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PENANG MTUC has called on the state government to formulate an action plan to deal with the prospect of more retrenchments. Referring to a report which quoted Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng as saying that the global economy was growing at a slower rate than earlier forecast, state MTUC secretary K. Veeriah said such a plan was needed to allay fears among blue collar workers.
Already, in the services sector, there were reports of some employers offering voluntary separation schemes, Veeriah noted in an interview yesterday. Veeriah noted that the manufacturing sector, especially the electronic and electrical sub sectors, accounted for about 70% of Penang’s production output. “If global orders drop, then there is a strong possibility that employers will resort to reducing their workforce, ” he said.
Penang is believed to be home to about 1,000 manufacturing companies producing everything from computer chips and furniture to healthcare products. Job displacement remains a threat to the workforce in the state, as the state’s economy is largely dependent on what happens on the international front, Veeriah said. One of Veeriah’s recommenda-tions is for the state to conduct a survey among the employers in the manufacturing sector to determine if they were planning to downsize their workforce.
Secondly, the state must come out with a system to match workers and their skill levels to the jobs available, bearing in mind their age factor, Veeriah said. “The last major turnover of workers occurred in the mid-2000s here,” he said. “Then, many could not find new jobs after being retrenched. “One reason was that their skill levels did not suit the vacancies available while some were not rehired because the employers felt they were old.” According to Veeriah, MTUC was grateful that the state was planning to help the 300 Intel Corporation workers who were recently retrenched.
Source: The Star
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