MEASURES TO HELP WORKERS AFFECTED BY ECONOMIC CRISIS

Mr Cyrille Tan asked the Prime Minister, with the deepening economic crisis causing workers to face problems such as shorter workweek, no overtime work and lay-offs and having significant impact on their coping with the cost of living, whether the Government will introduce further measures to help the affected workers.

Mr Lee Yock Suan (for the Prime Minister): The labour market has indeed slackened as a result of the slowing economic momentum. However, for a large number of those retrenched, many have still been able to secure re-employment. According to MOM, a healthy 63% of those retrenched in 1st Quarter 1998 managed to find a new job by the 2nd Quarter 1998. The average time to secure the new job was 1.4 months.

The most effective assistance Government can extend to Singaporeans during this difficult period is to help ensure that workers stay employed.

To help workers stay employed during this economic downturn, Government has adopted a 3-pronged approach.

First, we will help to keep businesses viable so as to minimise retrenchments. In order to do this, we need to keep our costs competitive so that our companies can compete for the reduced business demand during this period. We will do this by reducing our business costs. The $2 billion Off-Budget package announced in June 1998 was part of this cost-cutting exercise to preserve jobs. Towards the end of this year, the Committee on Singapore's Competitiveness will recommend to Government further measures to reduce business costs.

Concurrently, the economic promotion agencies are stepping up their investment promotion efforts. This will help create new jobs to replace those lost. EDB has recently announced that 15,000 new jobs in electronic components, petrochemicals and aerospace and 5,000 more in communications, logistics and headquarter operations would need to be filled this year. There is therefore no shortage of jobs available if our workers possess the necessary skills.

Second, we will help to train our Singaporean workers to acquire the necessary skills to match the needs of companies. The Skills Redevelopment Programme (SRP), which was launched earlier this year to complement the existing Skills Development Fund, is aimed precisely at this. The SRP provides training that not only leads to certifiable skills which employers recognise, but it also provides trained workers a job, either with their existing employer or new employer. As of September, about 2,200 workers have completed training and another 2,400 are undergoing training.

Third, we will help retrenched workers secure alternative employment through active job-matching. The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has implemented the Employment Assistance Programme and also set up a new Employment Facilitation Team to source and pool job vacancies from companies so that retrenched workers can secure employment expeditiously. These efforts have resulted in more job opportunities being identified for the retrenched workers. To date, MOM has been able to provide job referrals to some 80% of all job seekers every month.

The Government recognises that despite these measures, there will still be some affected workers who will be unable to cope with the economic downturn. For breadwinners who are retrenched and have no other resources to fall back on, they can turn to a variety of community assistance programmes available through the Ministry of Community Development (MCD). For example, the Interim Financial Scheme, administered by MCD and the Community Development Councils (CDC), provides short-term financial assistance to help individuals and families facing financial hardship. For those who are in need of longer-term assistance, several other specialised assistance schemes are available through MCD, CDCs, the National Council of Social Services, and the various voluntary welfare organisations. These include the Public Assistance Scheme, Rent and Utilities Assistance Scheme, and the Centre-Based Financial Assistance for Childcare Scheme.