TR EMERITUS

PM Lee Looking at past one year, there are so many crimes happening and how come the statistics are still low. Last night, I just watched Crime Watch and the story was how an Indian national used a fake profile to get nude photos from women he found on whatsapp. You can see the detailed article on Todayonline: http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/man-jailed-threatening-post-nude-photos-women-online Using a Caucasian man’s photo as his profile picture, Mani would claim that he was from England or Canada. The accused would then exchange phone numbers with the women and communicate with them via Whatsapp. He would try to exchange nude photos with them by first sending them a photo of a Caucasian man. Some fell for the ploy, and there were those who would send him photos of their work permits or their NRICs when he claimed that he needed them to grant the women access to his condominium. Mani would then threaten to upload the information online. Not to forget the recent incident at Syed Alwi Road where a guy was sawed into pieces and dumped into suitcases. Then last week, a PRC site engineer was sentenced to 6 months' jail for molestation: http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/courts-crime/story/site-engineer-jailed-six-months-molesting-neighbour-lift-20140722 While heading home after work one evening, a site engineer noticed a neighbour walking past and thought she was attractive. He ended up following her to her block and molesting her in a lift. On Tuesday Wang Xiong, 24, was sentenced to six months in prison after pleading guilty to outraging the 27-year-old's modesty on Jan 27 this year. One other count of molest, committed against a 21-year-old girl six days earlier in a similar fashion, was taken into consideration. PM had been saying so many good things about foreigners, such as they help create jobs for Singaporeans, increase our pay, speak better English, make us more competitive and I remember one of his most creative statements - he actually said foreigners commit less crimes than locals! Can he tell us how he arrives at the statistics?   ForeignersCommitLessCrimesThanLocals? * Submitted by TRE reader    Read More →

(22 Jul 2014) - In the good old days before the global financial crisis, a job posting to Asia's financial hubs of Singapore or Hong Kong often included a lavish benefit package with an allowance for housing, a car and schooling but those days are gone, say recruitment experts. "A common misconception exists about the prevalence of expat packages in Singapore but they have almost become a thing of the past," said George McFerran, director at careers website eFinancialCareers. "The vast majority of expats are now hired directly onto local packages while others have given up their prior existing perks to remain a part of Singapore's thriving finance industry. We are aware of a similar trend in Hong Kong," he said. Over 80 percent of expatriate respondents in a recent eFinancialCareers survey of 1,142 bankers and finance professionals in Singapore have never been employed on an expat package.   Read more:  http://www.cnbc.com/id/101836009      Read More →

Foreign workers on work permit Migrant worker activist groups have revealed that errant bosses have been "scamming" MOM for years by reporting to MOM that they are housing their workers in proper approved dorms or quarters when they are actually putting them up in sub-standard cheap places. This was reported in the media today (27 Jul). A proper approved dorm for a worker to live in can cost about $300 a month. But housing workers at construction sites can be free, while a month's stay in a shophouse is about $200. Under the MOM's regulations, it is the responsibility of employers to ensure acceptable accommodation for foreign workers. Foreign worker accommodation must meet the various statutory requirements. These include: Proper land use by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), Housing Development Board (HDB) or Jurong Town Corporation (JTC); Building structural safety standards by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA); Fire and safety standards by the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF); Environmental health requirements by the National Environment Agency (NEA); and Drainage and sanitary/sewerage system requirements by the Public Utilities Board (PUB). Employers who fail to ensure that their foreign workers have acceptable accommodation can be prosecuted. MOM's list of approved housing includes: Commercially Operated Dormitories & Converted Industrial Premises Quarters on Construction Sites & Temporary Workers Quarters on Temporary Occupation Licence (TOL) sites Housing Development Board flats Private Residential Premises Workers Quarters at farms Harbourcraft A volunteer at welfare group Transient Workers Count Too told the media that it all comes down to money. Errant bosses dare to be dishonest because they know it is difficult for MOM to check. Excluding maids who live in their employer's home, there are currently 771,100 work permit holders. Mr Jolovan Wham, executive director of the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME), said, "How do you even start to check when there are so many places?" Mr Wham testified that in recent years, he has seen workers not living at their registered addresses but somewhere else, usually cheaper places with sub-standard conditions. Industry players said bosses have managed to abuse the address registration process because of its ease of use. All they have to do is to go onto MOM's website to log in with their SingPass IDs and passwords, and then key in the supposed addresses and postal codes of their workers' abodes. The MOM's system will accept the input as long as the dorm listed has not reached its maximum occupancy. One construction boss said the system is so easy to "cheat" that some employers get clerks to key in postal codes of various dorms in the hope of hitting one that is not fully occupied. "It's trial and error. The staff will keep trying until they find one which is not full," he said. As a result, dorms end up being full according to MOM's database. Bosses who want to legitimately house their workers cannot register as the website says places are not available. "We have to wait a few days for the dorm operators to compare their records with MOM and remove the names of bogus workers," he said. Industry players said this has been an issue for many years but it did not surface because Singapore has been grappling with a shortage of worker dorms in recent years. But with more dorms coming up, it is time to tackle the problem, they added. More dorms are coming up in part, due to the Little India Riot on 8 Dec last year. Govt wants more workers to be housed in self-contained dorms with full facilities so that the workers won't need to venture outside and congregate in Little India or other public places during weekends. It's easy for MOM to catch these errant bosses by just tallying the dorm records with MOM's database. "They can find out who is providing false information once the names don't match," said one employer. Migrant worker activist groups also said that foreign workers living in those shady sub-standard housing usually won't complain because they do not want to lose their jobs. Bangladeshi worker Mohd Nasirruddin, who shares a sub-standard zinc-roof hut with six others at a construction site, told the media, "It is hot at night. Sometimes I cannot sleep. But it's okay. I want to work and earn money." A TRE reader commented on why foreign workers are so desired by Singaporean employers ('The real reasons why FTs are so desired by employers'): Folks, the reason why foreign workers are so desired by Singaporean employers is purely for the foreign workers quota – it is a money generator for employers. It is like winning the jackpot & 4D combined!    Read More →