2,000 electronics jobs to go

2,000 electronics jobs to go
By Aaron Low


Madam Halimah Yacob was speaking to reporters after visiting 47 retrenched electronics workers who have enrolled in a training course at the Employment and Employability Insitute. -- ST FILE PHOTO

THE labour movement expects retrenchments in the first three months of this year in the badly-hit electronics sector to equal the number for whole of last year.

At least 2,000 workers in the electronics sector are expected to lose their jobs by March, said National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) deputy secretary general Halimah Yacob said on Monday morning.

This is comparable to the 2,300 jobs lost in the ailing manufacturing sector in the whole of last year.

Madam Halimah was speaking to reporters after visiting 47 retrenched electronics workers who have enrolled in a training course at the Employment and Employability Insitute.

On the tougher times ahead, she noted that some manufacturing companies have seen demand for their products drop by as much as 70 per cent.

She urged companies which cannot hold on to their employees, to work with their unions so that retrenched workers can be eased out of their jobs as humanely as possible.

'Handling restructuring and redundancies responsibly also benefits companies as it has to manage the morale of employees who remain behind,' she said.

Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_325119.html