A very good afternoon to all. There are three parts to my brief.
First of all, NTUC’s sensing from our unions and our leaders. Second, NTUC’s support to our workers. And third, NTUC’s potential collaborations with the companies.
We did a very quick deep stick poll with our union leaders, especially in the affected areas, and we have gotten feedback from all of them who are impacted very directly by the US tariffs. In the Electronics, in the Chemicals, in the Logistics and in the Transport sectors.
Union leaders are understandably anxious.
• 70% of them worry about the uncertainty in global trade.
• Around 60% think that the tariffs will impact Singapore and their sectors badly.
• 30% worry about reduced exports to the US and 50% worry about higher production costs.
• While 70% have yet to hear from the companies about how they might respond and 11% have heard about possible retrenchments already.
• Others have heard about firms starting to freeze hiring, freeze wages, or reduce overtime due to reduced workload.
NTUC’s support for workers, therefore, is to engage them and study what further enhancements or new measures may be necessary to support workers.
For the youth coming out from the education institutions, the immediate need is job availability or job creation.
For the larger workforce, including Professionals, Managers and Executives, the immediate concern is job security. For all workers, the ‘no-regrets’ move is for all workers, including PMEs, to remain in tune with training and skills upgrading to strengthen the overall resilience of the workforce.
NTUC stands ready to assist our workers, including PMEs, should there be job transitions or retrenchment, if it becomes inevitable.
In addition to the financial support under the new SkillsFuture Jobseeker Support Scheme mentioned by Minister Tan earlier, NTUC members can continue tap into NTUC’s training and upskilling initiative, Union Training Assistance Programme (UTAP), to access subsidies for career coaching and relevant training. This can help tide the workers over and land the next job.
Of course, we call on all workers, including PMEs that may not be with our unions, to join our unions so that all can better understand where they can seek support from NTUC to be able to help them in this journey, and for NTUC and the unions to be alongside them.
The second part – NTUC’s collaboration with businesses. We have worked well with SNEF and companies, and we therefore hope to deepen this relationship so that companies in such environments can take a more flexible approach in measures other than retrenchments to preserve talent and strengthen future capabilities.
For companies, we will continue to encourage management to support their employees in reskilling and upskilling efforts.
We urge employers to build up their workforce capabilities not just for the future, but start now, so that we can be more competitive, businesses can do better and workers can be more assured in such circumstances.
Companies can access the NTUC’s Company Training Committee (CTC) Grant and can work with NTUC to incorporate a training plan into a company’s transformation roadmap, immediate plans or long-term plans.
We also urge management to support their workers in joining our NTUC unions, so that we can work with the management to assist them in any circumstances.
Finally, we know that our tripartism works and can help us not only overcome the current circumstances but seize new opportunities. We can ride out the bumpy road ahead.
We have overcome crises in the past, as Minister Tan has said, and we will work together as tripartite partners to overcome the current situation.
