The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) has made a suggestion to provide more support, in the form of payouts, to mature professionals, managers and executives (PMEs) as long as they can prove that they are actively seeking for a job employment.

Additionally, harsher penalties should also be imposed on companies that continue to discriminate against PMEs based on their age and nationality.

These two suggestions were made by NTUC on Thursday (26 August), as part of a task force formed by NTUC and the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) after talking to PMEs about their concerns.

While speaking at an online press conference, NTUC’s Assistant Secretary-General and co-chair of the PME task force Patrick Tay explained that although NTUC will push for PMEs to get support when unemployed, but “we don’t want to give unemployment support for the sake of it”.

He added, “It is more to help them in their transition.”

Mr Tay also went on to point that Singapore should perhaps adopt “active labour market policies” which are implemented in some European nations. Under this policy, an unemployed individual must “demonstrate that they are actively doing the (necessary), for example, going for employability camps and career fairs, and actively send resumes”, before they can get the payouts from the Government.

He also noted that NTUC is not advocating for handouts, pointing out that countries with strong welfare schemes are being thrown with a challenge of people “finding it more attractive to stay unemployed”.

“Support policies) should encourage people to get gainfully employed and actively engaged in the labour market,” he said.

WP’s Redundancy Insurance Scheme

Looking at NTUC’s latest proposal, a similar proposal was made by the Workers’ Party (WP) in its GE2020 manifesto where it pushed for a Redundancy Insurance Scheme to provide relief to workers who have been laid off “while complementing existing programmes for re-training and re-employment”.

In fact, WP first raised the idea of redundancy insurance in Parliament in 2017, but the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) “rejected it outright”. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the party had put forth the scheme once again in its GE2020 manifesto.

“The Government cannot be expected to give handouts from government coffers and reserves each time there is a retrenchment and they won’t do that,” said WP’s Dennis Tan in 2020.

He added, “Effectively you can continue to feed your family, pay your bills for some time and I think in the current situation many people, particularly those who have been affected or will soon be affected by redundancy, will look at redundancy insurance with a very different perspective.”

“This is taking place in a post-COVID world which the PAP is very unfamiliar with.”

As to how the scheme works, the alternative party explained that the payouts would come from a centrally pooled funds that both workers and employers contribute to. The party estimated that the premium would come up to S$4 to S$4.50 a month per worker, or about 0.1 percent of the median income of Singaporeans.

Employers would be required to match workers’ contributions.

The party also said that a retrenched worker would get the equivalent of 40 percent of his or her last drawn salary for up to six months, capped at S$1200 per month with a minimum payout of S$500 to benefit low-wage workers.

It added that payouts after the first payout will be conditional as the on the worker actively seeking a new job or undergoing re-training, which again is similar to NTUC’s latest suggestion.

PAP’s position on addressing unemployment: increasing productivity, upgrading skills, and seizing jobs of the future

During a telecast debate between the political parties amidst GE2020, Assoc Prof Jamus Lim, who was the WP candidate contesting in Sengkang GRC and had later won, shared the party’s proposed Redundancy Insurance Scheme which costs S$4 per month.

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan who represented PAP at the debate, stressed that the central focus of his party’s campaign is about jobs. He said that in order to save jobs for Singaporeans in the immediate term and to provide them with immediate relief, the Government has launched the Jobs Support Scheme (JSS), Self-Employed Person Income Relief Scheme (SIRS), and COVID-19 Temporary Support to help Singaporeans tide through this period.

“If you look at the bulk of almost hundred billion in the successive budget that we have now, most of that is really focus on keeping company afloat. Why? Because we need to keep jobs opportunity available for Singaporeans,” he stressed.

Dr Balakrishnan also cited the local unemployment rate, which has increased from 3.2 per cent to 3.3 per cent, saying that “it would have been far worse” if the Government “didn’t have these emergency measures in place.”

Looking beyond these emergency measures, he hinted that the “only way” forward is increasing productivity, upgrading skills, and seizing jobs of the future.

“That’s why we launch the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package. We formed the National Jobs Council led by Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam,” Dr Balakrishnan noted, adding that it is “all about creating job opportunities”.

“It means jobs, it means training, it means attachments,” he remarked.

Subscribe
Notify of
31 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
You May Also Like

SMRT: Platform door opening and closing on its own was part of maintenance testing; condemns spread of fake news

In response to a video circulating online showing platform doors at an…

Telco Premium Rate Service Barring

By Terry Xu Are you aware that there can be a service…

PM Lee attending World Economic Forum in Switzerland this week

Beginning from Monday (20 Jan) to Friday (24 Jan), Prime Minister Lee…

珍珠大厦持械伤人案 警方再逮捕九人

本月10日凌晨,在牛车水珍珠大厦发生持械伤人事件,相信因情感纠纷引起。 长达一分钟的闭路电视视频显示,数名站在走廊的青年,突然被一组人追击,可见其中有人手上还持有巴冷刀。 警方是在5月10日凌晨3时30分,接获上述持械纠众闹事的投报。当局随即在全岛展开搜捕。目前再逮捕九名嫌犯,使得落网嫌犯增至12人。 此次落网的九男一女,年龄介于18至28岁,警方在非法组织成员、涉嫌非法集会和持危险武器纠众闹事罪名下,逮捕他们。其中一名男子因涉嫌窝藏两名被捕男子,也被警方调查。 警方目前寻找两名男子Muhammad Syukri Bin Muhammad Iskandar和Muhammad Ilham Bin Noordin的下落。警方呼吁民众如有线索,可拨打刑事侦查局热线6435…