The Healthcare Services Employees' Union (HSEU), a union which represents workers in the healthcare industry, has seen its membership jump three-fold since 2006. As of June 2013, it now represents over 30,000 members, up from 9,436 members seven years ago.
In recent years, the union has seen more PMEs (Professionals, Managers and Executives) join as members. These members, who have diploma and above qualifications, reflect Singapore's evolving workforce.
Profile of HSEU Members Today
Highlighting this, Ms Diana Chia, General Secretary of HSEU said, 'Members are the life-blood of every union. I am happy and proud that HSEU has reached this milestone of 30,000 members. While we strive to engage and serve our members better, we are mindful of the growing population of PME members and will pay special attention to ensure that their needs are met. This is the same concern that many unions have and as a Labour Movement, we will be moving towards providing better protection for PMEs.' Ms Chia is also the President of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC).
Among the more than 30,000 members, about 90 per cent of them are Ordinary Branch members. Of this number, about 60 per cent are considered PMEs, that is, they have diploma and above qualifications. This is reflected of the healthcare industry which has seen more healthcare professionals and nurses coming in better qualified.
In fact, for the past three years, 70 per cent of new members are PMEs. With changes that will take place to the Employment Act, the union will also be better able to represent more of these workers.
In terms of union leadership, the profile of the HSEU executive council is also reflective of its PME profile, almost 70 per cent of its members have qualifications of diploma and above.
Because of the evolving workforce demographics, the union felt that it had to outreach to these workers so it stepped up its efforts by tailoring its activities to better cater to different groups. For example, to reach out to a younger group of workers, HSEU had to adjust their activities to attract this group and carried out more direct engagement sessions and youth-orientated events such as paintball.
Like HSEU, there are many other rank and file unions that have a growing base of PME members who need protection and representation. With the proper framework in place, the Labour Movement and our affiliated unions will be able to represent and meet the needs of our PME members. HSEU feels that it is timely for the laws to be reviewed to take into consideration the changing profile of our workforce and to ensure that there is ample protection for all workers.
New Ways of Outreach
The union is also thinking of new ways to organise more healthcare workers. One very recent breakthrough was getting staff of Agency of Integrated Care (AIC) organised. A branch committee was formed on 2 September 2013 to better outreach to and serve members in AIC. The committee has already started looking into improving communications between management and staff.
Mr Patrick Tay, Executive Secretary of HSEU said, 'Despite global declining union membership, NTUC and HSEU have buck the trend and are experiencing steady membership growth. This is in part due to the Labour Movement and HSEU's constant efforts to stay relevant to our workforce. HSEU has been a strong voice for healthcare workers in Singapore and advocating better benefits, productivity and change for the benefit of healthcarers. With this mind, I look forward to us in HSEU working harder to achieve our goal hitting 40,000 union members by 2015.'
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