SINGAPORE – Workers’ Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh has used his May Day message to reiterate his party’s call for insurance for retrenched workers to better protect and more strongly safeguard workers’ interests.
In a statement on April 30, he highlighted that companies big and small are faced with high business operating costs.
Singaporean workers “may have become pessimistic even with full employment” against the backdrop of companies’ cost-cutting measures that have dominated headlines in 2024, added Mr Singh, who is the Leader of the Opposition.
These measures have led to retrenchments and the complete closure and relocation of some businesses to other countries in the region, he pointed out.
“If large companies and multinational corporations with deep pockets are finding it unsustainable to operate in Singapore due to the cost of doing business here, small and mid-sized enterprises will be feeling more pressure,” he said.
Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said in September 2023 that unemployment benefits do not have to take the form of an insurance scheme.
DPM Wong had instead suggested that the benefits be “appropriately sized”, while funded by the Government under an expanded SkillsFuture system, to help tide retrenched workers over their immediate difficulties.
Then on April 27, Manpower Minister Tan See Leng revealed in his May Day message that a new support scheme for involuntarily unemployed job seekers will be announced in the later part of 2024.
To back his point on the need to better support workers, Mr Singh cited a survey of 605 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by insurance provider QBE Insurance, which found that half of Singapore’s SMEs surveyed identified increased costs and reduced profitability as a top business challenge in 2024.
He also pointed out that micro-sized businesses, such as hawker stalls, have had to close down, adding to recent high-profile closures in what restaurateurs widely declare is shaping up to be a “tough 2024”.
Apart from introducing an insurance scheme for retrenched workers, Mr Singh said, the Government should also give SMEs more support in non-wage areas, given that the cost of doing business in Singapore has become a “significant pressure point”.
His party’s suggestions on this front include talent and acquisition schemes, international expansion, rental assistance or rental support, and streamlining grant application processes to provide grants on a cash basis rather than reimbursement.
“By helping SMEs with the non-wage costs of doing business, we hope they may continue to drive entrepreneurship and innovation, operate and employ over 70 per cent of the total labour force, and pay competitive wages for our workers,” said Mr Singh.
He also called on the Government to better effect reskilling and skills transfer from foreign professionals to Singaporeans, to prepare workers for a more competitive and demanding work environment ahead.
