Companies should pay more attention to work-life balance in downturn

Companies should pay more attention to work-life balance in downturn
By Hoe Yeen Nie

SINGAPORE: Cost-cutting may be the buzzword among companies these days. But the labour movement said companies should pay more attention to policies that promote work-life balance rather than scale back on them.

Recent surveys found that more companies in Singapore are implementing flexible work arrangements to encourage women to enter and stay on in the workforce. As a result, many of these companies are seeing higher productivity and staff morale.

Scandinavian countries have long recognised the economic benefits of family-friendly measures. For example, Denmark estimates that 40 per cent of economic growth between 1970 and 1990 is a result of bringing women back into the workforce.

In Singapore, a raft of family-friendly policies have been introduced over the years, but the National Trades Union Congress said it still has a long way to go.

It added that in the current recession, work-life policies have become all the more necessary.

Halimah Yacob, Deputy secretary-general, NTUC, said: “For companies in the downturn, it’s all the more reason that they must pay close scrutiny to issues concerning work-life balance because I think during a downturn, people are a lot more stressed.

“And that stress which they then bring back from the workplace to the home, that stress will not only affect the home life but will also affect productivity at the workplace.”

Mdm Halimah was speaking at a conference, “Achieving balance between career and family - the Scandinavia and Singapore Experience”, on Monday morning.

The seminar brought together officials from Denmark, Norway and Sweden, as well as private and public sector representatives from Singapore. - CNA/vm

Source : Channel NewsAsia - 28 April 2009

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Flu fears infect investors

Flu fears infect investors

Airline stocks, oil prices take a tumble while gold, pharma shares go the other way

By Fiona Chan

AIRLINE stocks tumbled yesterday amid fears that the swine flu outbreak in Mexico may turn into a full global pandemic and halt tourists in their tracks.
Already suffering from recessionary cutbacks in travel, airlines such as Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific lost more than 8 per cent in inter-day trading, while Singapore Airlines went down 5 per cent before rallying slightly.

Air China dropped 13 per cent and China Southern Airlines fell 15 per cent. The Bloomberg Asia-Pacific Airlines Index fell the most in six months, losing almost 6 per cent as airports stepped up health checks and companies started restricting business travel.

The nervous selling helped to push regional markets down yesterday, with most of them closing lower.

Singapore’s Straits Times Index slid 34 points to close at 1,818.61. Stock markets in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Korea were also down.

Tokyo, India and Sydney bourses bucked the trend by closing higher, but their gains were limited.

Asian investors, just recently gaining optimism on tentative signs of economic recovery around the world, returned to risk-aversion mode as the health scare reignited memories of how Sars crippled regional economies back in 2003.

Investors also pared riskier positions on commodities and currencies and moved into traditional safe havens, sending the Australian dollar lower and pushing up gold and the Japanese yen.

But not all equities were casualties. Drug players benefited from the flu outbreak, which has probably killed more than 100 in Mexico and already spread to the United States, Canada, Spain and New Zealand.

Australia’s Biota Holdings jumped some 80 per cent on expectations that governments will place more orders for drugs and vaccines. Biota developed Relenza - one of the two anti-flu drugs that governments around the world are stocking up on to combat the spread of swine flu - and licensed it to GlaxoSmithKline.

The other anti-flu drug being bought up in large quantities, Tamiflu, is sold by Chugai Pharmaceuticals in Japan, which soared on hopes of higher drug sales. Korea’s Yuhan Corp, which supplies a key ingredient of Tamiflu, also surged.

Chinese food producers, especially pork product suppliers and pig farmers, mostly saw declines. But suppliers of chicken, beef and fish gained as investors bet that consumers would buy other food to replace pork.

The jitters over swine flu come as the world economy is struggling to get back on its feet amid one of the worst global recessions in history. Economists said the spread of a new epidemic could derail any recovery even before it starts.

Although tentative signs of stabilisation have emerged in a few pockets here and there, a full-blown flu outbreak would send Singapore’s teetering economy back over the edge, they added.

‘It’s one more thing to worry about on top of everything else,’ said Mr David Cohen, an economist at Action Economics.

‘But so far it’s not at an advanced stage - we still might well just escape anything serious - and the markets didn’t get too excited.’

If swine flu does morph into a Sars-like epidemic, its economic impact could still be limited as long as the disease is quickly contained, added Citigroup economist Kit Wei Zheng.

‘The economic decline due to Sars in 2003 was sharp but short, but the moment it was contained, immediately the economy picked up,’ he said.

Sars, which dealt a setback to Asian economies just as they were recovering from the tech bubble bust of 2001, shaved off ‘anything from 0.3 to over 2 percentage points’ from growth in various parts of the region, noted OCBC economist Selena Ling.

