Bad news all in a row

by Bertha Henson

THE news is bad for older Professionals, Managers, Executives, Technicians (PMETs). More are getting laid off and it’s getting harder, especially older PMETs to find jobs. A total of 15,580 workers lost their jobs in 2015, a 20.5 per cent rise from 2014. You can read our story here.

The Manpower report comes on the heels of some pretty dire export figures. Singapore’s non-oil domestic exports sank 15.6 per cent last month from a year earlier, the steepest yearly decline since February 2013 and far worse than economists’ expectations of a 12.3 per cent fall.

Here are some statistics on how exports fared last month from a year ago:

Electronics: down 9.1 per cent
Non-electronics: down 18 per cent.
Drugs: down 30.9 per cent
Petrochemicals: down 16.4 per cent.
Ship and boat structures: down 99.6 per cent, which means practically zero exports.

And that particular set of data comes on the heels of yet another set: economic growth. Different news media put a different spin on the numbers, such as whether it topped analysts’ expectations. But the consensus is: we have a stagnant economy.

Compared to the first three months of last year, Singapore grew 1.8 per cent. Compared to the previous three months (that is, October, November and December) growth is zero.

You can see what will happen if the trend continues. You can also see why calls to introduce unemployment insurance are gaining traction across the political divide.

Here’s what People’s Action Party MP Mr Patrick Tay said in Parliament in May 2014 about helping retrenched PME workers:

“For example, in the financial industry, foreign banks tend to lay off employees in global restructuring exercises on an ongoing basis. Will such industries consider to include a more comprehensive suite of employment assistance for the employees. This may come in the form of subsidies and payments to recognise their years of service and where possible it can be negotiated with the unions in the unionised environment and, at the same time, help them upgrade or re-skill for their next job. In this way, it can act as a form of unemployment insurance or sorts to tide them over.”

Workers’ Party Chairman, Ms Sylvia Lim ,called for an insurance scheme for workers made redundant. Here’s what she said in parliament on April 4 during the Budget debates:

“One model could involve requiring workers resident in Singapore and their employers to each contribute a very small percentage of the employee’s monthly salaries towards a fund. The fund should be geared towards helping workers who undergo involuntary unemployment, meaning those who are made redundant, including those terminated with notice. The fund could gear towards giving a six-month payout at a fraction of the worker’s last drawn salary, say, 40%, subject to a cap, say, based on a median wage.”

According to the Manpower ministry, companies were two and a half times more likely (12.3 per cent in 2014 compared to 30.8 per cent in 2015) to cite “recession or downturn in the industry” as a reason for letting staff go, a significant shift that points to current sentiment in the marketplace. “Restructuring of business processes for greater work efficiency” continued to be a given reason for 31.9 per cent of companies who made workers redundant, which is the same in 2014.

Other reasons are: business failure not due to recession, re-organisation of business, higher labour costs, higher non-labour costs, product line discontinued or project completed before schedule.

We’re wondering how the employers phrased their termination letter. It’s likely that it will be all politeness with a tinge of regret. But it might be better to lay out the truth bluntly so that workers know what is at stake. Especially if the reason is that they are not needed because their skills are outdated – or someone else (or even something else) can do the work cheaper, better, faster.

How are retrenchment exercises being held besides stipulating retrenchment benefits for each worker? Undoubtedly, the labour movement is involved but the statistics don’t seem to show that unionised workers are better-off than non-unionised workers. Unionised employees had a nearly 10 per cent lower rate of re-employment in 2015 compared to 2014, while the numbers for non-union employees did not show a significant shift.

The Workforce Development Agency has job placement programmes, including professional conversion programmes for those intending to make mid-career switches.

There is also the SkillsFuture programme, which more than 18,000 people, with more than half of them over 40 years of age, have tapped on.

The SkillsFuture initiative, with its 12,500 courses, is meant to inculcate a mindset change towards learning: that learning does not stop after school. You can read our interview with Mr Ong Ye Kung, who heads the initiative, here.

SkillsFuture has an important objective. But is there some way it could be shaped to help the retrenched workers specifically? This is, after all, not just important – but urgent.

 

Featured image by Natassya Diana. 

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The post Bad news all in a row appeared first on The Middle Ground.

- Bertha Henson