IN A signal that a wave of retrenchments may be on the way, the number of unionised workers who have been asked to go on a shorter work week or to clear their leave has drastically spiked in the past month.

On Nov 25, when the labour movement began tracking the situation, there were 6,876 such workers. This has since more than doubled in one month - to 15,000.

The past seven days alone saw a 25 per cent jump in the number - up from 12,000 at the end of the previous week, said the National Trades Unions Congress (NTUC).

This means that about 5 per cent of its 294,000 unionised workers have been affected so far.

The significant uptick in numbers is 'a precursor to retrenchments', said Mrs Josephine Teo, NTUC's assistant secretary-general, at a media briefing on Thursday.

'It's quite realistic to expect that after Chinese New Year, in the first quarter leading to the second, we will see an increase in retrenchments,' she warned.

A total of 3,773 unionised workers were retrenched last year, compared to 2,943 in 2007.

She attributes the recent spike to what she calls 'the Chinese New Year effect' - manufacturing companies deciding to close its factories for a longer period of time during this holiday period.

Some have also given feedback that they have 'no orders to fulfil this year.'

At the same time, the numbers could be an effect of recent guidelines urging companies to manage excess manpower by such ways as shorter work weeks and flexible wages, rather than retrenching.

Mrs Teo revealed that the workers hit so far are typically in export-dependent manufacturing sectors such as electronics or chemical processing. Relatively fewer numbers are seen in the service industry.

For these workers, shorter work weeks and temporary lay-offs - where employers can ask workers to take up to half of their annual leave and pay them half their wages - have translated into pay cuts ranging from 10 to to 50 per cent.

With more workers facing such a predicament, one danger is that family ties will come under strain.

NTUC, together with the National Family Council (NFC), is planning a series of activities to help combat this, Mrs Teo said.

It includes a series of talks beginning this Saturday to help workers and their spouses. For instance, they will be advised on matters ranging from budgeting to handling spousal conflict.

Initially, the series will be held at NTUC Centre in the business district, moving later to the heartlands. There are also plans to organise joint programmes with family service centres, and to use new media such as a Facebook account and online forums to offer advice for families hit by the downturn.