The Housing and Development Board (HDB) and its house union Housing and Development Board Staff Union (HDBSU) will work together to prepare 5,500 employees for the future with a company training committee (CTC).
The formation of the committee was announced at HDBSU’s Quadrennial Delegates’ Conference on 28 August 2019.
The CTC will bring together the management and union to identify new roles as well as curate relevant training to help HDB employees keep up with industry transformation. The training committee is one of the first few in the public sector.
“HDB Staff Union would like to work with HDB to put together training schedules and bring in relevant training expertise from educational institutes to design the training so that workers’ competencies can improve … The excellent partnership between HDB and HDB Staff Union is one that we have worked hard together to nurture over the years. Union will never take good Labour-Management relations for granted, and we will continue to work hard to grow this relationship,” said HDBSU President Michael Koh.
The union and management also signed a new collective agreement (CA) at the event. HDB and HDBSU review their CA every three years.
HDB Deputy CEO Fong Chun Wah calls it a staple in the organisation’s corporate calendar and an exercise it takes seriously.
“Our Collective Agreement, therefore, plays an important role, not only in addressing our staff’s needs but in supporting staff engagement in HDB. It gives our staff a voice and a level of ownership to create the workplace they desire, one they are proud of and willing to go the extra mile for.
“The enhanced benefits of our CA would not have been possible without the close partnership between HDB Management and HDB Staff Union. The fact that we were able to work out all the details of the CA over just three meetings demonstrates the strength of our good working relationship. This is a relationship built on trust and collaboration, enabling us to drive our people initiatives effectively and resolve industrial relations matters amicably,” he said.
