By Ramesh Subbaraman and Shukry Rashid
Members in this union play a big role in ensuring the success of Singapore’s public housing programme. They belong to the Housing and Development Board Staff Union (HDBSU) which celebrated its 50th anniversary this year.
HDBSU has its roots as a branch of the Amalgamated Union of Public Employees (AUPE) in the early 1960s.
In late 1967, a separate entity was established under the name Singapore Housing & Development Board Workers’ Union (SHDBWU), and it worked with the support of AUPE.
SHDBWU made a complete departure from AUPE in the late 70s.
The union changed its name to HDBSU in 1987. As at August 2017, HDBSU had 4,348 union members.
Here’s a walk down time to see where the union has been and the events surrounding its journey.
Singapore's old guard and then Minister for Labour late S Rajaratnam attends the union’s first annual dinner in 1968.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, then Minister for Trade and Industry in 1988, attends HDBSU's 20th anniversary dinner.
NTUC Secretary-General Chan Chun Sing graces the 50th anniversary dinner of HDBSU on 11 November 2017.
HDBSU members who have gone through the old ways of field work and upskilled to keep up with today’s challenges.
Reflections
HDBSU members take a trip down memory lane and share what their jobs were like in the early years.
“Those days we had to put on the uniform, and we would look like an army officer. Very often, people mistook us for being a traffic police officer. During that time, everything was manual entry. We carried a pocketbook, and we would enter all the details of the parking offenders into it. The most challenging shift was the third shift, the midnight shift. When we received complaints from residents in HDB estates, we had to check every vehicle as to whether they had displayed the parking coupon. And sometimes some residents from the higher floors would start throwing things at us like ice cubes, rotten eggs and even small bottles when they saw us doing our checks.” - Tan Hock Hai, 62, senior estate manager, joined as a parking enforcement officer 44 years ago
“As a resettlement inspector, my main role was to do a census survey and find out the assets owned by someone before they were rehoused to an HDB flat. These assets included land and property such as chicken coop and pigsty. These would all be compensated to the owner. Resettlement in Singapore’s history played an important role as, without it, we could not have built all these HDB flats, schools and even areas used by the army such as Lim Chu Kang.” - Ng Liang Tat, 65, land inspector, joined as a resettlement inspector in 1975
“Back then, HDB needed the group of technicians to do the routine maintenance of water pumps. Every month, we had to check and maintain the blocks’ water pumps. In 1989, after the formation of Town Councils, they took over the maintenance. My job scope was then moved to the testing of new water pumps, and it went into new areas such as checking of gas piping installation. In 2002, I became a technical officer in the branch and attended to residents’ feedbacks and complaints. I joined HDB with an ITE certificate, and obtained a diploma through attending evening classes. Skills upgrading is important, and I would always tell my members that we have to take on new skills to remain employable.” - Tay Peck Kiang, 57, senior estate manager, joined as a technician in 1982
