Having more foreign workers must not dilute productivity efforts: Lim Swee Say

Labour chief Lim Swee Say has said that any additional intake of foreign manpower should not dilute Singapore’s efforts in productivity improvement.

He was speaking at a conference of employers and trade union leaders organised by the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) on Wednesday.

The conference discussed the recent news that Singapore would likely need some 100,000 foreign workers to meet the demands of various industries.

Mr Lim urged employers not to have pre—conceived ideas that unionists are against foreign workers.

He said: "The labour movement adopts a fairly pragmatic approach. If the growth opportunities are there and there is a shortage of workers, then obviously the foreign workers do come in as additional source of manpower.... (They) served as a buffer during the downturn in 2009."

Mr Lim went on to say: "What we are concerned about is that this additional intake of foreign manpower should not dilute our efforts in productivity improvement.

"If we keep taking in foreign manpower, which are unskilled and low—wage and bring them in big numbers, if we end up discouraging enterprises from upgrading their workforce, I think that would be not welcomed by the labour movement.

"What we would like to see is this movement towards higher productivity should apply both to the local and foreign workforce.

"Yes, we want the local workers to become better skilled, more productive. At the same time we must place the same expectation and demand on the foreign workers as well.

"So, as we take in foreign workers, let’s bring in those who are more employable, more trainable.

"Together these foreign and local workers can go through the process of productivity improvement.....so that over the next 10 years we can achieve our target of 2—3 percent growth."

Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong, who was also at the conference, said: "Exactly how many (foreign workers) will come will depend on the growth of the second half. At the same time it is important for companies to think about how we can do things in a different way so that we can rely on fewer manpower to achieve the same output.

"We hope companies will take this in their stride and see how we can introduce productivity measures so that we can reduce our dependence on low skilled manpower so that we can produce the same or more with fewer resources needed.

"As the economy picks up, companies focus on fulfilling orders immediately. While there is flexibility in the labour market to allow you to do so, at the same time let’s not lose sight of the long term strategic move of raising productivity. Only then can we sustain wage improvements."

— Channel News Asia