26 May 2010
The Publication
1. The United Workers of Electronic and Electrical Industries (UWEEI), together with the Secretary-General of NTUC, Lim Swee Say, launched UWEEI’s first in-house publication, “Managing the Downturn in Singapore: Union-Management Collaboration in the Electronics Sector”, this morning at the NTUC Auditorium. This is also the first time a union is launching a publication to capture its experiences in dealing with one of the most severe downturns faced by Singapore, the union and the electronic sector in Singapore. Featuring six UWEEI companies, the publication also highlights the importance of union-management collaboration and how companies with strong union-management relationship built up in good times can collaborate successfully to achieve win-win solutions in a crisis.
2. The importance of tripartism, where government, union and employers worked hand in hand as the government rolled out initiatives to help cut costs to save jobs is also documented in the publication. The close tripartite relationship between the government, union and employers was once again put to the test as the three parties worked closely together to achieve win-win-win solutions and mitigate the challenges brought about by the crisis in order to avoid massive retrenchment and prevent a rapid rise in unemployment.
Responses from the various parties
3. The global meltdown in 2009 saw the Singapore electronics sector contracting by 43.1 per cent in its output in January 2009 compared to January 2008. From October 2008 to December 2009, 8,220 workers in the electronics and electrical sector were retrenched, and more than 26,000 workers were affected by shorter work weeks and temporary shutdowns. The impact of this unprecedented global meltdown would have been worse had it not been for the quick and concerted response of the Government, the union and the employers.
Government Response
4. In response to the extraordinary economic situation, the Government had to respond swiftly with extraordinary measures. The Government set aside a massive stimulus package of S$20.9 billion representing six per cent of Singapore’s Gross Domestic Product in Budget 2009 to help businesses stay afloat and keep workers in jobs through two temporary measures – the Jobs Credit Scheme and Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR). The Jobs Credit Scheme encouraged businesses to preserve jobs in the downturn so as to sustain employment for Singaporeans while SPUR provided generous training subsidies and absentee payroll to help employers defray wage costs while their workers are on SPUR training.
Tripartite Response
5. The harmonious relations and consultative approach adopted by the Government, union and employer organisations at the national level in Singapore, proved to be invaluable in managing the economic downturn. The Tripartite Guidelines for Managing Excess Manpower were released in November 2008 to advise companies on measures that could be taken to save jobs, encouraging companies to consider retrenchments only as a last resort. The tripartite partners worked together to disseminate the key message of ‘cut costs to save jobs’, not ‘cut jobs to save costs’, and to focus on long-term employment.
Labour Movement Response
6. The NTUC and its affiliated unions, its social enterprises and their business partners, union leaders and members also banded together to raise a total of $23.2 million for the NTUC’s U-Care Fund. The fund helped more than 40,000 union members and their families, especially needy low income members and the retrenched, with financial assistance to cope with the downturn. The Ong Teng Cheong Labour Leadership Institute also conducted a series of “Upturn the Downturn” workshops for more than 1,200 union leaders to provide union leaders on the ground with the support and knowledge to help management partners in their companies to manage the downturn.
UWEEI’s Response
7. The Executive Council, Branch Committees and staff of UWEEI also went all out and stepped up their efforts to help UWEEI’s unionised companies (referred to as branches) badly affected by the downturn to survive and keep workers in their jobs. Some of the key challenges faced by UWEEI then included the need to convince workers, especially mature workers to go for training, to rally workers to accept cost cutting measures and to work closely with management to look at alternative cost cutting measures instead of retrenchments, etc. UWEEI adopted a proactive policy and effective implementation strategy to cut costs and save jobs. It put in place a tracking system to monitor the impact of the downturn in unionised companies. It engaged and prepared its union leaders, members, staff and management partners during the downturn through constant and intensive briefings and dialogue sessions. In fact, UWEEI moved so fast that one of its branches, Murata Electronics Singapore Private Limited, became the first company in Singapore to take up the SPUR training incentive. UWEEI has worked with 57 branches to tap on SPUR, providing 9,005 workers the opportunity to upgrade their skills and employability through training.
8. To prepare for the recovery, UWEEI also worked closely with its management partners to build new capabilities in their workforce with the support of NTUC and its tripartite partners, while continuing to press on with cost cutting measures in their operations. An example was the development of a Wafer Fabrication Workforce Skills Qualification (WSQ) system which provided an opportunity for engineers to be crossed-trained to undertake a wider job scope, enabling companies to deploy them to other work areas and thereby enhancing their competitiveness and productivity. About 7,000 engineers and technicians will benefit from being trained and certified with nationally recognised skills under the WSQ system.
9. Madam Halimah Yacob, Executive Secretary of UWEEI and Deputy Secretary-General of NTUC said, “We often hear about tripartism and how it has helped Singapore retain its competitiveness. Tripartism also helped to overcome many crises including the one last year, the most severe in our history. But tripartism can only be as strong and as effective as the state of our bipartite relations at the individual company and union level. This publication shows that strong bipartite relations can be a competitive advantage helping the six companies to ride the recession and benefitting workers by minimising retrenchments. We hope that this publication will serve as a guide to future generations of Industrial Relations Officers and union leaders on how we handled the crisis. We also hope that the untold stories shared will provide all with a better understanding and appreciation, both in Singapore and overseas, of the contributions of our unions to Singapore's progress."
The Six Featured Companies
10. The experiences of the six companies featured in the publication provide valuable insights of union-management collaborations at the company level. It also reinforces the importance of labour-management relations as the union and the management worked together with a shared vision to improve the well-being of the companies and their employees. These six companies were Panasonic Refrigeration Devices Singapore, Murata Electronics Singapore Private Limited, Energizer Singapore Private Limited, Pepperl + Fuchs (Manufacturing) Private Limited, Hoya Magnectics (Singapore) Private Limited and GlobalFoundries
