Channel NewsAsia - Saturday, August 1
SINGAPORE: Labour chief Lim Swee Say said some companies plan to retrench 1,500 workers in the second half of this year, with most of these job losses expected to be in the manufacturing sector.
Weak global demand and companies relocating to other countries that offer lower operating costs are two factors responsible for the current job losses in Singapore, said the labour movement. And it added that lifelong learning is a way to overcome these problems.
Mr Lim said: "We must compete for higher value—added operation, higher skilled operation, higher technology contents operation, with other more advanced economies. So that on the whole, the net outflow of relocation must be in terms of less (companies) going out (of Singapore) and more coming in."
Mr Lim expects retrenchments to continue as companies restructure during this economic downturn.
Thus, workers are encouraged to upgrade their skills so that businesses will be attracted to Singapore’s skilled labour.
At a ceremony on Friday, the labour movement commended union leaders for promoting lifelong learning.
One of the 44 recipients of the Industrial Workers Education and Training Fund Learning Awards is Catherine Chia. She said that her diploma from the Ong Teng Cheong Labour Leadership Institute has helped her answer difficult questions from union members when the electronics company she worked for conducted a retrenchment exercise in February.
Ms Chia, an industrial union leader for NEC Semiconductors, said: “I find that with this diploma and courses (I attended), I have more confidence to express myself, and I could really talk to the retrenched workers and advise them to go for the employment camp, and to go to the e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) courses and also for SPUR (Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience). And I find that most of them have found jobs already.”
The labour movement’s leadership development hub, the Ong Teng Cheong Labour Leadership Institute, took on a new look to reflect its new role and identity.
It involves a sharper focus on enhancing leadership and tripartism in the labour movement and among its tripartite partners.
— CNA/yt
