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As technologies and the demand for certain services change, many workers will lose their jobs. The responsibility for those people to adjust to such change should belong to the individual worker, not to government or to business.
15:15-15:45
Technology advancements have given rise to certain industries and sectors but also put an end to a wide range of products and services. In such changes, workers from the obsolete services or products will lose their jobs. Who should be responsible for them to adjust to such change? The question has been asked by many, but without a concrete answer. Viewing the corporate social responsibility and government public functions, it is not hard to notice that they take certain responsibilities in helping those people to adapt to such change.
Firstly, to enhance employment is an important role of government; it brings economic and social benefits to assist the workers that lost their jobs as a result of technology advancement. When the Declaration of Independence was announced, it pictured an American Dream that everyone, regardless of age, ability and ethnics, would enjoy the nation's wealth. Former American presidents have always been taking the political stand of improving everyone's welfare. President Obama emphasized the importance of keeping the unemployment rate low to combat the resent financial crisis. All these give a clear idea of how important it is for government to take the responsibility of helping the workers to adjust to the new era of technological development. Government can make the economic development beneficial to all and the society more stable.
Second, companies and corporations have spent huge amount of money in training their workforce, it is financially wise to take the responsibility for those workers to adjust to the change. New technology usually require workforce to acquire new set of skills to function well. Credit Suisse AG, a huge worldwide financial company spends millions of dollars on employ training. It values on-job training to facilitate employees to take on new technology and enables them to keep up with the advancement. The CEO of it says that manpower is the company's utmost important resource. Companies will gain financially from helping the employees who seem to become abundant or irrelevant because of technology advancement to such change and save hugely from lay-off and retrain new staff.
In addition, companies bear the social responsibility of making the transition more smoothly for the workforce. Even with the retrenchment, companies should stretch their hands out to help these workers adjust to the change and assist them in terms of job recommendation and so forth.
To make it more convincing, individual workers possess less power to make things happen than government or business. To take the relevant training courses such as computer skills requires around SG$300-500 in Singapore, which equals to a person's monthly spending on meals. Laid-off employees can hardly afford it, making re-entering the job market more difficult. However, government, with sufficient tax income can give subsidies to such individuals and make things happen for them. Companies with huge net income can also donate or sponsor such event. They have more resources and can provide such help easily without hampering their core interest.
It is not hard to draw the conclusion, from the arguments and examples presented, that even though it is not the full responsibility of the government or business to help the jobless workers as a result of development in technologies to adjust to the change, they have the power, the economic and social incentives to take important responsibilities. The cooperation of the three parties together will make the transition smooth and beneficial to all. Hence, it is unwise and unfair to push the responsibility to the workforce alone. |
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发表于 2010-9-14 15:55:07
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