Lim Boon Heng: 8 mths bonus is FAIR (video)

Avantas · Mar 16, 2009

Mr Lim Boon Heng has defended the need for Community Development Councils (CDCs) to have flexibility in rewarding staff, pointing out that is how companies around the world operate.

‘The fixed monthly pay is kept down and the bonuses vary according to performance,’ said the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office on Monday after the launch of NTUC FairPrice’s new 24-hour hypermarket in Jurong.

‘This helps to motivate people to perform, because if a person does badly, he will not get the same high bonus. So this ensures that the reward system is fair and responsive to the needs of the organisation.’

Mr Lim added that this was especially useful in bad times because ‘you need to reward people who give their best and are examples to the rest’. He also advised people ‘not to begrudge the few people who got very high bonuses’.

It is disingenuous to compare the reward system of a public institution like the CDC which is funded by taxpayers’ monies to the private sector. The civil service exists to serve the people, not to exploit them. On the contrary, companies are able to give high bonuses because their purpose is to maximize profits.

Furthermore, companies around the world are retrenching their workers and slashing their wages during the current economic downturn. Many of the top honchos were forced to step down.

Hear Mr Lim say in his very own words here:

http://wayangparty.com/?p=6466

makapaaa · Mar 16, 2009

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>March 16, 2009
</TR><TR>CDC bonuses explained 
</TR><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Jessica Lim
</TD></TR><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>

</TD><TD width=10>

</TD><TD vAlign=bottom>

Mr Lim said that reward system motivate people to perform, because if a person does badly, he will not get the same high bonus. -- ST PHOTO: STEPHANIE YEOW
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

<DIV class=story_text>COMMUNITY development councils (CDCs) need the flexibility to pay deserving staff bigger bonuses, People's Association (PA) deputy chairman Lim Boon Heng said on Monday.
Responding to questions about the online buzz generated after some staff at the Northwest CDC were reportedly paid up to eight months' bonus last year, Mr Lim said such payouts 'vary according to performance'.
<TABLE width=200 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=padr8><TABLE><TBODY><TR><TD>
VIDEO
</TD></TR><TR><TD>

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Minister defends flexibility in rewarding staff
(1:18)

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>He did not touch on exactly how much the CDC's staff were paid, but said bonuses 'help to motivate people to perform, because if a person does badly, he will not get the same high bonus. So this ensures that the reward system is fair and responsive to the needs of the organisation'.
Mr Lim, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, added: 'In good times and in bad, there are good performers. And I think that particularly in bad times, we need people who give of their best and show example to the rest about what they can do to help the organisation.'
Pointing out that only a select few get high payouts, he said: 'I think we should not begrudge the few people who get very high bonuses.'
Several blog posts and threads dedicated to the issue of Northwest CDC's payouts have sprung up recently.
Many question the justification for such payouts, especially in light of the recession. Others say they are absurd in a time of growing retrenchments.
However, most ignored the fact that the bonuses were paid last year, when the economy was humming along right up till the last quarter.
When contacted, the PA, which decides bonuses and salaries of CDC staff, said its payments are in line with the National Wages Council's guidelines, and that it moved to performance-based pay in order to reward and incentivise staff fairly and responsively.
The PA added that only staff at the lower end of the salary range receive high performance bonuses. Such payments, it said, also help the organisation retain outstanding performers.
Read the full report in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.
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</TD></TR><TR><TD style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: top" align=left>Posted by: HappyThots at Mon Mar 16 22:42:33 SGT 2009
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: top" align=left><TABLE style="WIDTH: 100%" cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: top" align=left><TABLE class=AlternatePost style="WIDTH: 100%" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: top" align=left>wah.. so it is true that 2 senior officers get 8 months bonus??

then wat about the very very senior officers e.g. the ministers?

