Good morning and to all the ladies here - Happy International Women's Day.
Last Saturday, in celebration of International Women's Day, NTUC Women’s Development Secretariat (WDS) launched its U Flex movement— a movement which encourages employers and employees to embrace flexibility at work.
We are advocating for more family-friendly workplaces so that more women can remain in the workforce while caring for their families. And Flexible Work Arrangement is a crucial component of a family-friendly workplace. FWA positions helps enable more mothers to return to the workforce. For Singapore to have a sustainable flow of human talent, it is important for that paradigm shift in allowing and enabling work to be done in different ways. This will attract diverse talents and allow companies to be competitive globally.
The FWA job fair which WDS held last weekend saw over 300 people being offered FWA positions out of more than 800 applicants. So you see, the demand for FWA work is there and by offering FWA, the 15 companies at the job fair were able to tap on an alternative pool of workers who are looking for or need FWA.
A few days ago, Manpower Ministry also shared that a set of Tripartite Guidelines on Flexible work arrangements will be launched later this year. The Labour Movement is happy that our advocacy for such guidelines is coming to fruition and we are working closely with tripartite partners to provide our inputs on this. We are glad that all of the tripartite partners agree that flexibility in the workplace is important and we should have guidelines to help company embark FWA at their workplace. Instead of just policies, the guidelines will also encourage the utilization of FWA and hopefully leading to higher pick up rate.
Last but not least, FWA is not just for big MNCs. It can also work for SMEs. In fact, some even say it works easier for SMEs because they are less hierarchical! Absolute Kinetics Consultancy, the SAF Yacht Club and SSTC School for Further Education who are here with us today are good examples of SMEs which have done so. We also have the opportunity to hear from other organisations such DBS, HDB, Microsoft, Polycom, Regus, STB which are all sizeable organisations. Through their generous sharing, more can emulate and learn from their experiences. In fact, we call them our U Flex Employers & Partners.
We want to convey the message that LM is very serious and sincere about helping more companies to offer FWA to their employees so that more people can work and remain working. We want to protect our workers especially the women to not have interruption in their career due to lack of access to FWA. We want them to also enjoy progression in their career despite having the responsibility to care for their family.
Join us and be part of our U FLEX Movement!
