian woman, who was staying on that floor told the Sydney Morning Herald that she had barricaded herself in her room when Indian security forces threw grenades, tear gas and smoke bombs in a bid to rescue the guests.

Ms Lo is understood to have travelled to Mumbai to attend a business seminar on Wednesday morning.

Several hours later, she managed to contact her family and told them that she had been taken hostage.

MFA learnt of Ms Lo’s situation on Thursday at around 6am and flew her husband Michael and one of her aunts to Mumbai the same evening.

The Ministry also sent a two-man task force to Mumbai to provide assistance to Singaporeans in Mumbai.

Arrangements are being made to bring Ms Lo’s body back to Singapore.

“MFA and our mission in Mumbai will do everything necessary to assist the family in this very difficult time. We wish this tragedy had not occurred,” said Mr Jai. “We have done everything that we could.

“Our sympathies are also with the families of the other hostages who were killed in the attacks.”

No more Singaporeans are stranded in any of the hotels in Mumbai, he added. Some 115 Singaporeans have registered their presence in Mumbai. Four remain uncontactable.

Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong has expressed his sadness over the tragic incident. He knows Mr Puhaindran’s family and had attended their wedding last year.

Upon learning the news, SM Goh visited the family, who were in a state of shock, reported Channel NewsAsia.

He told reporters: “Unfortunately, what we feared came true.”

Ming Yi sentenced to 10 months jail; his aide Raymond Yeung gets 9 months jail

Ming Yi sentenced to 10 months jail; his aide Raymond Yeung gets 9 months jail
By Shaffiq Alkhatib, 938LIVE | Posted: 21 November 2009 1143 hrs


SINGAPORE: The ex-CEO of Ren Ci Hospital, Ming Yi has been sentenced to ten months jail. A district court has also sentenced his former aide, 34-year-old Raymond Yeung to nine months' imprisonment.

47-year-old Ming Yi, whose real name is Goh Kah Heng and Raymond Yeung were convicted last month of falsifying Ren Ci payment vouchers.

The pair was involved in an unauthorised loan of S$50,000 made in 2004 to the Mandala Buddhist Cultural Centre, a religious artefact shop managed by Yeung.

They were also convicted of giving false information to the Commissioner of Charities.

District Judge Toh Yung Cheong said Ming Yi had abused his authority and betrayed the trust given to him.

He said the money could have been used to help the poor and needy patients.

In mitigation, Ming Yi's lawyer Senior Counsel Andre Yeap argued against a jail sentence.

He said the "tsunami-sized" shame Ming Yi endured because of the trial is punishment enough.

He said Ming Yi had helped a lot of people even risking his life when performing physical stunts to raise money for Ren Ci.

Moreover, he also did not personally profit from the loan to Yeung.

But the prosecution, DPP Jaswant Singh, said a tough stand is needed when charitable funds are misused.

Moreover, Yeung put the money to "frivolous" use to renovate a friend's flat in Hong Kong.

Both Ming Yi and Yeung have filed an appeal.

Andre Yeap, Ming Yi’s lawyer, said: "We actually have ten days to file a notice of appeal against sentencing. But for administrative reasons, we were told we have to file a notice of appeal today, so that's been filed. I believe Raymond has filed a notice of appeal also for the same reason."

Both Ming Yi and Yeung had filed an appeal against their conviction last month.

Both men are now out on bail. Ming Yi's was set at S$450,000 while Yeung's is S$200,000. - 938LIVE/vm

Insistence on bilingualism in early years of education policy was wrong: MM Lee

Insistence on bilingualism in early years of education policy was wrong: MM Lee
By Hoe Yeen Nie, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 17 November 2009 2142 hrs


SINGAPORE: Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said his insistence on bilingualism in the early years of education policy was "wrong". Instead it caused generations of students to be put off by the Chinese language.

Speaking first in Mandarin and then in English at the official opening of the Singapore Centre for Chinese Language on Tuesday, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew gave a blunt assessment of Singapore's bilingual policy.

He said: "We started the wrong way. We insisted on ting xie (listening), mo xie (dictation) - madness! We had teachers who were teaching in completely-Chinese schools. And they did not want to use any English to teach English-speaking children Chinese and that turned them off completely."

Mr Lee added: "At first I thought, you can master two languages. Maybe different intelligence, you master it at different levels."

But his conclusions now, after over 40 years of learning Mandarin, cannot be more different.

MM Lee said: "Nobody can master two languages at the same level. If (you think) you can, you're deceiving yourself. My daughter is a neurologist, and late in my life she told me language ability and intelligence are two different things.

