Responding to public discontentment over its unfair wages, Certis Cisco insisted that it pays Singaporeans higher salaries than it’s Taiwanese recruitment hires:
“Certis Cisco would like to state categorically that (it) offers a higher salary package to Singaporean APOs as compared to the Taiwanese. We are a Singapore company and we will hire qualified Singaporeans first before we explore alternate sources to beef up our manpower resources.”
The Temasek Holdings-owned company claimed that both Singaporeans and Taiwanese hires with a corporal rank will be paid the same S$2,575. Certis Cisco also claimed that Taiwanese will require a recognised university degree when Singaporean hires will only need 3 O Level credits. Certis Cisco however pointed out the difference in qualification requirement without mentioning English language abilities, which is the de facto language in Singapore.
Certis Cisco then claimed Singaporeans with National Service experience gets an extra NS allowance. Bond-wise, Taiwanese hires get a better deal with only a 2 year lock-in contract while Singaporeans are bonded for 3 years. Certis Cisco claimed that Singaporeans getting S$15,000 bonus for a 3-year bond is a better deal than S$4,000 bonus for a 2-year bond.
Certis Cisco however deliberately left out mentioning accommodation, that comes with a market room rental value of S$800 a month, offered free to the Taiwanese. Singaporean hires are not entitled to free accommodations and unlike foreigners, Singaporeans have to pay 20% of their salaries to the CPF, leaving them with a take-home pay of only about S$2,000.
The company also did not mention the dangers of having new Taiwanese recruits and foreigners holding loaded arms in public. Another concern for the Taiwanese recruitment is that Singapore is again not following the One-China policy through the employment practices of its state-owned companies.