Fear and consequence of retrenchment

If you held a steady job for many years, and you hear that your company has to downsize, what do you do? If you are retrenched, how are you going to find a similar job in a difficult job market? How are you going to pay your bills?

If you have some savings to draw down for a few months or longer, you may be able to tide over the interim period before you find a new job. What if you do not have any savings?

You can pray that you will be spared. But what about your colleagues who are axed?

It is time for us to consider the need for unemployment insurance. If 10% of the workforce has to be axed, an unemployment insurance scheme should pay them, say, 50% of the previous earnings for a period of up to 12 or 24 months. The cost of the unemployment benefit should be paid by those who have jobs. It should cost about 2% to 3% of the payroll. It is a cost that is worth paying to spread the burden.

An alternative to unemployment insurance is a relief loan to pay the above sum to the retrenched workers. As this is a loan, it should be repaid in the future. Interest should be allowed to accumulate with the loan at the same rate paid by the Central Provident Fund.

I hope that an unemployment insurance or relief loan will be introduced by the Government soon, before more people face financial distress due to retrenchment.

Tan Kin Lian