With various sectors being affected by the Covid-19 situation, unions together with the Government and companies, must continue to accelerate the adoption of the Industry Transformation Maps [ITMs], said Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat on 30 March 2020.
He was speaking at the sidelines of a visit to Changi Airport Terminal 3.
Mr Heng met frontline and back-end workers in the aviation industry. He also gave out care packages prepared by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore to the workers.
Senior Minister of State for Transport Lam Pin Min and dnata Regional CEO Dirk Goovaerts accompanied Mr Heng.
“I’ve been discussing with NTUC Secretary-General Ng Chee Meng on what the unions have been doing, and what more they can do. We [the Government] have been working very closely with unions, and they have given very good feedback. At the same time, the unions are working closely with the companies to see how the unions can support them in this transformation. So I’m glad that we had started the ITMs earlier on,” said Mr Heng.
Labour Members of Parliament will touch more on what the unions will be doing at the upcoming Resilience Budget Debate on 6 April 2020.
On the objective of these efforts, Mr Heng said: “We want to take good care of our workers, we want to save jobs, we want to protect our workers and their loved ones.”
Mr Heng’s visit saw him mingle with workers in an almost empty terminal. Since the Covid-19 outbreak, arrivals into Singapore has dropped by over 90 per cent.
Meanwhile, Singapore’s flagship airline, SIA, has grounded about 96 per cent of its flights.
“This is a very serious situation. In the Resilience Budget, I provided special support for the aviation sector under the Jobs Support Scheme, where the Government backs up to 75 per cent of wages of staff,” said Mr Heng.
Feedback from airport management was that the support has been helpful, according to Mr Heng.
He urged workers in the aviation sector to use the downtime to train and reskill, and employers to use this time to think about how they can restructure operations.
“Re-engineer processes so that we can emerge stronger, much more efficient, and be able to serve a higher volume of customers better in the future,” said Mr Heng.
He also commended the attitude of the aviation workers he met, and their commitment to the industry.
“They [the workers] are looking forward to recovery. And they are making good use of their time to learn new skills and thinking about how they can do their job better. So this positive attitude is important,” he said.
Mr Heng added that the recovery of the overall economy, especially that of the aviation industry, will critically depend on the country’s “fight against Covid-19.”
Singapore’s priority is to contain the Covid-19 situation, explained Mr Heng. When the situation is contained, it will allow the nation’s economic activities to resume. Singapore’s economic recovery will depend on how quickly Singapore can do that.
“At the same time, as we’re tackling the outbreak, we have to think about how we can minimise damage to our economy, and in particular, make sure that we can protect our workers and save as many jobs as possible. Make full use of this downtime to train, reskill and restructure,” he reiterated.
