To create better workers, it takes more than an individual’s efforts to continuously upgrade their skills. While improving themselves professionally, workers also require strong support from family, colleagues, supervisors and management so that they can achieve more at work. To create better jobs, it takes more than just management’s efforts to push for productivity improvements. Every worker, human resource professional and union partner should support the management in improving productivity and work processes, which will ultimately contribute to the creation of better jobs. The recipients of the annual May Day Model Partnership Awards are testament that such collaboration is essential towards achieving the common goal of creating better jobs and better workers that will ultimately lead to better lives.
Today, 61 individual model workers, human resource personnel or supervisors, and 138 companies and partners received the Awards for their steadfast partnerships and outstanding efforts towards improving productivity through up-skilling of their workers and shaping a resilient and adaptable workforce. In total, about 200 exemplary tripartite partners comprising workers, unions, employers and Government agencies were recognised for their initiatives in building a resilient workforce, promoting skills upgrading and adopting/initiating productivity improvements.
Into its sixth year, the Awards spotlight:
All efforts were steered towards the common goal of ‘Better Workers, Better Jobs’ and helping the economy to attain stronger productivity and quality growth. To date, more than 1,300 exemplary tripartite partners have been recognised for their contributions to the transformation of Singapore’s economy through various strategies such as inclusive growth and pursuing increased productivity which have also benefitted the workforce.
Through collaborations with partners from the unions, workers and Government agencies, many companies have driven productivity initiatives, embraced innovation and upgraded their workers with skills and expertise to manage more complex roles and stay abreast of global competition. For this, the Worker Category Awards recognised 44 model workers, who committed to upgrading themselves with a keen attitude to learn new skills, overcame challenges, and did their best at their jobs. For example, Ms Sandrasekar Rajathi, 42, started her career in healthcare in 2002 as a Healthcare Assistant at the Tan Tock Seng Hospital. With her passion for delivering care to patients, she took up a diploma in nursing with the support of her supervisors, peers and family members. In 2010 she became an enrolled nurse and would be a registered nurse this October.
The Human Resource Personnel/Supervisors and the Management And Partners Category Awards recognised 155 human resource personnel and/or supervisors; institutions and their partners, who had worked towards improving productivity through up-skilling of workers, embraced diversity of the workforce, facilitated good workplace practices and shaped a resilient and adaptable workforce. An example of a company would be Gemalto, which had taken a proactive approach to embark on continuous productivity improvement projects and training as one of its key strategies to redesign jobs so that workers could continue to enjoy annual performance incentives and salary adjustments.
“All awardees at the Awards today have made great effort to upgrade skills, improve productivity, and ensure workplace diversity in their respective ways so that our workers and companies remain globally competitive. Workers have embraced the need to continuously upgrade their skills and adapt in this dynamic economy, and they need great support from their employers and unions to successfully complete their courses. For ‘Better Workers, Better Jobs’, the strong partnerships between workers, companies, employers and unions must continue so that everyone can collaborate to achieve this objective,” said Mr Lim Kuang Beng, one of the two Co-Chairmen of the NTUC May Day Model Partnership Awards Organising Committee and Secretary for Financial Affairs of the NTUC Central Committee.
The awardees and their partners received the awards from Guest-of-Honour – Mr Stephen Lee, President, Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) and NTUC President Diana Chia at the awards ceremony. Over 500 awardees and guests attended the event held at the Devan Nair Institute for Employment and Employability in Jurong.
# # #
