http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/business/38293-maybank-singapore-passes-on-savings-to-staff
The Malaysian Insider, 22 Sep 2009
Maybank Singapore passes on savings to staff
SINGAPORE, Sept 22 — Instead of pocketing
everything, Maybank Singapore is passing on part of the savings from
the Jobs Credit Scheme to its unionised staff in extra bonuses and
training.
Some 400 of its unionised employees — or slightly more than a third of
its 1,300 local staff — will get 0.5 to 1.5 months’ more in bonuses,
depending on their performance.
This is on top of the 2.5 months bonus payout that
banks in Singapore, including Maybank, have agreed with unions in the
banking sector.
With the additional payments, the bonuses of
unionised staff at Maybank Singapore will match those of the bank’s
non-unionised staff and executives.
The latter are getting an average 3.5 months’ bonus, which is
“competitive compared to the market”, according to Maybank’s local
human resource head Wong Keng Fye.
The extra bonuses to be paid out to the unionised
staff add up to half the S$1.3 million (RM3.2 million) Maybank
Singapore got from the Jobs Credit Scheme for its unionised staff. The
rest of the money will be deployed for staff training.
Maybank Singapore is believed to
be the only bank here to use the savings from the Jobs Credit Scheme to
dish out higher bonuses to unionised staff in the current economic
downturn.
In the manufacturing sector, Murata Electronics reported last month
that it shared some of the cash gains from the Jobs Credit Scheme with
its workers in Singapore, offering them a one-off bonus payment of
S$300.
This came after the Japanese disk-drive maker revised its annual
earnings forecast from a loss of 8 billion yen (RM303 million) to a
loss of one billion yen.
Murata’s managing director Masatoshi Koike, who indicated orders have
risen in recent months after dropping to as low as 15 per cent at one
point, said schemes such as Jobs Credit have been timely in helping
companies cope with the recession and minimising layoffs.
Introduced by the government in January, the S$4.5 billion Jobs Credit
Scheme is intended to help employers in Singapore save costs and jobs
in the face of declining business.
Maybank Singapore has continued to post financial growth despite the
downturn. Its operating profits here rose 35.6 per cent for the
financial year ending June 2009.
But the bank’s Wong said the extra bonus is not just a reward for the workers’ contribution to the good financial results.
“Beyond financials, the management of the bank recognised the efforts
of staff in supporting some of the initiatives that the bank had
undertaken to excel in the area of service excellence and worklife
balance,” he said.
This year, Maybank Singapore became the first in
the industry to achieve triple certification for business excellence in
quality, service and developing talent.
“Maybank was also the only bank that received accolades for its series
of pro-family and work-life initiatives in the workplace by clinching
the Work-Life Excellence Award 2008 for the second time,” Wong said.
Staff turnover at Maybank Singapore has also been consistently below the industry average.
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With the Government Linked Companies being the biggest employer in Singapore, did they pocket the monies that was given by the Government ?
Or did the money find its way to Temasek Holdings - to replenish the US$50 Billion that was reported to be lost in early 2009 ?