24 months?
</TD></TR><TR><TD style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: top" align=left>Posted by: pappy at Mon Mar 16 22:16:16 SGT 2009
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

myfoot123 · Mar 16, 2009

I think last year, he urged private sector not to feel obligated to pay workers bonuses in order to cut cost. Now, he paid his civil servants 8 months bonuses, out of taxpayers money, and said it is fair and logical.

nickers9 · Mar 17, 2009

Avantas said:
Mr Lim Boon Heng has defended the need for Community Development Councils (CDCs) to have flexibility in rewarding staff, pointing out that is how companies around the world operate.

‘The fixed monthly pay is kept down and the bonuses vary according to performance,’ said the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office on Monday after the launch of NTUC FairPrice’s new 24-hour hypermarket in Jurong.

‘This helps to motivate people to perform, because if a person does badly, he will not get the same high bonus. So this ensures that the reward system is fair and responsive to the needs of the organisation.’

Mr Lim added that this was especially useful in bad times because ‘you need to reward people who give their best and are examples to the rest’. He also advised people ‘not to begrudge the few people who got very high bonuses’.

It is disingenuous to compare the reward system of a public institution like the CDC which is funded by taxpayers’ monies to the private sector. The civil service exists to serve the people, not to exploit them. On the contrary, companies are able to give high bonuses because their purpose is to maximize profits.

Furthermore, companies around the world are retrenching their workers and slashing their wages during the current economic downturn. Many of the top honchos were forced to step down.

Hear Mr Lim say in his very own words here:

http://wayangparty.com/?p=6466

Talk cock Lim Boon Heng, ok since he says that reward given is based on the staff performance, asked him go and tell that to Lee Hsien Loong.

Wang Kan Seng let Mas Selamat ran away, why is he still the PAPpies minister in parliment? He should be sacked long ago, but he is still happily sitting in the parliment collecting his high salaries.

If Lim Boon Heng have the balls, go and tell that to LHL or LKY, if not just keep your mouth shut.

bakaroo · Mar 17, 2009

The ruling party is too dominance and arrogance.
Propagate Arrogance of Power

rickws8437 · Mar 17, 2009

If 8 months is only fair, I wonder how many months is consider good and how many months is consider very good. No wonder we need to invest so heavily...

halsey02 · Mar 17, 2009

nickers9 said:
Talk cock Lim Boon Heng, ok since he says that reward given is based on the staff performance, asked him go and tell that to Lee Hsien Loong.

Wang Kan Seng let Mas Selamat ran away, why is he still the PAPpies minister in parliment? He should be sacked long ago, but he is still happily sitting in the parliment collecting his high salaries.

If Lim Boon Heng have the balls, go and tell that to LHL or LKY, if not just keep your mouth shut.

To ba fair...(which isn't the case always), nobody is asking Lim Boon Heng is taking so much salary( salaries? & renumerations) and is still a minister without portfolio in the PM Office..what is his job?

What is the breakdown of his pay? etc...

Whay compare with the world & private sector? In the private sector, you don't perform, you screw up, you get the boot.

The Public sector pay etc., comes from the taxpayers, and they have a moral responsiblity, other than the monetary one to the public.:p

denzuko1 · Mar 17, 2009

makapaaa said:
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>March 16, 2009
</TR><TR>CDC bonuses explained 
</TR><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Jessica Lim
</TD></TR><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>

</TD><TD width=10>

</TD><TD vAlign=bottom>

Mr Lim said that reward system motivate people to perform, because if a person does badly, he will not get the same high bonus. -- ST PHOTO: STEPHANIE YEOW
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

