Public Consultation Toolkit - Civil Service College

Public Consultation Toolkit 15 16 Public Consultation Toolkit
Learning points:
• Comprehensive consultation with different stakeholders allowed the government to
understand the different interests and concerns in the issues.
• This helped the government roll out policies which balanced the interests and needs of
different stakeholders.
Case 4:
Tripartite efforts to overcome the downturn
Agency/country:
• Ministry of Manpower (MOM), Singapore
Source:
• Australian Human Rights Commission, 2010, Case study 2 - The Murray-Darling Basin – An ecological
and human tragedy, Australia, .
• Crase, L., Dollery, B. & Wallis, J., 2005, Community consultation in public policy: The case of the
Murray-Darling Basin of Australia, Australian Journal of Political Science, 40, 221 – 237, .
• Macdonald, D. H., & Young, M., 2001, A case study of the Murray-Darling Basin, CSIRO Land and Water,
.
Background:
• A tripartite taskforce comprising representatives from the Government, the National Trades
Union Congress (NTUC) and the Singapore National Employers’ Federation (SNEF), was
formed to gather feedback and updates on manpower-related issues during the economic
downturn. The impact of the economic downturn was especially felt around October 2008,
prompting the tripartite partners to come together in November 2008 to formulate the
Tripartite Guidelines on Managing Excess Manpower to help companies manage their excess
manpower and to use retrenchments as a last resort.
• According to the Guidelines, companies could implement a shorter working week or
temporary lay-offs, cut wages or take other non-wage cost-cutting measures.
Consultation Process:
• Within a month, the Tripartite Taskforce on Managing the Economic Downturn was set up
with regular working groups.
• The partners leveraged on the Singapore Tripartism Forum (STF) to broadcast the measures
to a wider audience. More than 40 briefings/dialogues on the Guidelines were organised,
involving some 9,500 participants. The briefings mainly targeted senior managers and HR
professionals from the various sectors, as well as the various Chambers of Commerce and
unions.
• An STF Dialogue with the Prime Minister was also organised in February 2009 to highlight
the importance of saving jobs and creating growth in a global downturn.
• The tripartite partners also set up Tripartite Upturn Strategy Teams (TRUST Teams) to reach
out to individual companies to help businesses manage costs, retain workers and upgrade
their skills.
• From April 2009, the TRUST Teams reached over 640 companies, held 12 large-scale events
reaching out to some 3,100 participants, visited 20 companies employing about 12,000
employees, conducted one-on-one clinic sessions for 13 companies and provided assistance
to over 80 companies through tele-conversations.