This covers the country’s retail, fast food and warehouse workers, as well as those who work in aviation, arts and recreation, and tourism.
Prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has given the go-ahead for financial aid costing 40 billion baht to help employees left out under previous schemes.
Some 33.4% of non-regular workers received no compensation for forced leave, as compared to 14.8% for regular staff, a survey shows.
The supplementary budget is reported to be in the scale of 20 trillion won (US$17.9 billion) to 30 trillion won (US$26.8 billion).
The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) has called on the government to provide immediate subsidies for workers struggling financially.
The Council of Trade Unions (CTU) is pushing for the removal of the rule that workers must be employed for six months before getting sick leave.
The third phase of the country’s wage subsidy programme will receive an additional injection of RM500 million.
The Tourism Council of Thailand wants to implement a dedicated support programme for tourism workers to reskill and upskill by March.
Japan’s Business Federation says companies should have more financial leeway and pay hikes are unrealistic amid the economic uncertainty.
A strong, effective and sustainable lending mechanism is important to remove credit barriers facing SMEs.
The government’s strategy to mitigate the effects of the pandemic should be to upskill or reskill workers instead of continuing to pay wage subsidies.
The government has been encouraging men to take paternity leave, but the practice is not common in Japan, which suffers from a declining birth rate.
Twenty-five MPs have appealed to the government to implement six months of automatic loan moratorium to save jobs.
Labour minister Law Chi-Kwong said the proposal to gradually increase the number of statutory holidays from 12 to 17 by 2030 is “most acceptable”.
The Social Security Organisation (Socso) has committed to the quick implementation of the Permai financial package.
The priority should be to protect jobs rather than a uniform pay hike, it said as it unveiled guidelines to the upcoming wage talks.
Initiatives include a one-off monetary assistance for taxi and bus drivers, and a special three-month electric bills discount for six business sectors.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the government will initiate a seed fund for startups of Rs10 billion (US$136.3 million).
The average loan taken by SMEs amounted to US$122,514.
Finance minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith has proposed for 210 billion baht (US$7 billion) to be given as cash handouts to individuals and companies.
The measures include soft loans and lower utility bills, and aim to boost liquidity for businesses, provide debt relief and unemployment support.
The finance ministry plans to hand out 4.1 trillion won (US$3.7 billion) in emergency cash to people affected by the third wave of the coronavirus.
Hong Kong's government is offering companies a grant of HK$10,000 (US$1,290) for each recent college graduate they employ.
The new loan programmes have a combined loan guarantee of 40 billion baht, and will be rolled out through six financial institutions.
Enterprise Singapore (ESG) aided businesses by loaning S$17.4 billion (US$13.2 billion) last year, as many companies struggled because of the pandemic.
The government is partnering international venture capital fund managers to create jobs, said Malaysia’s finance minister.
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups said the budget to support startups has been raised to 1.5 trillion won (US$1.4 billion) this year.
Workers who lost their jobs due to the closure of businesses in garment and textile factories, and the tourism industry will be able to receive support.
The government also plans to support smaller businesses, offer tax incentives to increase hiring, and support sectors that were severely retrenched.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spoke out against companies that benefited from the subsidies, yet handed out large bonuses in 2020.