Managing Excess Manpower
Find out how your company can manage excess manpower appropriately so that your workers' interests would not be compromised.

Retrenchment
As an enlightened employer, you are advised to carry out your retrenchment exercise responsibly in consultation with the union if your company is unionized. As far as possible, affected employees should be informed of your impending retrenchment before notice of retrenchment is given. You should also notify the Labour Relations Department of the Ministry of Manpower at 6534 1246 or fax the information to 6535 4811. In addition, you are also encouraged to give advance notice of retrenchment to the union (if any) and other relevant agencies (WDA, MOM, EDB, NTUC and SNEF) so that there is adequate time to arrange for the affected employees to be placed on SRP or for CareerLink@wda (Tel: 6883 5885) to assist them them in seeking alternative employment.

What length of notice should my company give to employees who are to be retrenched?
The duration of notice will depend on what is stipulated in the collective agreement or contract of service. If the notice period was not stipulated, the following shall apply to employees covered by the Employment Act:

Length of Service	Notice Period
Less than 26 weeks	1 day
26 weeks to less than 2 years	1 week
2 years to less than 5 years	2 weeks
5 years and above	4 weeks

How much retrenchment benefits must my company pay to the affected employees?
Employees with 3 years' service or more in the company and who are covered by the Employment Act are eligible to claim retrenchment benefit payment. The quantum of retrenchment benefit depends on what is provdided in the collective agreement or contract of service. If there is no provision, the quantum is to be negotiated between the employee and the employer concerned. For those employees with less than 3 years' service, they should be granted an ex-gratia payment.

The prevailing norm is to pay a retrenchment benefit varying between 2 weeks to 1 month of salary per year of service. However, in unionised companies where the quantum of retrenchment benefit is stipulated in the collective agreement, the norm is one month's salary for each year of service.

Advisory Note Your company is required to pay all salaries including unconsumed annual leave, maternity benefit payment, retrenchment benefits, notice pay and pro-rated bonus/AWS (if any) to the employees, on their last day of work.

I want to help my employees find jobs. Which department can I refer them to?
CareerLink@ntuc & wda (Tel: 6883 5885). The centre offers various types of services such as resource materials (books & videotapes), and computer terminals with internet access to assist job seekers in their job search. Job registration and matching service is also available at the centre and via JOBS.

Alternatively, the workers may visit CareerLink@ntuc & wda at B1-03, 1 Marina Boulevard, One Marina Boulevard S(018989). The operating hours of the centre are from 9:00am to 6:00pm on Mondays to Fridays, and 9:00am to 1:30pm on Saturdays.

For retrenchment exercises involving a large number of local workers, the centre could help to look for hiring companies that can provide alternative employment to the retrenched workers. To enable us to do this, we need the retrenching company's co-operation to notify us at least 2 weeks prior to the retrenchment exercise. We would also need to have details such as the number of workers affected, their age, gender, qualifications and existing occupations.

As a responsible employer, you should help the affected workers look for jobs in associate companies or in other companies. You can also advise your retrenched workers to go for fulltime SRP training under the surrogate employer schemes under NTUC and the self-help groups like CDAC, MENDAKI, SINDA and Eurasian Association. The retrenched workers will be able to make full use of their time between jobs to upgrade themselves. Furthermore, they will also receive course fee support and training allowance.

You can ask your employees to contact:

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