Labour Movement’s Response to Prime Minister’s New Year Message
02 January 2009
Media Statement
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Happy New Year to you and your families.
As outlined by Prime Minister in his New Year's message, 2009 will be a difficult year. He stressed the importance of tackling the economic crisis as one nation. We, in the Labour Movement, are committed to play our constructive role and stand in unity with the government and employers to protect jobs and create growth. This is the best way for Singapore to pull through the global crisis.
In 2009, we have three core priorities:
First, cut costs to save jobs. On the ground, we see how fast the world economy is declining and how badly it is affecting our businesses and workers. We see idle capacity at our factories, seaport and air-cargo operations. We see a drop in hotel occupancy and ticket sales of concert events. We share the concerns of retailers in surviving the lull period between Chinese New Year and the Great Singapore Sale. We are also concerned with the increasing number of workers affected by retrenchment, reduced overtime and shorter work-week. This is why we must be pro-active in working closely with the management and government to improve productivity and reduce total costs - wage costs and non-wage costs - as best as we can. We need to be even more flexible and adaptable in 2009, because more cost reduction for our businesses would mean more jobs saved for our workers.
Second, up-skill and re-skill for new and different jobs. Global recession does not mean zero job creation. We will lose some of our existing jobs due to a drastic drop in global demand. However, many job sectors are still employing and some new ones will be taking off in 2009 - from Home Team to education and healthcare; from marine to construction and public transport; from new hotels to new shopping malls and new Integrated Resorts. Our challenge is to encourage workers to not just look for "same job with same pay". We must help them understand that the world has changed and the Singapore Economy will have to change even faster to stay competitive. We need them to believe in themselves and be willing to adapt to new job demands, so that we can help them up-skill and re-skill to take on new and different jobs in different industries.
Third, stay the course to achieve our longer term objectives. We have worked hard to increase the employment rate of women and older workers through various tripartite efforts. We have also worked hard to reduce unemployment and under-employment by re-creating low-paying jobs, promoting best-sourcing of contract services, and enhancing the employability of low-skilled workers. These are responses to long-term trends in our economy and society. The pace of our efforts will be affected by the short-term crisis due to excess manpower in a growing number of companies. However, we must not allow these initiatives to stall in 2009. We will spare no effort in sustaining the momentum jointly with our tripartite partners.
There is much for us to do in 2009. Fortunately, our foundation is strong, and we can face the challenges with confidence. I thank all NTUC-affiliated unions and associations, and NTUC co-operatives for your contribution in 2008. We look forward to your strong support in 2009 as we strive to do even more for our union members and the workers of Singapore.
Tripartism is Singapore's unique advantage. We are in this crisis together and we will overcome it together with our workers, our Government and the employers. As we start a new year, let us pledge to stand together, stay focused and press forward as one united labour movement, one united tripartite partnership and one united Singapore.
Together, we can upturn the downturn.
Lim Swee Say
Secretary-General
National Trades Union Congress
