I know what the million dollar poodle is doing when they ran out
of ideas.
READ sg forums.
Expect a rough ride
ahead
Speaking on the eve of the release of the latest growth forecast
for Singapore, he told reporters there were no signs yet of
retrenchment, although it is to be expected next year.
Some unions are also expecting lower year-end bonuses, he said
on the sidelines of a forum with employers and unionists at
Downtown East resort centre in Pasir Ris.
But he
assured Singaporeans the labour movement had not been sleeping in
the past three years when the global economy was going
strong.
Among other things, the NTUC has been redesigning jobs for
low-wage workers, introducing flexible work for women and
re-employing mature workers.
He now wants workers and employers to
tighten their belts and spend wisely.
Also,
they need to work together to make their companies more competitive
by reducing costs and improving productivity.
At the forum, he also cited a company that found it made more
business sense to keep its local workers in an economic
downturn.
The company, which Mr Lim declined to name, believed that when
the economy rebounded, other companies would compete for
workers.
But it would be a step ahead, with enough local workers to meet
the required ratio for hiring foreign workers.
Singapore National Employers Federation president Stephen Lee
also told the forum employers should take a long term view on the
current push for re-employment of older workers and continue to
support it.
'All these up and down economic cycles, no matter how sharp they
are, we will be able to ride them out,' he said.
Earlier, deputy secretary-general Heng Chee How also called on
employers to strengthen their fundamentals to limit the financial
fallout.
This include containing costs, gearing up operations to be
flexible, training employees to be adaptable and working with
unions to keep up the morale of workers.
'We need no longer waste time hoping to be miraculously shielded
from the financial turmoil that is unfolding globally, or from its
economic consequences,' he said.
'Instead, we can take positive and productive action to deal
with the challenges ahead.'
He drew attention to the signs that Singapore's economy was
slowing down in tandem with the world economy.
The Trade and Industry Ministry has revised its growth estimates
downwards from 4-6 per cent to 4-5 per cent for this year.
While Mr Heng did not say if there would be a further downward
revision in Friday's announcement, he highlighted Finance Minister
Tharman Shanmugaratnam's comments on Sunday that the Singapore
economy may slow down for several quarters.
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