Outsourcing

Many jobs in the private and public sector has been outsourced during the past decade. In the past, these organisations employ clearners, security guards and technicians and paid fair wages relative to the other "core workers" in their organisations. The workers are protected by the collective bargaining of wages in the organisations.

After outsourcing, these organisations were able to reduce their operating cost. The contractors who won the jobs were able to employ foreign workers or re-emply the retrenched workers at lower wages or to work for longer hours. This is a key contributor for the stagnation of wages in Singapore during the past decade.

The customers do not benefit much from the reduction in cost. Most of the benefits accrue to the shareholders and top managers of these organisations. This accounts for the widening gap between the high and low income earners.

While wages remain stagnant, the cost of living continues to increase. This makes life very difficult for many Singaporeans.

I hope that our top leaders will realise that this is a bad trend and that outsourcing is a source of this problem. To correct this situation, there should be a minimum wage for all workers and that the public sector should set an example by insisting on an expected standard of service and be willing to pay fair fees for outsourced work.

Tan Kin Lian