The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) officially launched the Tour Guide Chapter (TGC), a professional chapter under the care of the Attractions, Resorts & Entertainment Union (AREU) today at NTUC Centre among more than 200 licensed tourist guides and industry players. TGC is a platform set up by the Labour Movement to address employment and employability issues in the tourism industry. It aims to be the collective voice of licensed tourist guides, to raise the professionalism of the industry through quality up-skilling programmes and to provide relevant union membership benefits to its members.
(A) Advocacy - The collective voice of licensed tourist guides
Since the soft launch of this professional chapter last July, TGC has initiated several focus group discussions with licensed inbound tourist guides on issues they faced, such as illegal guiding and lack of enforcement of the Singapore Tourism (Licensing & Control of Tourist Guides) Regulations and the Travel Agents Act & Regulations, which have resulted in loss of job and income opportunities.
Many Singaporean guides have expressed concern that some foreign guides conducting tours in Singapore’s vernacular languages are imparting inaccurate tourist information and history about Singapore to tourists. This has affected the overall image of local tourist guides and of Singapore as a tourist destination. We should build a strong Singapore Core within the tourist guide sector and draw on local guides’ wealth of knowledge on Singapore, given that they are more familiar with Singapore’s heritage and culture than foreign guides.
As their advocate, TGC will continue to engage the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and Ministry of Manpower (MOM) to propose solutions to address prevailing issues such as:
(B) Raising Professionalism of Tourism Industry - Through quality training and professional development programmes
There is a lack of professionalism in tourism industry today due to the prevalence of illegal guiding in Singapore. Tourist guides play the role as Singapore’s ambassadors to overseas visitors and it is pertinent that they uphold the professionalism of the industry. To that end, TGC has partnered selected local attractions such as the Maritime Experiential Museum & Aquarium (MEMA), Singapore City Gallery, Marina City Gallery and more to offer Product Updates and Familiarisation (FAM) tours for both new and existing licensed tourist guides. These tours serve to enrich and enhance their product knowledge of the places of interest that they would be showcasing to their visitors in the future. NTUC PME Alignment Unit has also organised a series of Legal Primer Workshops extended to members of TGC to learn more about contractual rights and obligations.
(C) Strengthening Social Security of Tourist Guides – Relevant union membership and benefits
As self-employed persons (SEPs) who work on a freelance basis for various travel agents, many tourist guides in Singapore do not have a stable income and CPF contributions. Amid an ageing population and shrinking workforce, TGC recognises the pressing need to strengthen the social safety net of this group of Singaporeans so that they may continue to contribute to the growing industry.
As such, TGC negotiated and successfully inked agreements with the Raffles Medical Group (RMG) and the Q&M Dental Group to provide an affordable and comprehensive suite of outpatient and dental services with effect from 2 July 2012. This is to ensure that, like other full-time employees, our licensed local tourist guides will have ready access to affordable healthcare services. This is in line with the Government’s efforts to build a fair and inclusive society. Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) with these strategic partners were signed at the launch.
In addition, NTUC Income, a social enterprise and a leading insurer in Singapore, will offer Personal Accident insurance plans to TGC members at preferential rates. These policies are designed to be affordable and to provide a safety net to TGC members should the unexpected happen in the course of their work.
On the newly launched TGC, NTUC Assistant Secretary-General and AREU Executive Secretary Ms Cham Hui Fong said: “As the Labour Movement pushes for freelancers to be given more protection against unfair treatment by their clients, TGC is advocating likewise for freelance licensed tourist guides who are currently covered under contract law but not the Employment Act. Through our established tripartite connections with companies and relevant Government agencies and our expertise in labour laws, we hope to be an effective collective voice for our members to engage the relevant authorities constructively in workplace issues as well as raise their professionalism through relevant development programmes.”
TGC currently has more than 300 members since it was set up last July. It hopes to reach out to as many tourist guides as possible through popular social media platforms like Facebook. Our official Facebook page would provide regular updates on attractions’ latest news, upcoming professional development courses and FAM tours as well as updates on discussions with our tripartite partners.
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