COMPANIES with overseas offices were urged yesterday to differentiate their operations here from those abroad when considering cutting their workers' pay or asking staff to go.
Labour chief Lim Swee Say highlighted two unique features in Singapore when he made the call.
These are: Its flexible wage system and a culture of tripartism in which the Government, employers and the labour movement cooperate to reduce costs and save jobs.
Together, they allow companies here to respond swiftly during a business downturn, said Mr Lim, secretary-general of the National Trades Union Congress.
He said: 'We don't believe that companies need to treat the Singapore operation the same as operations elsewhere in the world.
'The labour movement, the tripartite partners, we disagree with this (across-the-board) approach.'
Mr Lim made the point to about 450 employers and 100 unionists at a tripartism forum yesterday.
Elaborating, he said that with Singapore's flexible wage system, companies can trim the variable part of workers' pay to cut costs.
He said: 'In many other countries, their operations are not on a flexible wage system.
'The operations in other countries are less flexible, less responsive from the wage-cost point of view.'
Secondly, there is tripartism.
'When there's a problem, we work together to solve the problem. This is not something you can find in other countries,' he said.
Mr Lim urged the companies to take full advantage of these two features.
They can consult their unions or, if they are not unionised, the Ministry of Manpower.
Also, they can make use of a $600 million training scheme announced by the Government just two weeks ago to help companies cope with the economic downturn, he said.
The Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience, or Spur, will give employers higher subsidies for course fees as well as more money to cover the pay of workers sent for training.
'Make use of Spur so that your operations can be handled differently, uniquely, in the Singapore style,' he added.
This article was first published in The Straits Times on December 05, 2008.