‘Although the actual Sars episode was relatively short-lived, the cost to the economy and to confidence was a lot longer because it came in the wake of earlier shocks to the economy,’ she said.

‘A swine flu pandemic would be very, very similar this time around.’

Source : Straits Times - 28 April 2009

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Singapore prepares for swine flu as outbreak spreads

Singapore prepares for swine flu as outbreak spreads

Temperature screening at hospitals; all SGH staff wearing N95 masks

By Radha Basu & Judith Tan

Tan Tock Seng Hospital has stationed staff clad in protective gowns and masks at the entrance to its accident and emergency department to check patients’ recent travel history. Posters tell patients to declare travel to Mexico, the US and Canada. — PHOTO: JOSEPH NAIR FOR THE STRAITS TIMES

NOT just the doctors and nurses, but even general workers at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) were wearing N95 masks yesterday.
Temperature screening stations are up at the accident and emergency wards of public hospitals islandwide.

Posters are plastered on walls to tell patients to inform staff if they had been to Mexico, the United States and Canada in the past fortnight.

Countries the world over are girding themselves against the spread of swine flu, which burst onto the scene over the weekend. And Singapore has swung into action.

Emergency meetings are being held among officials in the European Union and in Asean.

All eyes are on an emergency meeting by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that was brought forward by a day to decide whether to escalate the influenza ‘pandemic alert’ level.

WHO’s six-stage alert system on how to prepare for and combat a flu pandemic is currently set at level 3, signifying few human transmissions and little need for mitigation efforts.

Escalating this to level 4 would be to acknowledge ’sustained human-to-human transmission’, and it indicates a significant increase in the risk of a pandemic, though this is not a foregone conclusion, the organisation said on its website.

Meanwhile, cases are mounting. In Mexico, the epicentre of the outbreak, there are 103 dead - and counting.

The US, with 20 cases, has declared the outbreak a public health emergency. Victims are also turning up in Canada, Israel, Spain and elsewhere.

In Singapore, stepped-up checks brought two people to the attention of the authorities.

Both were referred yesterday to the Communicable Disease Centre (CDC).

One was a resident here with a history of travel to the US and who had flu-like symptoms. He had gone to a polyclinic, which raised the alert.

The other was an American from California whose higher-than-normal temperature was picked up by a thermal scanner at Changi Airport yesterday.

Preliminary tests cleared both of them, said the Health Ministry last night.

The flu strain making the news is a mutated version of what is otherwise a common strain, H1N1, that infects pigs.

The mutated strain has genetic elements of avian, swine and human influenza, causing some scientists to argue that the term ’swine flu’ is a misnomer.

What is dangerous about the strain: It is more contagious than the Sars virus, which killed 33 people here during the 2003 outbreak.

The clinical director of the CDC, Associate Professor Leo Yee Sin, noted that one particularly troubling aspect of swine flu is that victims are infectious, and can thus transmit the disease, even before they get fever or any other visible symptoms.

The infectious period is also relatively long, from a day before symptoms appear until at least a week later.

In Sars, on the other hand, a person becomes infectious a few days after the onset of fever.

‘Because of the earlier onset of the infectious period, this is harder to manage than Sars,’ she said.

Added Dr Asok Kurup, an infectious diseases consultant at SGH: ‘That means it is spread without any symptoms, making it 10 times worse than Sars. Can you imagine the global implications if it should be transmitted?’

Another big question mark is the level of potency of the virus. While more than 100 people have died in Mexico, the victims in the US have recovered.

‘We are only beginning to understand the situation in Mexico and the US, so we don’t really know the impact on the individual or in the clinical context,’ said Dr Asok.

Prof Leo noted that Singapore is now better prepared to handle disease outbreaks after its brush with Sars. Hospitals have set aside isolation rooms and have systems in place to monitor its own staff for signs of the disease spreading.

Also, because it was worried about an avian flu outbreak, it had stockpiled Tamiflu, a drug which is effective against H1N1.

It is understood that experts from the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology are rushing to create a test kit for swine flu. Once one is ready, it would take about three hours to determine from a swab of nasal discharge whether the patient has caught swine flu.

Besides medical staff, ordinary Singaporeans too are taking precautions. Pharmacies report that N95 masks are flying off the shelves while travel agencies are readying themselves for cancellations of trips to the US.

So is this the ‘big one’ that scientists have been predicting?

It is too early to tell, said Prof Leo.

‘The situation is evolving very quickly. But at this stage, we need to be aware, not alarmed.’

