I dare you to show this to your boss if he cuts your pay due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Either your boss will say that he’s now working without pay or you’d be looking for a temporary job.
But still, this is what the National Wages Council (NWC), which I know you didn’t know exist before today, suggests.
Simi is National Wages Council?
With the COVID-19 outbreak, businesses all over Singapore (and the world) have taken a hit.
Apparently, the NWC is a council that’s made up of employer, employee and government representatives, and they usually meet in April and May every year.
But with the coronavirus causing havoc in people’s payroll since last month, the council was convened earlier.
It’s chaired by DBS Bank chairman Peter Seah.
Today, the council has come out to give some suggestions, and I really hope bosses all over Singapore read this.
Wage Reduction
For a start, they said that if a business is really impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak, they may “exercise wage reduction, with management leading by example.”
The golden number?
They suggest considering cutting up to 10% of basic wages—and those in management positions should have a pay cut that’s higher than 10% so that they can lead by example.
But of course, the company should look at other solutions first—one interesting one is to reduce workers’ hours during this period but still pay them in full while logging in the hours. Once the situation has improved, these workers can fulfil those extra hours.
This would ensure that workers like us still can pay our bills monthly and have our bubble teas daily.
Support for Employees
The NWC also encourage staff who are affected by reduced working hours, and therefore reduced pay, to look for a second (temporary) job to supplement their income.
The authorities have created a platform for this and the pay is rather reasonable.
Also, if wage reduction is done, companies should still try to pay the 13th month bonus.
That is, if the COVID-19 is over by the end of the year lah. It should be, right?
Reader Bao: The total number of confirmed cases is now at 720K
Holy crap.
Retrenchment Inevitable? Inform the Authorities
But what if retrenchment is inevitable? After all, just go to any mall and you’d see how people are just sitting in their shops reading the labels of shampoo bottles.
If retrenchment is really unavoidable, companies must do it responsibly; they must inform MOM and unions before letting go of anyone.
Though I’d go out on a limb and say there’s a little problem here: this doesn’t apply to companies with less than 10 employees, and needless to say, these are the companies without big reserve funds to tide over this stormy period.
And in a final push, the NWC “calls on employers, unions and workers, and the Government to stay united and work together, to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 and position Singapore for eventual recovery.”
Now, excuse me as I show this article to my boss.