SINGAPORE – Singapore Airlines (SIA) has let go of about half of its cadet pilots and cabin crew trainees as it continues to downsize its workforce.
The rest will have to leave after their training is completed.
The Straits Times understands that there are more than 400 at various stages of training.
Those who had to abort their training are mainly foreigners.
A spokesman for the airline said of the decision to allow the rest to continue: “SIA is committed to supporting them through their training programme.”
It takes over two years and costs about $250,000 to train one pilot.
The programme for cabin crew lasts less than three months.
However, the airline will not be able to keep them after that due to the “current surplus in staff numbers”, he said.
Retained cadet pilots who need to complete the overseas segment of their training will be put on no-pay leave until SIA is able to safely resume this segment of the training programme, he added.
SINGAPORE: The Government’s major expansion of the TraceTogether and SafeEntry programmes, announced on Wednesday (Sep 9) represents a huge stride in Singapore’s coronavirus fight.
Highlighting the TraceTogether app has logged 2.4 million downloads to date, Smart Nation Initiative Minister-in-charge Vivian Balakrishnan said the Government will pilot the requirement for a TraceTogether token or app to be used with SafeEntry in some locations, fusing the digital check-in system with the proximity data collection mechanism.
The TraceTogether programme’s ability to find total strangers who have crossed paths already goes hand-in-hand with analogue, manual contact tracing efforts that try to work out known acquaintances coronavirus patients have come into contact with.
But this further collaboration between the two systems provides authorities with an even larger net from which to obtain and triangulate data quicker and more rigorously.
The Government’s second announcement extending the TraceTogether token programme to Singapore residents in phases, with tokens available from Sep 14 onwards, will also give TraceTogether a larger catchment.
A third announcement to launch a new self-check service and SMS service on Sep 10 alerting those who have visited venues the same time as COVID-19 cases, based on SafeEntry records, will benefit Singapore residents.
Being alerted if they have been close to new COVID-19 cases will prompt them to self-isolate, watch for symptoms or get themselves tested.
The sum of all three moves will aid Singapore’s efforts to address the risk of spread in densely-populated places like shopping malls that may be extended to more activities when large-scale events can resume.
The integrated system may even replace the need to check into every small store on SafeEntry.
PRIVACY CONCERNS HAVE BEEN LARGELY SQUARED OFF
These developments to fuse both systems together are not unexpected, given that the TraceTogether app already has an integrated function allowing users to scan SafeEntry QR codes.
TraceTogether tokens are seen before being distributed to residents at Jalan Besar Community Club in Singapore, Sep 14, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Edgar Su)
As Dr Balakrishnan has highlighted, the average time to obtain contact data has already been brought down from three to four days to under one day so greater adoption gives us more to look forward to.
Yet the Government understands these benefits will only be realised if TraceTogether adoption is widespread, but achieving that figure of 70 per cent or more mentioned by Dr Balakrishnan requires prior concerns to be squared off.
Chiefly, fixes to allow the app to work in the background and arrest battery drain issues have been rolled out. But authorities know data collection concerns too must be tackled.
French security researcher Baptiste Robert told news outlet CNET in April:
Singapore is a very good example of not getting adoption, even with a privacy-preserving app. Technically, everything was well done … (but) people don’t understand the technical details behind the app, they just understand ‘the government wants to trace me’.
Hence, it was useful Dr Balakrishnan reaffirmed the Government’s stance that this enhanced data collection will not be undertaken at the expense of personal privacy.
The Government also organised a “tear-down” where four external experts examined the insides of the token to ascertain that the token only did what it was designed to do in July.
Reassuringly, despite the initial reservations about personal information surrounding digital contact tracing all those months ago, TraceTogether and SafeEntry programmes have achieved an impressive amount of trust. The TraceTogether app has now been downloaded by 40 per cent of the population and 10,000 tokens have been distributed.
With the latest distribution of tokens to all residents the percentage of residents with TraceTogether capability will rise significantly.
Coupled with the circuit breaker, advisories on masks and safe distancing, each step of Singapore’s coronavirus journey has been taken with firmer resolve despite initial public misgivings, representing a rising level of trust. Surveys, like the Silver Generation Office’s and YouGov’s, show a majority of respondents would carry a TraceTogether token.