Source : Straits Times - 28 April 2009

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Most buildings to go green by 2030

Most buildings to go green by 2030

Property owners can look forward to annual energy savings of $1.6b

By EMILYN YAP

IT’S a red-hot target in going green - the government hopes to put the Green Mark stamp on at least 80 per cent of buildings here by 2030, and has come up with a slew of new measures for building owners to help meet this goal.

Not only does the environment stand to gain, property owners can look forward to annual energy savings to the tune of $1.6 billion in the long run. More jobs dedicated to the development and care of green buildings may also emerge. The new target was revealed by the Inter-ministerial Committee on Sustainable Development yesterday, as part of its 10-to-20-year blueprint for Singapore’s growth. In conjunction with the plan’s launch, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) rolled out its second green building master plan to improve the environmental friendliness of buildings.

Existing buildings, in particular, came under the spotlight because they consume a third of national end-use electricity. To entice owners of some private non-residential developments to carry out retrofitting works, BCA will offer cash incentives through a $100 million Green Mark incentive scheme for existing buildings. The National Parks Board will also have a new ’sky-rise’ greenery incentive scheme to encourage existing developments in the city centre to green up their roofs.

The government will play its part by requiring all large existing buildings owned by its agencies to attain the Green Mark gold plus standard by 2020, at an estimated retrofitting cost of about $500 million over the next 10 years. Gold plus is second to the top platinum rating, and ranks above the gold and certified ratings.

New buildings are also on BCA’s radar, and the agency is working with the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) to offer bonus gross floor area (GFA) for private developments. Those that attain the Green Mark platinum or gold plus rating can receive up to 2 per cent or one per cent more GFA beyond the URA master plan gross plot ratio control respectively.

The bonus GFA, however, is subject to caps and the payment of a development charge (DC) or differential premium. While City Developments managing director Kwek Leng Joo believes the additional GFA will help developers defray some investment costs in green technology and features, he suggests ‘the DC rate be pegged at the previous rate of 50 per cent instead of the current 70 per cent’ to ‘make the incentive more attractive and effective’.

New buildings in strategic growth areas will come under greater scrutiny. Those in the Marina Bay and Downtown Core area will have to meet Green Mark platinum or gold plus standards as part of land sale conditions, while those in the Jurong Lake District, Kallang Riverside and Paya Lebar Central will have to attain the Green Mark gold plus rating.

For Marina Bay and Jurong Lake District in particular, URA will introduce a landscape replacement policy to make up for greenery lost from ground development. New projects have to put in place sky-rise greenery or ground-level landscaping equivalent to the site area in size.

The government has also set a high benchmark for new public sector buildings - all medium or large air-conditioned ones have to achieve the Green Mark platinum rating.

‘BCA’s second green building masterplan will not only result in more of our buildings being able to achieve substantial savings in energy costs, but also provides a boost to the green-collar job market,’ said BCA CEO John Keung.

According to BCA, the masterplan will reduce energy costs by $1.6 billion a year when it is fully implemented. Some 18,000 professionals, managers, executives and technicians may also be trained over the next 10 years in the development, design, construction, operation and maintenance of green buildings.

Source : Straits Times - 28 April 2009

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S’pore enters crisis in a position of strength

S’pore enters crisis in a position of strength

Minister says nation can adopt positive attitude despite a gloomy outlook

By LEE U-WEN

SINGAPORE’S job market will soften further this year, with unemployment and retrenchment figures expected to rise.

Mr Gan: Employers must adopt the tripartite guidelines and do their best to look at ways to stay viable
But despite the gloomy outlook, the country can remain confident and adopt a positive attitude amid the global recession, Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong said yesterday.

In his May Day message, Mr Gan said that Singapore entered the present crisis in a position of strength. Its economy is competitive and the fundamentals are strong.

On the employment front, Mr Gan said that there are still many good jobs to be had, with more than 45,000 positions expected to be created over the next two years. He also credited the tripartite relationship between the government, unions and workers, which has been ‘tested and deepened’ during previous downturns.

‘Everyone has a part to play,’ he said. ‘Employers must adopt the tripartite guidelines and do their best to look at ways to stay viable and preserve jobs. They should also be responsible and fair to workers.’

Mr Gan called on workers to shoulder their fair share of the responsibility by being ‘flexible and ready to make adjustments’. Employers and workers should also seize the chance to upgrade by tapping the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (Spur), a $650 million government-funded scheme for which more than 43,000 workers have signed up in the two months since its launch last December.

‘With better skills, workers will boost their employability and career prospects. The transition will not be a painless one - but we will succeed as we have done so in the past.’

In a separate message, Singapore National Employers Federation president Stephen Lee said that his staff, union leaders and Ministry of Manpower officials have increased the frequency of joint meetings to share industry and ground feedback and come up with solutions to help companies and workers.

