THE government, unions and industry partners have organised a series of forums to help tackle manpower issues in tourism-related sectors hurt by the economic slowdown.
The first forum, covering the food and beverage sector, was held at Pan Pacific Hotel yesterday. Two more forums - for the attractions and tour and travel, and the meetings, incentives, conventions and events sectors - will be held late this month and in mid-February respectively.
At yesterday's forum, the Ministry of Manpower presented Tripartite Guidelines on Managing Excess Manpower, which essentially stressed that retrenchment, while accepted as inevitable in the worst circumstances, should only be a last resort.
The document urges companies to look at cutting non-wage costs. Other suggested alternatives include retraining workers so they can take on other roles, redeploying them to other departments, implementing flexible working arrangements and having a flexible wage system.
Spring Singapore presented various business financing enhancements meant to help firms that face difficulty getting credit. Under a Bridging Loan Programme, for example, SMEs can borrow up to $500,000, with the default risk shared equally by the government and participating financial institution.
The Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) took the opportunity yesterday to urge employers to use the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (Spur), a two-year programme to help companies and workers manage the downturn and invest in skills for the eventual recovery. Companies stand to benefit from lower course fees and a higher absentee payroll should they enrol employees in courses under the scheme.
Teo Sio Hoon, director of WDA's tourism division, said: 'Since the launch of Spur on Dec 1, 2008, some 120 companies have committed about 4,200 workers for the programme. As Spur effectively lowers the cost and other barriers to training, we hope more companies will come on board and make use of it to manage excess manpower.'
Leong Wai Ho, regional economist at Barclays Capital, said: 'The impact of upgrading schemes on unemployment in the F&B may not be discernible in the immediate future, as business worsens. That said, during the eventual upswing, the market will reward companies that take a longer-term view in investing in their workforce through upgrading.'
A grouse among F&B employers is that subsidies are not available to train foreign workers, who make up a significant proportion of manpower in the sector.
Edmund Koh, managing director of Superdog, said: 'Training foreign workers is important as they are representative of service industry standards in Singapore.'
Asked for her view, WDA's Ms Teo said: 'WDA's priority as a stat board is to support Singaporeans and PRs with skills upgrading.'
This article was first published in The Business Times on January 06, 2009.
