Lim Tean says Singapore workers are unhappiest in the world

Singapore — Lawyer and opposition leader Lim Tean shared the results of a survey that found that Singapore workers are the unhappiest in the world.

At the start of his post, Mr Lim writes that Singapore workers are the unhappiest globally and calls it ‘a shameful indictment of the PAP’s labour policies.’

He calls the results of the survey disheartening and adds that the majority of Singapore workers will not recommend pursuing a career in Singapore to others.

Mr Lim says that while the report does not state any reasons for the stress levels experienced by Singaporean workers, there are in his opinion two factors that have contributed to the high stress levels.

Firstly, many Singaporean workers are underpaid and given wages that are lower than one should come to expect of a first world country. Mr Lim questions how Singaporeans can be content when four out of ten workers earn less than $3,000 monthly while needing to survive in one of the most expensive countries in the world. He adds that contentment is difficult to achieve unless one earns a larger sum as most PAP Ministers and Mayors do.

In addition, job insecurity has also exacerbated the stress experienced by Singaporean workers. Mr Lim dubs many of the workers in Singapore as ‘precariats’ who know that they can be dismissed or replaced easily by cheaper foreign labour. He identifies unfair treaties such as The India–Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) as the culprit for this phenomenon.

Mr Lim says that it is painful for him to think about how Singaporeans are indirectly rejecting their own country when they advise others not to seek employment here in Singapore.

He also says that there are important and dire consequences of having an unhappy workforce. A worker who is unhappy is also not productive, which is what led to a fall in productivity over the last ten years, Mr Lim alleges. Moreover, if productivity is not high enough, Singapore will be unable to experience real growth.

During the Singapore General Election 2020, the Peoples Voice (PV) Party’s slogan was “Make Singapore our home again.”

Mr Lim says that in the near future, Singapore should ensure that all Singaporeans are able to enjoy a decent living wage. He adds that those who continue to oppose a minimum wage and instead promote the Progressive Wage Model will only cause Singapore to stagnate and regress.

As such, Singapore should reverse the trend and become a high wage nation as opposed to being a low wage one. “No truly 1st World Nation has workers earning slave wages,” Mr Lim concludes.

Several netizens in the comments section agreed that not enough was being done to protect Singaporean workers.

Mr Lim also recently questioned why cleaners had to wait until July 2023 for higher pay. /TISG