CPF cuts not likely for now, says NTUC Chief Lim Swee Say
<cite class="auth">Channel NewsAsia - Tuesday, November 11
</cite>SINGAPORE: CPF cuts is a last—resort measure to keep business costs down, said Labour Chief Lim Swee Say in an exclusive interview on Monday.
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"I was looking for a job based on my experience and my background, but the job market is really tough. I’ve come to a point where I think I should change my mindset if something comes along. It’s good to just take the job and see how it goes from there," Mr Soh said. West Coast GRC MP Ho Geok Choo, who started the Singapore Professionals and Executives co—operative in 2000 to help PMEBs find gainful employment, sees opportunities for this group of workers in the current crisis. "We are going to see the emergence of what I call ’the freelance economy’, made up of consultants, made up of sub—contractors, made up of outsource agents," said Ms Ho. Apart from venturing into freelancing, Mr Lim said tripartite partners are ready to ramp up their existing Employment and Employability Programme, including one that helps executives re—skill for a new industry. "If he or she is prepared to go for retraining, prepared to adapt to a new working environment, there’s still hope for our retrenched workers to go back to the job market again. "As we go through the recession, a growing number of workers will have to adapt themselves and maybe take on a different job with different pay," said Mr Lim. The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) is working with the DBS Staff Union to help its retrenched staff find jobs through retraining. DBS recently announced that it would cut 900 jobs by the end of this month. As for concerns about CPF cuts — a social security scheme to keep business costs down — Mr Lim said for now, this would likely not be implemented. "Any talk about CPF cuts at this moment is way too premature because there are 1,001 things we can do to prepare ourselves, to strengthen ourselves to ride through this crisis," he said. Mr Lim also assured workers that tripartite partners will not be looking for easy solutions for companies, which may be painful for workers.
— CNA/so
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