August 4 2009 01:06:40 PM
Workers at Murata Electronics received a $300
once-off lump sum payment last month, thanks to the Jobs Credit scheme.
The one-off payment came from the cash grant
the Government gave employers to subsidise the salary of their local workers,
in a move to encourage them to retain rather than retrench employees.
As Murata foresees doing better than expected,
it decided to share some of the cash gains from Jobs Credit with employees,
Murata managing director Masatoshi Koike said at its National Day observance
ceremony yesterday.
He believes that schemes such as the Jobs
Credit and the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (Spur) have
been “timely” in helping companies to cope with the recession and minimizing
layoffs.
Murata was the first company to send workers
for Spur training, which subsidies workers’ fees and salaries, while they
are attending courses.
Although it retrenched 150 workers in February,
the company said it was below the number initially feared. The layoffs
totaled 10 per cent of its workforce, fewer than the 30 per cent it was
expecting.
Labour chief Lim Swee Say, who was at the
ceremony, credited the company and unionists for keeping layoffs low.
“For every job lost … we saved two jobs,”
he said.
Published in The Straits Times, 21 August
2009