"Girls are better at languages because their left side of the brain to learn languages, as a general rule, is better than the boys. Boys have great difficulty, and I had great difficulty.

"Successive generations of students paid a heavy price, because of my ignorance, by my insistence on bilingualism. And I wasn't helped by the ministry officials, because there were two groups - one English speaking, one Chinese teaching."

Mr Lee said educators should first get the child interested in the language by focusing on the way it is heard and spoken. This includes incorporating drama and IT into lessons to make them more engaging.

Mr Lee said: "It doesn't matter what level they reach, they will like the language, it's fun, and later on in life they'll use it."

The need to make the Chinese language more appealing to students has been a focus of the Education Ministry in recent years and one way is to re-examine how the language is taught in schools.

So the new centre set up in February to train Chinese language teachers will soon offer degree programmes that include modules on curriculum design and teaching methods.

The programmes will be offered under four agreements that were formalised on Tuesday. They include a part-time degree for preschool teachers under a partnership with the SEED Institute, a training institute for early childhood educators.

Tan Chee Lay, deputy executive director, Singapore Centre for Chinese Language, said: "For students to learn, the golden age is from three to six. So in this period of time, if we're able to teach them well, they'll learn well and their language foundation will be there."

Other partners are the Media Development Authority (MDA), SIM University (UniSIM), and the University of Hong Kong.

There are over 4,000 Chinese-language teachers here and about a quarter of them have been trained by the centre so far. - CNA/vm

Financial help proposed for older workers who can't be re-hired

Financial help proposed for older workers who can't be re-hired
By Saifulbahri Ismail, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 16 November 2009 1311 hrs

SINGAPORE: Workers who cannot be re-employed after reaching retirement at 62 may be given financial help.

An Employment Assistance Payment (EAP) is being proposed to tide these employees over a period of time while they look for another job. It is part of a set of draft tripartite guidelines on re-employment of older workers announced by Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong at a forum on Monday.

The guidelines, which will supersede an earlier advisory introduced in April last year, take into account feedback from both employers and unions. The recommendations seek to help businesses and employees better prepare for the re-employment legislation in 2012.

Alexander Melchers, chairman of the Tripartite Implementation Workgroup on employability of older workers, said: "Overall we find that companies which have an aging workforce find this a very timely process.

"The devil lies in the details - that's why we now have about two years to work along the guidelines and we encourage companies to implement as many of the elements of the guidelines as possible leading up to 2012."

On EAP, he said: "We implemented EAP because we thought it's important that employees who're eligible for re-employment but their company – for economic restructuring or rejuvenating reasons – is not able to re-employ them... (these) employees will have an opportunity to find a new job."

Union leaders say the EAP must not be used as the first resort.

Heng Chee How, deputy secretary-general of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), said: "I want to stress that the EAP is not a recommendation to companies to say, you just pay this and wash your hands off. Far from it.

"It is really to provide as a last resort for companies that have proven that they have undertaken best efforts and sincerely still cannot find a suitable same job or different job for their workers."

The guidelines call for the company which cannot re-employ a worker to pay a minimum amount. This is especially so for low-wage workers, given that they may have greater difficulty finding another job.

There should also be a maximum amount to moderate the financial burden on employers and to prevent the EAP from encouraging employees to stop working.

Stephen Lee, president of Singapore National Employers Federation, said: "Therefore, we think that the EAP should not be a small pot of gold for the individual. So, the EAP should be appropriate just to help the worker tide over to find another job."

When the re-employment law comes into effect, Qioptiq Singapore will be legally required to consider re-employing 21 of its workers who would have reached retirement. But for now, the optical components maker is taking steps to engage its workers on pre-retirement and re-employment issues.

Chua Teow Tzing, managing director of Qioptiq Singapore, said: "At least one year before, we start having a dialogue. We see that as a platform to interact with them, to see what they really desire, because there's the possibility of re-scoping the work.

"Some may choose a lighter side of things. Some would actually change their role from being a production member to becoming a mentor."

Initiating dialogue with workers before their retirement is among the best practices contained in the newly-released guidelines.

The draft guidelines also recommend that companies put in a performance-based wage system. Mr Gan said: "The re-employment of older workers, which allows for mutually agreeable adjustments in wages, will help companies implement competitive wages based on job worth, productivity and performance."

A public consultation on the guidelines is being carried out. The tripartite partners will finalise the guidelines by early next year.


- CNA/938LIVE/so/ir