How to get housewives, retirees back to work? New fund may help

Nov 15, 2007
Firms can tap $3 million fund for initiatives aimed at pool of 600,000 potential workers
By Keith Lin

EVERY hour, two security officers patrol the Tradehub 21 industrial park in Boon Lay Way - on bicycles.

But this could change soon. Their bosses want to introduce golf buggies as a way of attracting more older workers to join the company.

KH Security Agency sees it as the solution to the uphill task of getting workers.

Yesterday, eyes lit up when news broke of a new fund that promises to give companies up to $100,000 to implement flexible or part-time measures at the workplace.

The $3 million government fund, called the Flexi-Works! scheme, was launched yesterday and is aimed at coaxing housewives and retirees to work again.

It received loud cheers from companies like KH Security. Said its operations manager Gary Harris: 'This is timely given the dire manpower shortage facing our industry, especially after strict rules were introduced following the Sept 11 attacks on who we can hire.'

Only Singaporeans and permanent residents, plus Malaysians, can be security officers, he added.

Horticultural company Candy Floriculture is eyeing housewives. Its boss, Madam Sharen Goh, says she intends to tap the fund to hire and train more housewives to take up such jobs as florists and tree decorators.

Now, only three of her 32 workers were housewives previously.

'Mothers are by nature more caring, which makes them very ideal horticulture workers,' she said.

All employers interviewed as well as the labour movement applauded the fund as a way to help ease the shortage in the current tight labour market, with employers hungry for workers.

Latest official figures show the pool of housewives and retirees to be around 600,000.

The fund was announced yesterday by Minister of State for Manpower Gan Kim Yong at a seminar for small and medium-size enterprises.

He said many women and retirees aspire to work again, but prefer to do so on a part-time or flexible basis.

And, he added, 'as the labour market continues to tighten, businesses will need new sources of manpower to support their growth'.

At the same time, the Government would like housewives and retirees to come out to work, 'so that they can be economically active; they can also be secure financially for their retirement in their old age, and at the same time, contribute positively to the economy', he said.

Hence, the new scheme which lets companies use the money for a range of activities, from redesigning jobs to subsidising training costs.

In the initial 12 months, it aims to entice 1,500 to help fill the thousands of jobs being created.

Latest Manpower Ministry figures show about 171,500 jobs were created in the first nine months of this year.

But companies struggle to fill many of them, as Singapore's unemployment rate in September hit a level not seen since the 1997 Asian financial crisis: 1.7 per cent.

Still, some housewives struggle to find work, said MP Halimah Yacob, NTUC's deputy secretary-general.

'Many are keen to work, but don't want to do it full-time or spend too much time travelling to the workplace, because it takes them away from their family responsibilities,' said Madam Halimah, who also heads a working group of government officials, unionists and employers that is looking at ways to attract women back into the workforce.

For housewife Elsie Quek, 47, the prospect of flexi-work is delightful. The former clerk, who quit her job in the 1980s to raise her two children, hopes to work from home.

'This way, I can earn extra income while still having time to cook and go grocery shopping for my family,' said Mrs Quek, whose husband is a surveyor. Her daughter is now 21 and son, 13.

klin@sph.com.sg

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We are of the view that if we let mothers go back to work too early, the social cost will be higher than the economic contribution that these mothers can bring in.