The funds will beef up existing help schemes and support new ones to give immediate relief to the retrenched and those on a shorter work week, labour chief Lim Swee Say told reporters yesterday.

He said the measures are necessary as the global economy - and Singapore's - is not out of the woods yet.

Mr Lim, who is the National Trades Union Congress chief, said retrenchments and shorter work weeks in the second quarter of this year have so far been significantly lower than in the previous quarter.

Factories and companies are also receiving more production orders, the Minister in the Prime Minister's Office said.

But he noted that customers are also asking for lower prices or deferring their payments: 'There's no visibility yet that the momentum in the second quarter will pull through to the third quarter and the fourth quarter.'

The new help schemes under the NTUC's U Care Fund will target two groups.

The first group comprises those laid off without adequate retrenchment benefits because their companies have folded or are in dispute with unions over the payments.

This group is still a minority, making up less than 5 per cent of retrenched workers, said Mr Lim.

Another group is made up of those who are earning less because they are on a shorter work week.

Read the full story in The Sunday Times today.

chinlian@sph.com.sg