A new award has been established to recognise the contributions of the Immediate Past President of the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) towards tripartism in the country.
The SNEF-Stephen Lee Award was announced at the Annual General Meeting of SNEF.
Annual Fund
Mr Lee stepped down as SNEF President on 31 August 2014 after 26 years at its helm.The award will fund annually up to two executive development programmes in tripartism and industrial relations from 2015 to 2020, according to a statement from SNEF.
The objective of the programmes is to develop senior executives who can provide the leadership for the SNEF secretariat and for employers to work with tripartite partners to further strengthen tripartism and maintain industrial harmony to benefit all employers and workers in Singapore.
Collective Contributions
SNEF has raised raised $3.3 million to fund the award. Over the next five years, SNEF will set aside $1.4 million, inclusive of $50,000 of seed money from Mr Stephen Lee.
NTUC, NTUC Fairprice, NTUC Income, NTUC Choice Homes and Mercatus together will contribute $0.7 million.
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) will also contribute $0.7 million.
The Singapore Labour Foundation (SLF) will support the tripartite effort by contributing $0.5 million.
“NTUC strongly supports SNEF’s initiative in setting up the SNEF-Stephen Lee Award. The development of future generations of professionals to strengthen the employers’ role in tripartism is a good move to build on Stephen’s legacy. It will contribute to the further strengthening of Singapore tripartism for the mutual benefits of workers and businesses,” said NTUC Secretary-General (SG) Lim Swee Say.
Article written by Ramesh Subbaraman, and can be found in NTUC This Week (25 Sept 2014)
