On Thursday, the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) disclosed that some 60 companies have already approached it for advice.

It has helped 40 take steps to cut costs, and is in talks with the rest. And it expects more companies to call for help as the economic situation worsens, said SNEF president Stephen Lee on Thursday.

Of those assisted, half are in manufacturing, SNEF executive director Koh Juan Kiat later told The Straits Times.

None are looking at retrenching yet, but are taking 'intermediate' steps such as wage cuts and redeployment.

These were among the options that the Manpower Ministry, the labour movement and SNEF recommended to companies last month. Laying off workers, they stressed, should be a last resort for those faced with extra manpower.

While these remain guidelines, there are some in the labour movement who feel they should have legislative weight.

At a dialogue on Thursday to discuss how to manage manpower challenges in a downturn, a union leader asked why the guidelines were not made mandatory.

Said union leader Lim Teck Chuan, 36, an executive committee member of the Metal Industries' Workers Union:

'Because the guidelines are not mandatory, there are some employers that do not want to follow them.

'When we tell them that they should follow the guidelines, they say, 'We do not want to; these are just guidelines so there's no need to follow'.'

He told The Straits Times later that a particular metal manufacturing company, which he declined to name, is insisting on retrenching 10 to 20 workers, without considering the other options first.

'We foresee that more and more companies will be doing the same thing,' he said.

'If we don't have some backup from the Manpower Ministry, it would be very difficult for us (to protect workers).'

Responding, Acting Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong, labour chief Lim Swee Say and Mr Lee were all unanimous in rejecting the idea of making the guidelines compulsory.

Mr Gan said the guidelines are not meant to be prescriptive.

Rather, they are meant to be 'best practices' and must make sense to both employers and employees.

Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times.