Expert scrutiny, like the MIT Tech Review’s evaluation of TraceTogether, giving the programme strong ratings based on safeguards on data usage, collection and deletion, may have helped change people’s minds.
File photo of pedestrians wearing protective face masks along Orchard Rd in Singapore on Sep 9, 2020. (Photo: Gaya Chandramohan)
Another piece of evidence of this growing “trust bank” is the presence, alongside SafeEntry QR codes at the entrances of supermarkets and shopping malls, of QR codes of other national programmes such as information on jobs availability that ride on SafeEntry’s modus operandi.
BUILDING ON TRUST TO FIGHT COVID-19
I would argue these developments augurs well for Singapore, where hard-earned trust sets the foundation on which the war on COVID-19 will be progressively won.
Fighting COVID-19 is like fighting a spreading forest fire, requiring us to identify the fire’s spread at the edges in close to real-time and concentrating resources to arrest any spread.
These apps can provide real-time data that reveal people’s behaviours and patterns that form a larger operating picture of where exposure to the virus occurs and why, augmenting our national networked approach to countering the coronavirus.
With sufficient information, Singapore’s approach could also take a pre-emptive bent to focus on population clusters susceptible to the next outbreak.
But the trust underpinning these systems is a two-way street. As the Government continues to build and protect the trust that created in its responses to the pandemic, such national-level efforts would be vain if the best laid plans are blatantly ignored by the majority and few pay heed to measures because they lack the conviction needed for complete compliance.
Leong Chee Mun was fined S$5,000 for co-hosting a gathering for 16 guests during the circuit breaker, when stay-home curbs were in force to control COVID-19’s spread. (Photo: TODAY/Raj Nadarajan)
We only have to look at the many countries that have failed to rein in the pandemic to understand how the lack of individual responsibility has corroded a critical atmosphere of trust and has led to more outbreaks.
Meanwhile in Singapore, generally large conformity with restrictions and rules arising from trust in the national strategy to combat the coronavirus has benefited all.
Community infection rates have seen huge improvement, allowing for a further relaxation of restrictions on wedding sizes, some religious gatherings and more since the circuit breaker lifted in June.
The Government’s decision last week to allow some business events of up to 250 attendees to proceed from October onwards also bodes well for the eventual relaxation of international travel and the Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions sector, activities that form huge parts of Singapore’s pre-coronavirus economy on which many more sectors, businesses and jobs rely on.
These developments in Singapore’s contact tracing system protect people’s health and are to be warmly welcomed.
Trust can breed assurance, allowing us to venture into the new normal with confidence that the systems in place and the collective responsibility of the community will provide an adequate level of protection when more restrictions are lifted.
It’s been seven months since Singapore went into DORSCON Orange. We have come so far through sacrifices made by organisations, businesses and people.
The last thing we want is for those hard-earned gains to be lost because people flout the rules or remain skittish about such contact tracing technologies on the basis of wrong understanding of how they work.
SINGAPORE: International companies in Singapore said the Government’s move to raise the minimum salary requirement for foreign workers will not affect their plans here, as many firms already make an effort to hire locals.
When they do turn to foreigners, firms said it is often because specific expertise or language skills are needed.
“It is the non-availability of the specific skills, experience and expertise that makes you go for an EP (Employment Pass), and not a case of salary economics,” said Mr KV Rao, the Southeast Asia resident director of Tata Sons, which has 20 subsidiaries in Singapore.
For instance, in its subsidiaries NatSteel and Voltas, Mr Rao said it is hard to find locals for jobs that require them to go out to the field, such as civil engineers, construction supervisors and maintenance workers.
Apart from Tata Consultancy Services, where about 40 per cent of its employees are locals, the bulk of workers in its other businesses are mostly made up of Singaporeans and permanent residents, said Mr Rao.
He added that most of the company’s EP holders were already paid above the minimum salary threshold.
The Ministry of Manpower had announced last month that for new EP holders, the minimum qualifying salary will go up by S$600 to S$4,500 in September, with a higher criteria for the financial services industry.