Mr Lee laid out a multi-pronged approach for the tripartite partners to ‘help employers and workers ride through the downturn while positioning the company for the upturn’.

He said that all parties must respond swiftly to save jobs and minimise retrenchments, or the flexible wage system that Singapore has built up over the years ‘will be tested’.

‘Many companies have reduced utilities usage, cut non-essential travel and entertainment expenses and reviewed their operating procedures,’ he said. ‘Some companies have either cut or frozen wages, with management taking the lead.’

Mr Lee said that the tripartite partners must work together to manage costs to adapt to declining demand.

Finally, all stakeholders have a part to play in building up the capabilities of companies and workers to ensure everyone is in a better position to take advantage of opportunities when the economy rebounds, he said.

Source : Straits Times - 28 April 2009

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Clean, green blueprint to redefine Singapore

Clean, green blueprint to redefine Singapore

$1b to kickstart plan for energy-efficient buildings, lower emissions, cleaner transport, other solutions

(SINGAPORE) The government yesterday unveiled a blueprint for sustainable development for the next 10 to 20 years, adopting a ‘light-touch’ approach for now to spare businesses and households from higher costs at a time of economic hardship.

Even so, there will be huge implications for developers, the transport sector, oil refineries and even makers of airconditioners, refrigerators and clothes dryers.

A key target is a 35 per cent reduction in energy consumption per dollar GDP by 2030 (from 2005 levels), which is projected to potentially generate about $3.6 billion annual savings (net of the cost of investment).

New buildings in Singapore will be more energy efficient while existing ones will be retrofitted to conserve energy.

Electric vehicles and diesel-hybrid buses will be tested out. Minimum energy performance standards for household air-conditioners and refrigerators will be introduced by 2011. In short, the moves will touch all aspects of life in Singapore.

The government will provide ‘incentives, information and educate the public, as opposed to other policy options of say legislation or even disincentives such as taxes’ as National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan, co-chair of the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Sustainable Development (IMCSD), said at a media briefing yesterday.

For a start, the government has set aside $1 billion for the next five years - this was announced in the January Budget statement - to help implement plans in the blueprint.

Part of this sum will go towards helping businesses reduce the upfront costs of investing in resource-efficient buildings, systems and processes. The $1 billion sum includes $100 million set aside for the new Green Mark Incentive scheme to retrofit existing private-sector buildings to boost energy efficiency.

‘The temptation is to slow down our efforts in the area of sustainable development while we tackle the immediate economic challenges. However, the two are not mutually exclusive. Even as we tackle the short-term challenges, we must build capability for our long-term development,’ Mr Mah said.

The blueprint keeps open the option of mandating changes in the longer term. For instance, the government will study the experiences of countries that have legislated minimum energy-efficiency standards for major energy-consuming equipment and systems and see if it needs to use the law for this.

The 128-page document, available at www.sus tainablesingapore.gov.sg, also elaborates on plans to build new R&D capabilities.

Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim, co-chair of IMCSD, highlighted that the ‘concrete targets’ set in the blueprint for 2020 and 2030 ‘reflect how serious we are about sustainable development’.

The targets will be reviewed every five years. ‘These targets will be reviewed regularly, as technology improves and the cost-effectiveness of measures changes,’ he added.

Energy-related benchmarks will be set for key industrial sectors.

Other specific targets include reducing daily domestic water consumption per capita from 156 litres currently to 140 litres by 2030. To improve air quality, ambient sulphur dioxide levels will be capped despite economic growth. Air emission standards for industry and transport will be regularly reviewed and Singapore will be benchmarked against top Asian cities - without imposing prohibitive costs on the players.

There will also be 50 additional hectares of skyrise greenery, and 900 hectares of water bodies and 100 km of waterways open for recreational activity by 2030.

Another important target set is for at least 80 per cent of Singapore’s stock of buildings to achieve Building and Construction Authority’s (BCA) Green Mark Certified Rating by 2030.

The government will promote more efficient pollution-control equipment for industries and the use of more efficient sulphur recovery systems for oil refineries.

Singapore will be positioned as an international knowledge hub in sustainable development solutions. Solar technology will be piloted at 30 public housing precincts across the island. Singapore will invest early in solar technology to prepare for using it on a larger scale when its cost falls closer to that of conventional energy.

BCA will develop prototype energy-efficient building designs that can more than halve energy consumption.

Clean energy and water technologies are projected to provide about $3.4 billion economic value-add per year by 2015 and to create a total of 18,000 jobs by 2015.

Source : Straits Times - 28 April 2009

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