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To better help workers transit from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) is gearing itself to pursue a job-focused strategy, in line with the nation’s plan to progressively restart its economy. These efforts will see NTUC playing a constructive role to secure workers’ livelihoods and enhance their long-term employability.
This comes against the backdrop of severe contraction in economic activity that has crippled businesses in Singapore. Even with measures rolled out by the Government through the Unity, Resilience and Solidarity Budgets, companies have had to implement cost-cutting measures. These include shorter work weeks, no-pay leave and even retrenchments. With the newly announced Fortitude Budget, it is likely that livelihoods will still be impacted.
COVID-19 is expected to further bring about structural changes in the economy; thereby disrupting industries and causing job losses. Amidst these challenging conditions, NTUC is committed to help workers stay employed and employable. To achieve this, NTUC will focus our efforts in the following key areas: Job Preservation, Job Matching, Job Advocacy, Job Creation and Job Training.
Help Workers Keep Their Jobs (Job Preservation)
Today, job security is of utmost concern to workers. The Job Support Scheme was rolled out to provide companies with wage support and has helped enterprises to retain their local workers. As the economy re-opens, together with our affiliated unions and associations, NTUC will continue to work closely with employers to manage costs and help workers keep their jobs, with the long-term view of improving competitiveness. At the same time, to cater to changes in the workplace and in work itself, we will pro-actively partner companies in their job redesign efforts. This is to ensure that jobs can be made more productive and attractive for workers, and in the process, help companies keep and retain good workers that support the business.
a. Enhance and Extend Job Support Scheme
To ensure that JSS continues to achieve full efficacy in its objective of helping companies to retain local workers, NTUC had lobbied for the Government to extend and enhance the Job Support Scheme, and to closely align the scheme to employment and training outcomes. We are appreciative that the Government has added timely support for companies and workers that was announced in the Fortitude Budget. In the near-term, this will provide companies with targeted help to preserve jobs, while developing workers’ capabilities for longer-term workforce transformation.
b. Push on with Job-Redesign Efforts
To accommodate emerging employment norms post-COVID, and reduce the reliance on foreign manpower, companies will need to revamp work processes and tap on technology. We will continue to push for more pervasive job re-design, to help existing workers reskill, prepare them for enhanced roles in the new normal and improve productivity. For example, we could look at rolling out more job redesign Place-and-Train Programmes for this purpose.
Help Workers Find Jobs (Job Matching)
NTUC Job Security Council (JSC) was first announced in February this year, with the intention of creating an ecosystem to pre-emptively match at-risk and displaced workers into new jobs. With the outbreak battering several sectors, we must act quickly to place affected workers in new jobs to keep them financially stable and protect their livelihoods.
c. Job Matching to address immediate needs
We will continue to harness the strength of our network to channel affected workers through NTUC Job Security Council and NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) based on workers’ skills and adjacent skills. To date, more than 7,000 workers have been placed into jobs through JSC mainly in logistics, medical technology, security, and healthcare-related sectors.
d. Job Matching to boost upgrading of our economy
Moving ahead, NTUC has proposed for Government to help channel hiring companies through JSC. This would bolster NTUC’s existing efforts to match workers to new jobs, while ensuring that workers’ skill sets are retained in the process. NTUC stands ready to partner the Government through the newly announced National Jobs Council; leveraging our existing capabilities and network, to marshal efforts towards matching workers to new jobs and equipping them with deeper skills at the national level.
Help Workers Benefit from Progressive Jobs (Job Advocacy)
Given the changes in the employment landscape, certain worker segments have become more vulnerable, for example mid-career Professionals, Managers and Executives (PMEs), mature workers and women workers. As a representative Labour Movement for all workers, NTUC will continue to tailor our efforts to provide targeted support and assistance to these groups of workers.
e. Enhance Flexible Work Arrangements
With childcare and eldercare services disrupted by COVID-19, there is a need to provide adequate support to workers with young children or elderly parents. We will work with the tripartite partners to provide companies with support, to offer more flexibility to workers with care needs. For example, companies could relook and re-base measurements of a workers’ key performance indicators, on milestones and outcomes.
f. Enhance and Extend COVID-19 Support Grant and Workfare Income Supplement payouts
In this period of deep downturn, workers who are impacted, whether through retrenchments, wage cuts, or put on no pay leave arrangements will need more financial support. To help workers get through the crisis, NTUC proposed for the Government to enhance the COVID-19 Support Grant (CSG) by increasing the quantum of assistance and extend the CSG period aligning it to the Self-Employed Persons Income Relief Scheme (SIRS). At the same time, more can be done to enhance payouts and the Workfare Training Support for workers in the lower income percentiles.
Help Workers Transit into New and Better Jobs (Job Creation and Training)
Moving forward, NTUC stands ready to partner the tripartite partners to identify growth sectors, areas of job redesign as well as new jobs, in support of the Industry Transformation Maps (ITMs). We want to ensure that our workers can have access to these new quality jobs that are available – with the twin-aim of preserving and strengthening the Singaporean Core, while upping the productivity of businesses. Ultimately, this will help workers to secure better jobs and better wages.
To do this, NTUC and our unions will work hand-in-hand with companies, to accelerate the upskilling of the workforce and to make training relevant and useful to workers. In the near-term, companies can take advantage of available support schemes to help with cashflow as they send their workers for training. In the longer-term, these efforts will help workers build up their capabilities, thereby increasing their value, and allow us to move these workers away from hard-hit sectors, to take on better jobs and new jobs that are available. Riding on the current momentum of the Company Training Committees (CTCs), we will explore the adoption of a tripartite approach to the formation of CTCs, which will help to expedite the speed of industry transformation and provide a more structured approach towards helping workers upgrade in parallel with transformation at the company level.
Ensuring Safe Workplaces for Workers
In order to operationalise and implement the above strategies, it is important for us to ensure that workplaces re-open safely, and that workers are kept safe and healthy, as Singapore moves towards safe reopening. NTUC will train union leaders, industrial relations officers and safety officers, under the Safe Management framework, to support these efforts. We will also leverage our Workplace Safety and Health networks and partner the Singapore Institution of Safety Officers in this.
Our affiliated unions and associations will play a lead role in this – by mobilising and preparing workers for these measures, and forming a feedback loop to management, which will be critical to ongoing efforts to better secure workplaces.
Towards A Post-COVID World
While the fallout from the outbreak will continue to be felt by businesses and workers, companies must stay the course to cut costs and save jobs, and to make full use of the lull time to build up their capabilities and competency. NTUC will continue to be a strong and valued partner in this journey.
These strategies are necessary to guide and inform our ongoing efforts, as we continue to protect our workers lives and secure their livelihoods. Because workers are at the heart of everything that we do.
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