Mr Ravi Shastri, Southeast Asia and Taiwan managing director of Thermo Fisher Scientific, said that the company has “a good diverse talent pool which is primarily made up of local talent from various backgrounds”.
“A minority of the workforce is made up of global talent due to the nature of being an MNC (multinational corporation) and Singapore being a regional hub for Thermo Fisher Scientific,” he added.
“Just as we have foreigners here on rotation, we have Singaporeans in other offices overseas as part of their career development plan,” Mr Shastri said.
The medical technology giant has been in Singapore for more than 30 years. Thermo Fisher said it has 1,600 employees here and plans to expand its workforce by another 400 “very soon”.
Both Tata and Thermo Fisher did not give the breakdown of their foreign and local workforce.
TALENT TRANSFER TAKES TIME
Heads of business chambers and analysts agreed that the recent changes to the labour policy are unlikely to alter the course of foreign companies in Singapore because the take-home pay is already above the minimum requirement.
Most foreign companies bring in foreigners when there are not enough local workers to perform a certain role or for a leadership position, said Mr Lee Quane, ECA International’s regional director of Asia.
“These are generally critical roles where the employee adds value to the company’s existing Singapore workforce through skills or knowledge transfer or where they are creating business for the company, and adding to Singapore’s economy by performing a role where the company is not able to source a person with the requisite skills locally,” he said.
“These types of roles typically require the employee being relocated to Singapore to possess skills and experience which means that the salaries they will earn will generally be in excess of the minimum wage requirements.”
Tata’s Mr Rao said that practically speaking, a company’s first choice is always to hire a local. Bringing in a foreigner always costs more, he emphasised, as the organisation has to provide them with allowance for housing, education for children, insurance and other living expenses.
Foreigners in Tata are here to take on senior positions that it cannot find locals to fill, he said.
“To be at the senior level, you need somebody with a track record and relevant international experience,” he said, adding many Singapore residents have risen to senior positions in Tata subsidiaries as well.
“The talent transfer is ongoing, but it is not overnight,” he added.
People wearing face masks at Bedok Town Square on Sep 4, 2020. (Photo: Try Sutrisno Foo)
According to Dr Hsien-Hsien Lei, chief executive of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Singapore, American companies want to promote local talent but find it a challenge to do so right now.
She pointed to a manpower report that will be published by the chamber this month, which found that among half of the 127 companies surveyed, Singapore residents filled up only half or fewer of their senior level positions, that is, manager and above.
When asked what prevents them from hiring a local for these roles, 89 per cent of the companies said that the candidates lack necessary specialised skills or work experience.
For entry-level positions that require fewer than five years of professional experience, 47 per cent of the 127 companies said they had to hire a foreigner because the applicant lacked the technical skills essential for the job.
“But … definitely the conversation and this change is a reminder to our companies that we need to be more mindful of hiring practices, and overall workplace diversity,” Dr Lei said.
Companies CNA spoke to stressed that they are making significant efforts to hire and train locals.
Tata Consultancy Services has offered fresh graduate and mid-career jobs through the Infocomm Media Development Authority’s TechSkills Accelerator initiative, Mr Rao said, and most recently, it made available another 100 traineeships to polytechnic and university graduates through the SGUnited jobs scheme.
Thermo Fisher said it has been part of Workforce Singapore’s professional conversion programmes and SkillsFuture’s work-study programme – formerly known as the earn and learn programme – since 2017.
SINGAPORE’S EDGE BEING OPEN TO THE WORLD
Industry players and observers all said the tightening of foreign workforce requirements will not affect Singapore’s standing as an international hub, as it remains a place that is business-friendly.
“The whole world is a mess. If we’re looking at mitigating risks … I don’t think there’s a better place at the end of the day,” Dr Lei said, citing qualities such as Singapore’s transparent economy and digital networks.
Singapore’s generally low unemployment rate – the resident figure stood at 4.1 per cent in July amid COVID-19 – is another sign that companies are still entering the country and creating jobs for locals, CIMB Private Banking economist Song Seng Wun said.
They cautioned, however, that Singapore should not take its reputation for granted, and that any perception that the country is turning inwards will cause it to lose its competitive edge.
