The Healthcare Services Employees’ Union (HSEU) Tripartite Learning Trip that took place in Taipei, Taiwan from 14 to 17 March 2013 saw the coming together of 49 unionists, management representatives from healthcare clusters and institutions, as well as tripartite partner MOH Holdings.
During the tripartite dialogue session, NTUC President and HSEU General Secretary Diana Chia shared on how HSEU was formed after the healthcare restructuring exercise.
She also expressed the need for management in understanding and showing support for union leaders to participate in union activities such as meetings on Collective Agreements.
HSEU Executive Secretary Patrick Tay re-emphasised on the importance of leadership, tripartism and bi-partism.
He also shared that there were some challenges ahead, such as finding the right people with a heart to serve the Labour Movement, and more must be done to engage healthcare employees on the ground.
He also hoped that the management would see union as an advocate of staff interest. During the session, union leaders highlighted the need for greater support from the middle management across the various departments to understand the role of union officials at the workplace.
Ms Olivia Tay, Chief Human Resource Officer, National Healthcare Group (NHG), said that an Industrial Relations module had been included in her cluster’s management training to enhance the communications between the management, managers and union representatives.
Management partners also proposed the participation of HSEU in retaining and attracting people into the healthcare industry.
In addition to the dialogue and sharing sessions, the tripartite partners also visited Landseed Hospital in the southern Taoyuan city in Taiwan. The hospital has a medical team of more than 150 doctors and 1,000 nurses, and offers 700 beds and extends outpatient services for 2,500 patients per day.
The visiting group was introduced to the hospital’s operational processes that are supported by advanced technology and understanding how its healthcare system is complimented by a community of volunteers.
