Good morning SG, fellow NTUC CC members, Mdm Speaker, tripartite partners and also brothers and sisters from the unions.
Today we celebrate International Women’s Day with all women and their families. NTUC shares the joy in celebrating the advancements of women in Singapore and elsewhere. Today, the labour force participation rate of our women aged 25 – 64 is 70.9% and we hope that we will continue to see the figure increase further.
Just as our theme today suggests, it’s time now to Nurture Our Women! It is indeed very timely for us to bring out our women’s potential and to support them in their struggle to balance work and family commitments. To encourage more women to return to work, or even to keep working women in the workforce, we have to be mindful of their needs, and one such critical factor is the availability of flexi work options for them to be able to spend more time with the family while fulfilling their career ambitions.
Recently in a U Family Happiness Poll conducted in November of 2012, 61% of the 5,720 respondents indicated that they are happy. Some cited that improving their financial stability would increase their happiness and others cited work-life balance as a key to more happiness. While happiness is a state of mind, it is noticeable that better work life balance does improve happiness.
To further push for a pro-family culture in the workplace, the trade unions will be setting up Family Chapters to work with the family life ambassadors of companies. Today, we see 11 unions already committed to the setting up of chapters and they would be championing this cause of promoting a pro-family environment at work.
We also want the government and employers to play an active role to support our push for flexi work arrangements. We ask for the government to offer more attractive programmes and incentives to assist employers in implementing sustainable FWAs to better meet the needs of their employees, especially those who are working mothers. On this note, we also urge more employers to tap into such fundings to enable them to provide more options for our women.
Recognising the importance of FWAs, today we have specially organized a job fair for our women with vacancies that will allow them to have certain flexibility at work. There will be 17 employers on board, offering a total of 1,000 job opportunities from various sectors. Several are offering flexible work arrangements.
It is a big challenge for employers to be able to offer FWAs for their workers, while at the same time ensuring that business needs are met. We should be recognizing and rewarding these employers for their efforts in promoting the FWA culture.
In view of this, NTUC will be embarking on a hunt for the “Best Company for Mums”. This fun contest aims to highlight enlightened employers, whether from SMEs or MNCs, who have, empowered working mothers to continue to thrive in their careers while caring for their children and families.
To all of our working mums , we urge you to nominate your employer if you have benefitted from their forward-thinking programmes to help you manage your family care responsibilities. Help us to showcase the good work of your employer and let them know that their thoughtfulness is appreciated. We want all to know that Singapore has many good companies which are not just profit-driven but make their profits by being socially responsible, through enabling their people.
Last but not least, I want to thank our tripartite partners for gracing our event today and also a big thank you to all our generous sponsors, especially NTUC Club, for their contributions to make this celebration a success. Finally, as we celebrate the occasion today, let’s not forget to continue with our push to Nurture Our Women! Here’s wishing everyone a Happy International Women’s Day!
