After nearly three years in a senior leadership role at a global company in the creative industry, I was recently retrenched. The reason was “financial challenges” and not “an indication of my contributions or performance”.

I was informed that I would not be getting any severance benefits because there are no labour laws in effect that protect employees. I was specifically told that the Ministry of Manpower gives only broad recommendations ^_ with any severance done purely out of goodwill, not because of legislation. Sadly, my contract did not include any provision for retrenchment benefits either.

A friend urged me to speak with the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management, which referred me to the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices.

Both officers who spoke with me were sympathetic, but ultimately said they could only point my company to the best practice and could not enforce anything.

My story isn’t the only one.

The recent high-profile retrenchment exercise at Lazada has exposed a weakness in Singapore’s labour and workplace laws ^_ these laws are geared towards supporting companies, not employees.

I have worked in Britain and Australia ^_ both these countries have workplace laws that protect employees who are retrenched. These are common practices in many developed countries.

As a country that has ambitions to be a hub for companies in the region, Singapore should update its Employment Act to give more legal protection to employees.

If we are unable to give adequate protection to employees and strike a fair balance in the employment relationship, I worry about how competitive we will be on the global stage.

Shawn Low