By Naseema Banu Maideen
Just five months after the Labour Movement’s Progressive Wage Model (PWM) has been rolled out, the sectors that have embarked on it are already showing up promising results.
With this force set to stay, a good 100,000 workers will benefit within the next two to three years, affirmed NTUC Secretary-General Lim Swee Say.
Eight out of the 12 union clusters have made progress in their climb on this model, while the other four are in their works-in-progress stages.
SG Lim provided an update on the journey that began with the push for the cleaning sector, and has now spread to other industries, on 21 November 2012 at NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute).
SG Lim pointed out that just as the flexible wage system has served workers and businesses well by saving jobs in bad times, the PWM is here to “help us to sustain real wages increase during good times.”
The Labour Movement believes that this model will be effective amidst the new reality of the current economy.
As Singapore faces this new reality of slower growth, SG Lim said there must a new mindset to tackle three core challenges.
The New Mindset
The PWM is set to work to help achieve this new mindset, which centers on promoting innovation and improving productivity. Business should attract, retain and make better use of every worker.
He pointed out that there is no standard approach for any cluster and that there will be continued push to identify the areas of enhancements on the various components of the PWM for every cluster.