Expatriates interviewed in recent news reports and those who commented in online expatriate community groups have indicated growing difficulty in finding a job in Singapore during the COVID-19 downturn, as firms tell them they need to prioritise locals. Some said they feel less welcomed in Singapore.
“Foreign talent has even been described as ‘ballast’ which can be jettisoned in tough times. That is a dangerous populist message which undermines all that we have collectively built,” said Mr Victor Mills, the chief executive of the Singapore International Chamber of Commerce.
Instead, Singapore should ramp up efforts to attract entrepreneurs, innovators and researchers from across the world now to prepare for life after the pandemic, he said.
“Remember, all talent has choices. Why come here if they are not welcome? Singaporeans and their leaders took 50 years to build an exceptional brand,” he said, listing Singapore’s positive attributes like political stability and accessibility to Asian markets.
“The Singapore brand, like all reputations, was hard to build. Equally, like all reputations, it is easy to lose. We cannot, must not weaken our brand,” Mr Mills said.
Nominated Member of Parliament Mohamed Irshad, who represents the religious and youth communities, said that public perception of Singapore abroad could take a hit if anti-foreigner sentiments are allowed to take root, adding that the local community needs to understand that “it takes time to grow the talent”.
“(But) surely we will develop a globalised and competent Singaporean core,” he added.
It is a message that Singapore’s leaders have been emphasising. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in Parliament earlier this month that even as the Government makes policy adjustments, it must not give the impression that it no longer welcomes foreigners.
“Let me be clear. We want the world’s best and brightest to be with Team Singapore – to augment our skills and capabilities, competing on our side rather than against us, and ultimately, to benefit Singaporeans, not to substitute or to hurt them,” he said last week.
SMALLER COMPANIES FACE CHALLENGES
While the tightening of foreign workforce policies will not have much of an impact for conglomerates like Tata that are firmly established in Singapore, many smaller companies may feel “stifled”, said Mr Rao, who is also the Singapore chair of the India Business Forum of the Confederation of Indian Industry, an association of Indian companies, banks and Indian government-linked companies.
He estimates that there are about 8,000 Indian entities registered in Singapore.
Dr Lei said that amid COVID-19, small and medium enterprises have been struggling. If hiring costs go up, they may have to “rethink their business model” and get the job done remotely instead of trying to get someone here.
Mr Brice Degeyter, the founder of sustainability startup Bizsu, said that while his current plan is to make use of government-issued job incentives to hire locals, there will be a time when he will need to hire a foreign worker.
“The company goal is to expand in other countries in the region. If we deal with companies in Thailand, it’s important to speak Thai. As we are in sustainability, we need people who are knowledgeable on this topic. As we are close to the French community, it can be important to speak French,” said Mr Degeyter, who is a French employment pass holder.
“Can we find someone with at least two of these skills in Singapore? I would love to, that would be easier, but it’s quite hard,” he said.
“If (policies are) too restrictive, they might leave Singapore and go somewhere else,” he added. “That’s business lost for the country.”
“Over the long term, Singapore cannot be as attractive, fruitful and prosperous if it makes it harder for foreigners because it will lose its openness. And then everybody loses.”
SINGAPORE: Corporal (NS) Muhammad Sufian Supardi was overseeing COVID-19 swab operations at Blue Stars dormitory in June when he received a phone call from his pregnant wife.
He had expected the call, but the message came as a surprise.
“She told me the doctor said that the baby is in good health and everything is fine,” recalled the 27-year-old.
“And she said: ‘Guess what? We are having a baby girl.’ I was surprised and shocked and happy at the same time.”
Corporal (NS) Muhammad Sufian Supardi volunteered to be part of the FAST team deployed to Blue Stars dormitory.
Ordinarily, CPL Sufian might have been with his wife at the check-up.
But the Police National Serviceman (PNSman) chose to temporarily stay away from his family for health and safety reasons, given that he had responded to the call for volunteers to be part of a Forward Assurance & Support Team (FAST) team at the dormitory.
“Sometimes I did feel that I am away from my family and maybe she needs me and I need her to be there,” said CPL Sufian. “But when I think and relax (by reminding myself) … that this situation won’t prolong for so long.”
