Chitchat Sinkie Civil Servants Relived They Won't Get Retrenched By Stat Board Merger

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SINGAPORE — Public servants at International Enterprise (IE) Singapore and Spring Singapore whom TODAY spoke to on Tuesday (Sept 5) said that they had seen the merger coming, as talk had been swirling for some time.

And while they felt assured that the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) has said that no retrenchments were expected, there was an air of uncertainty in their offices surrounding how the redeployment will be handled.


"The announcement was not unexpected … (the uncertainties pertain to) practical matters like how the new teams will be formed, and how the new organisation will balance the original mandate and objectives of both agencies," said an IE Singapore employee, who declined to be named. An official announcement was made to affected staff on Monday, she said, and the management has arranged "a few townhalls" for employees to air their concerns.

Stressing that this was "not a downsizing exercise", an MTI spokesperson said that there would be "new roles, expanded job scopes, and more opportunities for staff".

A Spring employee, who also wanted to remain anonymous, said: "The two organisations do have a lot of overlapping responsibilities and there could be some synergies if they are merged."

He added: "The merger was something that had always been mooted, but no one took it seriously (until now)."

Mr Yeo Chun Fing, general secretary of the Amalgamated Union of Public Employees, said the union will continue to communicate with the management of both statutory boards and "reassure (its) members that their needs will be taken care of".

The affected employees will be "gradually integrated" into the new entity, Enterprise Singapore, and training will be provided if there are significant changes to their job scopes, said Mr Yeo.

"The restructuring will take place in April next year, so it is not immediate ... Many of the things they do will be largely the same, but (some may) have to do a bit more," he said.

Mr Yeo noted that there had been "much larger" restructuring of public agencies in the past. In April last year, the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) and Media Development Authority were merged to form the InfoComm Media Development Authority (IMDA).

A new Government Technology Agency (GovTech) was also set up to take over the heavy engineering functions of IDA's Government Chief Information Office. IMDA was to have about 750 staff, with more than half moving over from IDA. GovTech have an estimated headcount of 1,800 employees. The number of employees in IMDA and GovTech were unchanged from the headcount at IDA and MDA.

On the latest merger, Mr Yeo said: "No one should be adversely affected … We are quite confident, as we have done many rounds of restructuring, so we should be able to manage this. The most important thing is that nobody should lose their jobs."

http://www.todayonline.com/singapore...-be-redeployed


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