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Thursday, 18 August 2011

Getting retrenched is 'better than striking lottery'

Mon, Mar 16, 2009
The New Paper (Singapore)

Getting retrenched is 'better than striking lottery'

By Elysa Chen

SOME came out dancing, some gave flying kisses and waved goodbye to their colleagues.

One might think that these workers had just got huge bonuses instead of their retrenchment letters.

During this recession, with many fearing for their jobs, the sight of happy retrenched workers is somewhat surreal.

It may have been Friday the 13th yesterday, but it was certainly not Black Friday at the Delphi Automotive Systems plant in Ang Mo Kio Industrial Park 1. The company makes products for the automotive and medical industries.

About 220 of its 1,250 employees were retrenched yesterday, and there were more sad faces among those who kept their jobs.

One woman in her 50s was crying because she missed out on retrenchment.

She bawled: 'Why won't they retrench me? I already said I didn't want to keep working.'

Another worker, who gave her name as Miss Lim, was also disappointed as she had planned to set up her own business.

She said: 'I'm sad that I was not retrenched because I'm already in my 50s, and the work is exhausting. I'm so envious of my colleagues.'

Celebrating
Many of those who received the usually dreaded pink slip celebrated openly.

Madam Pang Tai Gek, 60, who got her wish of getting retrenched, ran out beaming, did a jiggle in front of her friends, and shouted that she would be treating them to a meal.

The line technician, who had been with Delphi for 20 years, said: 'I wanted to leave in two years' time to take care of my grandchildren. Now, I get an early retirement and $40,000! If I had retired on my own, I'd have got nothing.'

Agreeing, another worker shouted: 'It's better than striking lottery!'

As the workers waited to find out their fate, there were emotional group hugs and frenzied photo-taking.

But among some of the retrenched, the smiles were just a brave front to mask their sadness and hide their fears.

Ms Low, a machine operator who earned about $1,000 a month, said:
'After working here for 26years, I've made many close friends. I can't bear to leave. On the surface, I'm smiling, but tears are flowing inside.'
S
toreman Ahmad Zali bin Amin, 40, blew kisses to his colleagues before stoically walking away.

When The New Paper spoke to him later, he admitted he was 'crying inside his heart' and had held back tears.

'I'm very worried. With my qualifications, I may not find a job outside,' said the 16-year veteran said, who only has a PSLE certificate. He has a wife and three children, aged 11, 12 and 15.

A machine operator, Madam Maniya, 50, is also worried because she still has to provide for a son, who is in Primary Two, and her mother, who suffered a stroke this year.

Quality analysis inspector Boh Ai Ping kept her job of 28 years, but was in tears because she couldn't bear to see her friends leave, she said.

She was not alone. Miss Cho, a machine operator of more than 20 years, cried as she said: 'I can't bear to see my friend go. She's really the strength and soul of our department.'

Her friend, a 59-year-old, said in Mandarin as she hugged her friend and laughed: 'The one who didn't get retrenched is crying, while the one who got retrenched is smiling.'

Many of the workers said they saw the retrenchment exercise coming and those retrenched were satisfied with their severance packages.

Ms Margarita Perfecto, Delphi's Asia Pacific manager of marketing and communications, said the retrenched workers will get one month's pay for every year of service, capped at 24 months.

They received two months pay upfront, and the rest to be paid out monthly. The payout will depend on length of service.

Ms Perfecto said: 'It is a tough exercise for us. It's very sad because part of our family has to go.'

She said the company had taken various steps to avoid retrenchment, such as shorter weekdays, job rotations, plant shutdowns and re-deployment of staff.

But it had to resort to retrenchment due to drastic changes in customer demands, she added.

Ms Perfecto said that the number of workers retrenched yesterday were 'comparable' to those in two retrenchment exercises in 1998 and 2000.

Cuts across the board
The retrenchments were across the board, but about 70 per cent were machine operators, she added.

She said the company had not targeted older workers or foreigners specifically, but had made the cuts based on its business needs.

The employees were told last week about the retrenchment exercise.

She said: 'Some employees had wanted to go, but their skills were needed for the business at this point.'

Ms Perfecto said Delphi was working with the Ministry of Manpower, NTUC and the Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) to help identify job opportunities for the retrenched workers.

Madam Halimah Yacob, executive secretary of the United Workers of Electronic and Electrical Industries and the deputy secretary-general of NTUC, said workshops and employability camps have been arranged for the retrenched workers to assess their skills and to see if they are ready for jobs in other sectors.

What you should do if you get retrenched

What you should do if you get retrenched
( Click on the photos below to find out more ............... )

Wednesday, 17 August 2011

Should you invest in overseas properties?

Tuesday, Aug 16, 2011
The Star(Malaysia)
/Asia News Network

Should you invest in overseas properties?

I noticed that there are more and more advertisements on overseas properties in the local media recently. These include properties in Australia, the UK and of course, the US.

What is interesting about the adverts is that they make the properties look like such great deals, and as such we would be throwing away a great profit opportunity not investing in them!

Furthermore, because of the financial crisis in the western countries, property prices have dropped significantly in the last two years. This adds to the attraction of investing in properties overseas.

So should you jump in? Well, perhaps not.

Actually, other than the low prices, there are not many plus points about them. The negative points, however, are plenty! For starters, the properties are in a different country, with their own peculiar laws, rules and regulations. This means that there could be some existing laws that may not be conducive to property investment over there!

For example, there are some restrictions - maintaining green belt is one - that prevent certain lands around London Heathrow Airport from being developed. So while you can buy the land but as it will take years to be developed - if it ever will - it means that your money will be stuck there.

There are other traps of course. For example, the costs of hiring agents, lawyers and property managers overseas are not cheap. It is normal for a property manager in the US to charge between 8 and 10 per cent of the rental collected.

And every time the property needs to be let out, there will be more costs involved as there are advertisements to be run, repairs to be made and commissions to be paid - all of which cost significantly higher than in Malaysia.

Another trap is the high property taxes over there, a topic that is hardly talked about at all over here. I was told that I would be paying $50,000 property ($60,355) tax a year for my house if it was in the US (I'm paying about RM2,000 (S$811) assessment tax for it here). In other words, there are many such traps that often catch foreigners.

Next, there is also a huge over supply of properties in many countries and areas.

There are reports of ghost towns in Ireland - rows of empty houses and apartment blocks dotted and clustered around the country. A similiar situation exists in the US; there are reports of some six million empty properties in the country! Las Vegas alone has over 167,000 empty houses!

What is even more critical is that there may be some way to go before prices recover.

This is particularly so for the properties in the US. While prices have dropped in many areas around the country, it appears that it will continue to fall in the foreseeable future. There is no indication that prices will be turning around any time soon, certainly not before 2015. In fact, some areas are expected to be down in the doldrums for decades! Ditto apply for Ireland.

This means you may have to wait for years before getting a return on your money!

Last but certainly not least is that we must also consider the physical distance.

For example, the UK is over 11,000 kilometres away while the US is over 14,000 kilometres away! This will mean clocking some serious air mileage every time you buy, rent out and eventually sell the property. Needless to say, all this travelling will only wear you out, not to mention draining your bank account!

Actually, there are more points that we must consider before investing in properties overseas. What I've shared here is just the tip of the matter, to give you an idea of the challenges and traps that lay in front of you.

So this being the case, you should think very carefully before investing in properties overseas. While the attraction is there, the traps are many and could be very costly.

The writer, Azizi Ali, is a millionaire coach and author on personal finance in Malaysia.