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sensuousrhythms
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job offer

Post by sensuousrhythms » Thu, 29 May 2008 3:06 am

I am being offered a job in Singapore to which the working hours are from 9am to 9pm, mondays to saturdays, with a salary of 1800SGD.

When I was first interviewed, I was told that the working hours are from 9am to 6pm, mondays to fridays, and 9am to 12 nn during saturdays. And then on my final interview, this was the offer (9am to 9pm, mondays to saturdays). I asked why. And they said, "they are normal work. The 10 hours per day is a standard work hours for all foreigners because the salary is already bundled with overtime. I have to maintain consistency with other foreigners." I quote them.

A friend of mine is currently in singapore and works as an engineer, and he works standard time 9 to 6, mondays to fridays. and if he opts, he can go to work weekends with an overtime pay. If the company who wants to hire me would like to have consistency, then how come the sudden change of work hours during the job offer and they stressed out that the salary Im gonna be getting is already "bundled with OT"?

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taxico
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Post by taxico » Thu, 29 May 2008 6:24 am

are you working as an engineer too? what sort of "engineer"? (civil?) how qualified are you? where've you worked before?

it's hard to judge if $1800 is a good deal for a 12 hour work day without all that.

but i guess since you're feeling a little incredulous over the working hours and pay, you COULD reconsider (by weighing everything up carefully).

no one's forcing you to take it right?

i've not heard of "bundled OT" before, but i'm not very experienced in this area. let it be known that there're crooked employers in every country!

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jpatokal
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Post by jpatokal » Fri, 30 May 2008 10:11 pm

Tell them to go stick it up their ass -- according to the Employment Act, Part IV, the contract is illegal. By Singapore law, a contract may not require more than 8 hours of work in one day or more than 44 hours of work per week (Sec. 38), and your contract violates both: 11 hrs/day,
58 hrs/wk. This applies to employees paid under S$1600 in base salary, and since your salary without the overtime comes to just ~S$1300/month, you qualify (Sec. 35b). Here's the letter of the law:

http://statutes.agc.gov.sg/non_version/ ... =part&sl=1

On top of that, the salary they're offering is poor for almost any job, especially one that involves 18 hours of unpaid overtime a week. There's no "consistency" between employment contracts; if anything, Singaporean employers are usually paranoid about not letting employees know how much other employees are earning.

If I was you, I'd send a copy of the contract you were offered to the Ministry of Manpower. That company is exploiting people and deserves to get busted.
Vaguely heretical thoughts on travel technology at Gyrovague

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