FAST teams, comprising officers from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and Home Team, were set up and deployed to migrant worker dormitories in early April, as COVID-19 cases in those living quarters spiked.
The Home Team in particular oversaw the management of 21 purpose-built dormitories and two decant sites which housed more than 160,000 migrant workers. Their roles include attending to the essential needs of workers, implementing safe living measures and facilitating testing.
“(It’s) something new, and I wanted to learn more about this and do the best I can do to contribute,” said CPL Sufian, who works as a technician.
“I am the type of person that loves to go for challenges. My mind was like, okay this is something that I can contribute, what I can do to help the people there …. So I didn’t think so much and went for it.”
With the setting up of the MOM’s Assurance, Care and Engagement (ACE) group, the Home Team’s officers stood down from their deployment on Tuesday (Sep 15).
For the 50 days that CPL Sufian was involved in FAST team operations, he would return home once a week for a few hours, but made sure not to have physical contact with his loved ones.
His mother-in-law is a dialysis patient.
“To her (my wife), health is also important, because she knows it is not just her but her mother as well. So she agrees with what I did,” said CPL Sufian.
“She was a bit sad but as time went by, she (got) used to it and was quite supportive … She could understand that this is something once in a lifetime that I could contribute to the nation. So, she was okay with it.”
‘PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY CHALLENGING’
Station Inspector (SI) Sheik Ismail Mohamed Ashad was part of a different FAST team deployed to the S11 dormitory @ Punggol, which was Singapore’s largest COVID-19 cluster.
“Some time in early April, my management informed me that they required volunteers for COVID-19 related operations at the dormitories. And I thought I would volunteer for it because it was a nationwide crisis and I wanted to do my part,” he said.
“I did understand the health risk … (also) considering the fact that I am staying with my parents and they are elderly, and that I may have the chance of contracting the virus and may pass it on to my next of kin at home.
“But I also thought that I needed to do this, because I felt that urge that this is something I need to do for the nation.”
Station Inspector (SI) Sheik Ismail Mohamed Ashad was deployed to S11 dormitory @ Punggol after volunteering to be part of the FAST team.
Describing the work as “physically and mentally challenging”, SI Ismail recalled how things were not easy in the initial stages.
“The first weeks were quite tiring, because we had to work long hours – sometimes up to 16 hours every day until we had more men joining us. And then we started to work shift hours, one day work and one day off.”
Given that he could speak Tamil, SI Ismail found himself being able to connect with some of the workers.
“I felt that I was able to gain their trust … (During) my deployment, I got to see more and more workers approaching me and telling me their issues and their concerns and what was the help they required,” said SI Ismail.
Some of the workers’ worries included salary matters and their employment prospects, he added.
“They have concerns whether they still would be employed in Singapore, because … nobody knows what’s going to happen and when they are going to start work again,” said SI Ismail.
“There are companies closing down and all, they have doubts whether they will be able to work, whether they are able to go back to their country and they are also worried about their family members.”
SI Ismail was also able to leverage his experience as a senior investigation officer in the Singapore Police Force’s commercial affairs department when he helped a worker who was a victim of a bank phishing scam.
Having spent a total of about three months over two stints as a member of the FAST team at the S11 dormitory, SI Ismail considers some of the workers there as friends.
“I still keep in contact with some workers. Even last week, one of them called me just to check on me and say how are you, and he was just telling (me) how things are,” he said.
One particular instance that remains close to SI Ismail’s heart was when a migrant worker gave the team some Bangladeshi sweets on Hari Raya Haji.
Said SI Ismail: “It was quite touching, it made me feel that people appreciate the effort that we had been doing there.”
SINGAPORE: Several shopping centres have been added to the list of public places visited by COVID-19 community cases during their infectious period, said the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Tuesday (Sep 15).
Among them are Hougang Mall, IKEA Tampines, IMM, Junction 8, NEX, Plaza Singapura and Tiong Bahru Plaza.
HarbourFront Centre and Lau Pa Sat were also on the list, as was a Burger King outlet at Changi Airport Terminal 1.
The new locations are as follows:
Those who have been identified as close contacts of confirmed cases would already have been notified by MOH.
