In conjunction with various May Day celebrations held island-wide, the Amalgamated Union of Public Daily Rated Workers (AUPDRW) extended their appreciation to 680 Daily Rated Employees (DREs) who are union members, for their contribution to keeping Singapore clean and green with a special May Day gift each.
About 250 workers were present at the AUPDRW May Day Gift 2015 Presentation event held today at the Environment Building, where Guest-of-Honour Mr Seah Kian Peng, Advisor to AUPDRW and Deputy Speaker of Parliament presented the appreciation gift to each worker.
The AUPDRW aims to help DREs, who are also low-wage workers cope with rising cost of living. With several assistance programmes under the National Trades Union Congress’s (NTUC) U Care Programme such as U Stretch vouchers, Back-to-School vouchers as well as bursaries from the union, these programmes help the DREs stretch their dollar for basic necessities and alleviate the cost of their children’s education. These 700 members are Environmental Health Assistants working for the National Environment Agency (NEA) and Sports Singapore.
The assistance programmes which help AUPDRW members defray the cost of living and education for their children include:
a. U Stretch vouchers – In 2014, AUPDRW has given out more than $60,000 worth of U Stretch vouchers, benefitting over 600 members. Applicants receive up to $100 worth of vouchers each and these vouchers can be used for groceries and daily necessities etc.
b. Back-to-school vouchers – To help union members with the cost of education for their children, over $22,000 worth of vouchers were given to 180 children to help with the purchase of textbooks and other school expenses.
c. The AUPDRW Bursary also helped 51 students to better afford their school fees in the same year with more than $24,000 worth of bursaries was given out last year.
“Daily-rated workers are the unsung heroes who have contributed much to Singapore and we must not forget them. Many of them belong to low-income families and we must do our best to help them keep up with the rising cost of living, to ensure they are not left behind in our society. Every member who received this gift has contributed much to make Singapore a clean and green city. ” said Mr G Muthukumarasamy, General Secretary of AUPDRW.
The 680 AUPDRW members each received a powerbank sponsored by NTUC Fairprice Foundation.
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