Both men and women equally at risk when it comes to job cuts, say unionists

Both men and women are just as equally likely to be laid off during this recession, said unionists.

The only difference is that unionists had started seeing a few cases where laid-off pregnant women felt discriminated against.

But these numbers are not alarming, said National Trades Union Congress’ (NTUC’s) deputy secretary-general, Halimah Yaacob.

She made these comments Sunday at an International Women's Day event to launch a special help scheme for single mothers.

With the Singapore economy expected to shrink by as much as eight to 10 per cent this year, the end of the road for job cuts appeared nowhere in sight.

Secretary-general of NTUC, Lim Swee Say, said: "Every per cent drop in the economic growth will lead to one per cent increase in unemployment rate -- that is a very rule of thumb classical macro-economics. But in Singapore, we never believe that because we always believe what you do with workers during a downturn is more important."

And that the Labour chief said, is to build new capabilities because it would be a different world once this recession is over.

But would women feel a greater brunt of this downturn?

Not necessarily, said unionists.

When it comes to layoffs, it is not gender that plays a major role in retrenchment decisions, said unionists.

Mdm Halimah said: "Rather, (retrenchment is) very sector-specific. In sectors where you see a lot of women, like for instance, the manufacturing sector, where a fair number of women were employed as production operators. Then, obviously, when there were retrenchments, (these women) were affected because they were over-represented in these sectors."

And more could still be affected with unionists pointing to the retail and hospitality sectors as probably the next industries to feel the pinch of job cuts, although these sectors might not be as heavily female-centric as the manufacturing sector.

One group that is receiving additional help at this time is single mothers.

Single mother Jassia Jasmani, 49, had struggled on her own after her divorce, getting cancer and being laid off from a nursing job.

She said: "I couldn't get maintenance (from my ex-husband) because he was an ex-addict, a drug addict. He went back into remand and the worst part was that maintenance was cut off that way and we had difficulties in bringing up the kids."

One of the biggest problems single mothers face is the lack of a steady source of income especially when they do not get maintenance money from ex-husbands.

And the current economic climate with job cuts, shorter work weeks and lesser income is making the situation more difficult.

But while Mdm Jassia took on a job as a cleaner, not all single mothers are as tenacious.

And it is people like them unionists want to help, through a buddy system.

A unionist at the Union of Power and Gas Employees, Suseela A Singaram, said: "In our volunteer work with different kinds of projects, we did come across single mothers who said they did not have a sense of direction when they were in a predicament."

“They did not have a friend to bring them through so… (this buddy system had someone) to hold their hands and bring them through, no matter what their problems were."

The women's wing of NTUC had started a new project to help such women find jobs and become more legally aware by working with the Law Society to produce a legal guide and setting up reading programmes for children.

About a hundred women had signed up so far, and the union hoped to up this number to 500 by year-end.

- Channel News Asia