Ever since he started off with the Amalgamated Union of Public Employees (AUPE) in 1984, the union has become his second home. One of his tasks then was to produce the union newsletter.
Yeo Chun Fing, 60, is currently AUPE general secretary and assistant secretary for financial affairs in the NTUC Central Committee.
He caught up with NTUC This Week on his work in the union which now has some 20,000 members.
NTUC This Week: What are some of the key issues you are looking at in AUPE currently?
Yeo Chun Fing: The profile of the public sector has changed. More than 50 per cent are professionals, managers and executives. We have succeeded in persuading the managements of several statutory boards to allow more of the higher grades of officers to be represented by AUPE and will continue to do so. We are now in discussions with the managements of the polytechnics to let us represent lecturers.
Q: How is AUPE encouraging public sector employees to keep up with the times and upskill?
We work with different agencies to conduct training sessions with the help of NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) to cascade the message of upskilling and being future ready. For lower-wage workers, most of whom are in the Education Ministry like the school attendants, we worked with the Public Service Division (PSD) on a job redesign project in 2014 to rescope their jobs and extend their salary ranges. Since then, 820 out of 2,000 officers have been promoted in the recent three years to higher grades.
Q: How have your meetings with foreign unionists benefitted you?
Among the issues many of the unions are grappling with is the future of work, and the future is scary as things are moving too fast. The general feeling is that they can see the problem but no one has the right answers. I am optimistic that with our unique tripartite structure, we may be able to address some of these issue more quickly and adequately.
Q: Share with us a memorable case you handled.
A pensionable enforcement officer had multiple debts from a few credit cards and money lenders far in excess of his salary. He could have been dismissed with loss of pensions. His team leader and colleagues found out and asked him to seek help from AUPE Co-operative. The co-op was not able to lend him the money due to the extremely high risk. Together they sought the union’s help and volunteered to be his guarantors. Touched by the brotherly support among the team members and in order to save his job, AUPE convinced the co-op to grant him an exception loan with partial payment over ten years, guaranteed by all the colleagues in his team, with the written assurance from him that when he received his pension benefits in 10 years’ time, he would undertake to pay the remaining sum. He was diligent in his repayments and on the tenth year, he kept his word and came to the co-op to settle the outstanding balance. One who has momentarily gone astray can be saved if he has friends and a union.
Source: NTUC This Week
