NTUC, SNEF call for transition support package for retrenched workers

SINGAPORE: Two recent polls conducted by the labour movement show that workers here are fearing for their jobs, spurring more calls for a transition support package for retrenched employees.

In the first survey involving nearly 2,000 Singaporeans and conducted by the National Trade Unions Congress (NTUC) between December last year and January, 40 per cent of respondents felt they were likely to lose their jobs in the next three months, up from the 25 per cent in the same period last year.

In a separate NTUC poll on sentiments ahead of this year's Budget speech, 31 per cent of 185 workers believed structural trends like automation and artificial intelligence will displace them.

This comes as the National Trade Unions Congress (NTUC) and Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) expect more layoffs this year.

At the inaugural annual pre-Budget media briefing that the two groups hosted on Tuesday (Feb 6), they said that displaced workers should be supported in landing new jobs.

Retrenchments in Singapore in 2023 were more than double that of the year before, according to advance labour market estimates released by the Manpower Ministry last week.

NTUC secretary-general Ng Chee Meng noted that it will be a tough year for workers.

“Given the lingering pressures of the cost of living, some of these workers' anxieties, I can fully understand. So in the year ahead, we hope that we can take some proactive action, especially in the Budget, to support workers,” he said.

“Especially if they are displaced, how can we think about a transition support package either in finances or upskilling, reskilling … for persons seeking new opportunities in a more challenging work environment?”

SNEF president Robert Yap stressed that people are Singapore’s most important resource.

“If we don't maximise that, we don't cultivate them to the fullest potential, then we're not doing ourselves justice. It'll be very hard for us to compete on the international stage,” he said.

REASONS BEHIND JOB INSECURITY

Singapore needs higher productivity and efficiency for its gross domestic product (GDP) to increase about 2 or 3 per cent annually, a growth typical of developed countries, said National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School Professor Sumit Agarwal.

This means firms here have to rely less on labour and more on factors like technology, he said.

“That creates more anxiety in consumers and employees that they will be substituted away and (worry) what will happen to their jobs in the coming times,” the professor, who teaches economics, finance and real estate, told CNA’s Singapore Tonight.

“We have just come out of a pandemic where we saw very high unemployment rates. As a result, people are anxious and they don't want to have similar feelings (of losing their jobs) again, he added.

From the employers perspective’, there is increased uncertainty because of the ongoing geopolitical tension coupled with the high costs of doing business, said SNEF executive director Sim Gim Guan, who was also on the show.

“Utilities (cost) have gone up, supply chain costs have gone up. Disruptions as well as increased competition will require companies to take steps to (ensure) they remain competitive and sustainable. And in doing so, there could be … some employees who may be affected,” he said.

POTENTIAL TRANSITION SUPPORT

Potential support for employees who are laid off will be in addition to the retrenchment benefits that companies already offer, said Mr Sim.

When asked how such support should be structured, he gave an example of how younger people should be supported. For this segment, steps should be taken even before workers reach the displacement stage, by helping them acquire skills in areas such as digitalisation and sustainability, he said.

“These are skills that will be required in the future. If workers are provided with support to already acquire such skill sets at this point in time, then perhaps their ability to transit into newer roles, even as their current roles are made redundant, will result in them being highly employable,” he said.

Prof Agarwal said that whether such support puts Singapore at risk of moving closer to becoming a welfare state depends on how it is designed and packaged, how long it is provided and who gets it.

“For example, if it is all about upscaling, reskilling, then it cannot become a welfare state. But if it is purely giving out cash, and undetermined, and for everybody, then we kind of have this slippery slope argument where people realise ‘I'm better off being unemployed than looking for a job’,” he said.

“I don't see that as how Singapore will implement any such package.”

When asked who should fork out for such an initiative, he said that initially, some of the burden should fall on the government.

“The companies themselves are already stretched and the workers have really gone through a lot in the last few years,” he said.

“But slowly, as we transition into a longer plan of restructuring the economy and reskilling the people, then it can be a shared responsibility with the companies who realise they also benefit when employees upskill and reskill.”