11/22/2008

Tripartism taken a body blow

Tripartism is the cornerstone of our labour management relation. Its existence and being part of the institution of Singapore Inc have been going on for too long and maybe forgotten. Union was claiming that they got only 3 days notice of a big retrenchment. And I wonder how many days did the MOM got. MOM had to rush out a new set of guidelines on what a corporation should do before drawing out the butcher knife. And the Union is crying foul. The rhetoric is getting stronger by the day. Last night we heard Swee Say talking about cooperation to confrontation if management took the Union for granted. How could our labour management relation suddenly took a plunge? Someone sleeping or someone thought that they are also the govt or the Union was not consequential? Maybe it is forgiveable if decisions were made by FTs who are new to our unique brand of tripartism. Incidently, were locals let go at the expense of retaining FTs? There was this motherhood statement that the foreigners will be the first to go and the jobs of the locals will be protected. How many were locals and how many were foreigners that were retrenched?

3 comments:

  1. There was this motherhood statement that the foreigners will be the first to go and the jobs of the locals will be protected..

    without much effort, anyone can easily say anything. but what is really important is what is not said. i like to know EXACTLY how we are going to sack the foreign talents to save the local dummies. anyone knows?

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  2. you are right. singaporeans have been indoctrinated with phrases like foreign talents, the word foreign must be followed by the word talent. foreigners are talent.

    as for locals, ya, dummies is a good word to follow. anyway, everyone is saying that we don't have talents. and looking at the few local talents trying to sell the idea that a dictatorship or an authoritarian state is good, you can't argue about local dummies.

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  3. This is not a body blow. They are claiming that they were hit below the belt. But do not fret, in the eyes of the govt employers are king. The relentless import of foreign workers are to help employers cut cost to save jobs for Singaporeans. The only problem is that the jobs saved goes back eventually to the foreign workers. But they have special jobs only reserved for Singaporeans, like washing toilets, cleaning tables, cutting grass etc

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