Hard training, good shoes

[Atonchia]

Hard training, good shoes

 

That's the key to get ahead in income race: Gan

 

SINGAPORE - With Opposition parties questioning whether wages have kept pace with economic growth, Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong said yesterday there is only one real solution.

 

Likening it to a race, he said it was not possible to eliminate other competitors or set rules to disallow others from running faster. Instead, the way to get ahead in the income race is through hard training and with good running shoes.

 

Sustainable income growth was the emphasis yesterday, as four People's Action Party leaders - Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, labour chief Lim Swee Say and Mr Gan - took on a hot issue at Opposition rallies so far.

 

In a nutshell, they said the key to that sustainability was skills upgrading.

 

Their responses came a day after the National Wages Council (NWC) had recommended a higher total wage increase this year, and on the eve of the labour movement's May Day Rally.

 

And when the Opposition question was put to him, Mr Lim said: "I don't know what they mean. In our case, when the economy does well, when then industries do well, under our NWC guideline, they have to share the gain.

 

"If (the Opposition) have better guidelines, they can issue the guidelines and let the tripartite partners take a look. And from there, we can explain to workers why we feel that our guideline, up to now, is the right way."

 

The NWC's call for higher fixed wages and bonuses comes after it urged caution during the 2009 recession.

 

But it gave a "good recommendation" last year, even if it noted the need to be cautious because the rest of the world had not recovered yet, Mr Gan told Today in response to comments by an Opposition candidate that this year's guidelines have come too late.

 

And the wage recommendation this year is exactly how Mr Lim thinks it should be done: "Higher increase in total wages, not higher increase in built-in wages."

 

The reason is due to the "uncertainty ahead" in Japan, Europe, the Middle East and the United States, which several PAP leaders had cited on Thursday and which Mr Lim believes is why there is no contradiction between the People's Action Party's (PAP) note of caution and NWC's strong wage guidelines.

 

"One is responsiveness to the upturn, share the gain with the workers, and yet ... flexibility in our wage system so that we can respond should there be a downturn," he told Today.

 

As to the overall Opposition charge that the widening income gap and rising cost of living was a result of the PAP, MM Lee said the PAP's policies are "the rising tide".

 

"All boats have risen, but not equally. It depends on your ability, it depends on your diligence, it depends on your educational standards, and the income gap must widen because worldwide it's widening," he said.

 

He cited the competition that China, India and even Vietnam is posing at lower end of the job market, and said Singapore will "just have to upgrade our workers so that they can go on to the middle-level jobs".

 

And in his May Day message, PM Lee said that skills upgrading and productivity is the most effective way "to keep on raising incomes".

 

"I encourage workers to take up the Continuous Education and Training opportunities, master new skills, and benefit from the better-paying jobs that we're creating," he said.

 

Mr Gan also said Singapore must have the right policies to "attract new investments and create more and better jobs".

 

When asked after his rally speech at Chua Chu Kang stadium if the NWC's latest wage guidelines were timed to coincide with the elections, which an Opposition candidate had suggested, he supposed that the council had "very few issues to debate".

 

"So they reach their conclusion earlier and decide to announce it earlier. Because it's good news, it's better to announce earlier so that more workers can benefit from the good news," he added. With additional reporting by Ansley Ng, Ong Dai Lin and Tan Yo-Hinn

 

 

Taken from Today's :http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC110501-0000351/Hard-training,-good-shoes

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Atonchia]

Didn't they know there are categories in these races.

However our race is a single category, those who have fallen behind cannot not join other races.

 

Shoes are expensives, places are limited and cramp. Thus not many have the basic criteria to join in any race, let alone get a reward for it.

How to be cheaper?

 

Asking people to have hard training and invest in good shoes but the race is a cycling one. How to be faster?

 

Asking people to upgrade skillset yet the competition is a table-tennis one, how to win? And the focus is getting athletes from elsewhere. How to be better?

Edited May 1, 2011 by Atonchia

[Chucky2007]

Yawn.. pappies ideology evolving from other peoples concept..