Mention the word tripartism and what immediately comes to mind is the close nexus between the Labour Movement (LM), the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) and the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).
NTUC Secretary-General (SG) Ng Chee Meng feels tripartism in today’s context involves more than just these three players. He pointed out that it takes a whole-of-industry approach especially when it comes to implementing the 23 Industry Transformation Maps (ITMs) and explaining to workers the benefits they bring to the workforce and country.
Conceptualising the ITMs involves not just the relevant Ministries and the unions. It also involves the various trade associations linked to the industry, the chambers of commerce and the institutions of higher learning and training institutes.
He made the point to top officials from various government bodies during a recent visit to A*STAR’s (Agency for Science Technology and Research) Model Factory at SIMTech on 29 June 2018.
The Model Factory@SIMTech is part of A*STAR’s future of manufacturing initiative to allow companies to experiment advanced manufacturing technologies in a learning environment.
Besides senior officials from MOM and SNEF, senior staff from the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) and host A*STAR were also present for the visit.
The visit is part of a series of Tripartite Mixers which have been organised since 2017 to create an informal platform for top-tier staff from the tripartite partners to forger stronger bonds.
New Tripartite Partners
SIMTech is a research institute of A*STAR and has a pool of more than 400 researchers.
SG Ng was glad that both MTI and A*STAR are ready to join hands with NTUC to strengthen the tripartite push to make the ITMs real and prepare workers for the future economy.
“We must change our thinking that MOM is the only government ministry in tripartism,” emphasised SG Ng.
For example, does A*STAR have a role to play in the value chain to prepare the workers for the future economy and in implementing the ITMs?
“The whole process of technology is changing all the way and the actual outcomes for the economy would indeed include the worker and so the answer must be ‘Yes’,” said SG Ng.
Making ITMs Real
A challenge moving forward is to make the ITMs real and ensure that workers understand what is involved and the importance to them and the economy.
“Generally, people have come to know about the ITM. But the level of understanding about the ITM is very low. Action is even lower,” said SG Ng who recounted a conversation he had recently with a 70-year-old worker about his upcoming visit to A*STAR.
The worker asked what benefit was there for him and others from A*STAR’s work.
“They cannot understand what ITMs mean to them. They need to understand what it means to them and they ask very basic questions,” explained SG Ng.
He went on to stress the need for the LM to step up, understand the training needs for workers, and partner agencies like SIMTech and A*STAR to reach out to as many workers and small-and-medium enterprises with what they can offer to prepare workers for the future economy.