<DIV class=story_text>COMMUNITY development councils (CDCs) need the flexibility to pay deserving staff bigger bonuses, People's Association (PA) deputy chairman Lim Boon Heng said on Monday.
Responding to questions about the online buzz generated after some staff at the Northwest CDC were reportedly paid up to eight months' bonus last year, Mr Lim said such payouts 'vary according to performance'.
<TABLE width=200 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=padr8><TABLE><TBODY><TR><TD>
VIDEO
</TD></TR><TR><TD>
<TABLE align=left><TBODY><TR><TD> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Minister defends flexibility in rewarding staff
(1:18)
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>He did not touch on exactly how much the CDC's staff were paid, but said bonuses 'help to motivate people to perform, because if a person does badly, he will not get the same high bonus. So this ensures that the reward system is fair and responsive to the needs of the organisation'.
Mr Lim, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, added: 'In good times and in bad, there are good performers. And I think that particularly in bad times, we need people who give of their best and show example to the rest about what they can do to help the organisation.'
Pointing out that only a select few get high payouts, he said: 'I think we should not begrudge the few people who get very high bonuses.'
Several blog posts and threads dedicated to the issue of Northwest CDC's payouts have sprung up recently.
Many question the justification for such payouts, especially in light of the recession. Others say they are absurd in a time of growing retrenchments.
However, most ignored the fact that the bonuses were paid last year, when the economy was humming along right up till the last quarter.
When contacted, the PA, which decides bonuses and salaries of CDC staff, said its payments are in line with the National Wages Council's guidelines, and that it moved to performance-based pay in order to reward and incentivise staff fairly and responsively.
The PA added that only staff at the lower end of the salary range receive high performance bonuses. Such payments, it said, also help the organisation retain outstanding performers.
Read the full report in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.
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</TD></TR><TR><TD style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: top" align=left>Posted by: HappyThots at Mon Mar 16 22:42:33 SGT 2009
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: top" align=left><TABLE style="WIDTH: 100%" cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: top" align=left><TABLE class=AlternatePost style="WIDTH: 100%" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: top" align=left>wah.. so it is true that 2 senior officers get 8 months bonus??

then wat about the very very senior officers e.g. the ministers?

24 months?
</TD></TR><TR><TD style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: top" align=left>Posted by: pappy at Mon Mar 16 22:16:16 SGT 2009
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

My company practises flexi-wage and we have never reached an 8 month bonus even in good times. This obviously come from someone with no market knowledge and lacks exposure. No wonder he is stuck in NTUC his whole life.

zhihau · Mar 17, 2009

denzuko1 said:
My company practises flexi-wage and we have never reached an 8 month bonus even in good times. This obviously come from someone with no market knowledge and lacks exposure. No wonder he is stuck in NTUC his whole life.

bro,

are they following oil prices?

johnny333 · Mar 17, 2009

denzuko1 said:
My company practises flexi-wage and we have never reached an 8 month bonus even in good times. This obviously come from someone with no market knowledge and lacks exposure. No wonder he is stuck in NTUC his whole life.

I work for a US MNC & at best you only get share options.

PAP has introduced the system that is the most lucrative with the least effort required. Just take a look at whats happening to Spore :rolleyes:

This $$$ mentality is now entrenched in Spores civil service. Looking at whats going on in Indonesia & how corruption is costing the country, I think Spore has caught up & surpassed its neighbour :eek:

mscitw · Mar 18, 2009

The big rewards dished out to con men pretending to be western bankers almost bankrupted the entire global banking and now Lackey Lim says eight months for CDC is ok.

Smells of Dulan's NKF.

nickers9 · Mar 18, 2009

halsey02 said:
To ba fair...(which isn't the case always), nobody is asking Lim Boon Heng is taking so much salary( salaries? & renumerations) and is still a minister without portfolio in the PM Office..what is his job?

What is the breakdown of his pay? etc...

Whay compare with the world & private sector? In the private sector, you don't perform, you screw up, you get the boot.

The Public sector pay etc., comes from the taxpayers, and they have a moral responsiblity, other than the monetary one to the public.:p

Yes u r right, if prvate sector u screw up, u get fired.

But in PAPpies government, Wang Kan Seng screw up, he is still around, alive and kicking, as LHL loved him so much.

So Wang Kan Seng can screw up as much as he wants, cause no matter how screw up he is, LHL will still love him as the same.

Where to find this kind of job? U screw up, u still get paid and bonuses, and your boss still love you. No wonder prataman die die also dont want to retire lah.

Lim Boon Heng: 8 mths bonus is FAIR (video)

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