Different pay of workers

Dear Mr. Tan

There are a lot of commentaries in the media on the China SMRT drivers.

The usual practice in the industry is that the pay is normally different for employees from different countries.  The employers look at the gross expenses and the gross should be more or less the same across.  Take for example, Indian technician with an “S” pass is paid minimum S$2K as per the law (they should have diploma in technology and some years of working in the similar industry).  Work permit holder from Malaysia of “O” level and above is paid $1.6-1.7K as levy is part of the expenses to hire Malaysian.  Same goes for Chinese.

Chinese workers are more vocal and demonstrative/assertive.   While Indian and Bangladeshi are more compliance and submittal. 

The employees have signed to the contract terms.   It is always good HR policy to tell employees that they should not disclose their pay.   This is to prevent the employees from becoming unsatisfied.   It is also true that most executive will not share this info especially if the merit is built into the pay.   For rank and file, they do compare.  So expectation should be set. 

This is just my personal view.

Regards,

Isabel