As a precautionary measure, people who were at those locations during the specified timings should monitor their health closely for 14 days from their date of visit, said MOH.
“They should see a doctor promptly if they develop symptoms of acute respiratory infection (such as cough, sore throat and runny nose), as well as fever and loss of taste or smell, and inform the doctor of their exposure history,” it added.
The ministry said there is no need for people to avoid places that have been visited by COVID-19 cases, and that the National Environment Agency will engage the management of the affected premises to provide guidance on cleaning and disinfection.
Singapore reported 34 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, including six imported infections.
Growing up, many of us have been told to be careful while riding escalators.
A toddler whose foot got caught in an escalator at VivoCity on Sunday (Sept 13), once again emphasises the importance of this advice.
The incident was caught on camera and shared on TikTok by user @wonraekang0523. A boy and two adults — presumably his parents — were seen in the footage. PHOTO: Screengrab/TikTok/wonraekang0523In a clip, the couple were seen sitting on the steps of the stationary escalator as they comforted their three-year-old son. Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) personnel soon arrived to free the trapped boy.
SCDF said they were alerted to the incident at level 1 of VivoCity Mall at around 2.20pm that day.
A man was out on a stroll in an HDB estate in Jurong West on Sunday (Sept 13) night when he noticed that he had company — a python.
The reptile, estimated to be 2.5 metres long, was seen slithering out from a water canal and across the bridge where an HDB estate stood.
Facebook user Chia Ming Ho, who filmed the sighting, immediately alerted National Parks Board (NParks) for assistance, while he monitored the python’s movement and warned passers-by not to get close to the wild animal.
By the time the team dispatched by NParks arrived at the scene, it had taken refuge in the nearby bushes.
After locating the python, the men proceed to extract it from the bushes.
Holding its head in place with a pair of snake tongs, they took turns in a brief ‘tug-of-war’ with the reptile as they loosened the soil where it had burrowed into.
After a few minutes, they captured the snake and placed it in a black bag.
In his Facebook post yesterday (Sept 14), Chia commended the men who caught the python and helped keep the estate safe from potential danger.
The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) is investigating a case of alleged animal abuse after a man posted videos of himself putting a kitten in a freezer and washing machine.
A Stomp contributor alerted Stomp to a Facebook post that shared videos taken from the man’s Instagram page.
It is unclear when the videos were taken.
Netizens expressed alarm after a video showed the man picking up the kitten and placing it in a freezer before closing the refrigerator door.
In another video, the kitten is seen inside a washing machine with its door closed before the man opens it and is heard laughing.
A woman was accompanied by her fellow activists to Tanglin Police Division last Friday (Sept 11), after she got in trouble for posting an image that was deemed alarming.
It was a picture of her flipping the bird at police cameras situated at Speakers’ Corner in Hong Lim Park.
The activist — known as Averyn — had posted the image on her Facebook page on November 6 last year, when she pointed her middle fingers up at the CCTV security cameras while wearing a camouflage outfit. It was accompanied by a caption that expressed her dismay over “militarised surveillance” and the silence over marginalised communities.
This, according to social worker and activist Jolovan Wham, garnered a police report filed against her on May 15 earlier this year. PHOTO: Twitter/Screengrab/@kixesWham and other activists, including journalist Kirsten Han, accompanied the woman in a show of solidarity when she attended an interview with the police last Friday.
SINGAPORE – The owners of a dog that was put down in April and the veterinarians involved in the case were found to have not breached the law and code of ethics after investigations by the Animal and Veterinary Service (AVS).
The euthanasia of the dog named Loki drew widespread public attention earlier this year, with some netizens alleging that Loki’s owners and the vet had put down the dog unnecessarily.
In its four-month-long investigation, AVS said it found that there was “no failure in duty of care or cruelty” by the owners – a married couple – as they had provided Loki with its “basic needs such as food, water, shelter and veterinary attention, and treated it well”.
Three vets from two clinics involved in the case were found to have complied with the code of ethics for veterinarians and other regulations such as the Animals and Birds Act.
In addition, there was no breach of the Covid-19 (Temporary Measures) Act by all parties as “veterinary acts that uphold public safety”, including the humane euthanasia of animals, were considered an essential service during the circuit breaker period.
