The International Labour Organization held its 107th conference from 28 May to 8 June this year.
As a member of the ILO, Singapore sent a delegation which consists of representatives from the Government, NTUC and the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF).
Topics of interests for the Singapore delegate at the convention included working to promote decent work in South East Asia and supporting ILO’s call to strive towards a future workforce that sees full equality between men and women.
Addressing the conference on 5 June 2018, Manpower Minister Josephine Teo highlighted the progress Singapore has made in advancing Singaporean women at the workplace.
As an example, she highlighted the “many firsts” for women in Singapore. This includes Singapore electing its first female President - Mdm Halimah Yacob just last year.
“Today, it is much harder for any woman to be first in this or that in Singapore. That shows how far we’ve come,” said Mrs Teo.
On workforce representation, women in Singapore have contributed actively in the economy, she said.
Over 10 years from 2007 to 2017, the female employment rate in Singapore has risen steadily from 64 per cent to 72 per cent.
More women also have a choice to return to work, and initiatives like the flexible work arrangements (FWA) play a part in making that possible, said Mrs Teo.
She added that strong tripartism among the Government, unions and employers have helped improve the adoption of FWAs. This was possible through the development of a Tripartite Standard that gives employers a clear guide on how to best adopt the initiative.
“There is much more we can do. We will continue to strengthen our efforts to empower our women through choice,” concluded Mrs Teo.
NTUC Women’s Committee Chair K Thanaletchimi, who was part of the delegation, attended the employee workgroup committee meeting on gender-based workplace violence and harassment.
The ILO is currently in the process of establishing a new instrument to end workplace violence.
Touching on the topic, she said: “In Singapore, we have laws such as the Protection from Harassment Act to protect individuals from domestic violence. Perhaps, our labour legislation too should have a scope to adequately prevent workplace violence and harassment.
“Our Workplace Safety and Health law does not explicitly state that employers need to do a risk assessment for violence and harassment at the workplace. It’s also not mandatory for employers to report incidents and near misses of such nature. Perhaps, the incidents at the workplace may not be high, but it is worth monitoring.”
Ms Thanaletchimi added that if the instrument is ratified by Singapore, extensive changes to labour law will be required to better protect workers from violence and harassment at the workplace.
“Unions can also persuade the employers to provide a supportive environment for workers who are subject to violence and harassment in the world of work,” she said.
On the international front, Singapore also renewed its partnership with the ILO to advance decent work in South East Asia.
Decent work is part of the ILO’s sustainable development goals it plans to achieve by 2030. It looks at job creation, rights at work, social protection and social dialogue, with gender equality as a crosscutting objective.
The partnership was first signed in 2011, and subsequently renewed in 2014 and 2016.
ILO was represented by Tomoko Nishimoto, the ILO assistant director-general and regional director for Asia and the Pacific, while Singapore was represented by Aubeck Kam, the permanent secretary of the Singapore Ministry of Manpower (MOM) at the signing of the agreement.
Mr Kam said that Singapore is delighted to renew the agreement which will run till 2020.
“We strongly believe that tripartism is the foundation for the promotion of decent work for all workers. Working with the ILO enables us to share our belief in tripartism with the Asia-Pacific,” he added.
The ILO and Singapore’s tripartite partners MOM, NTUC and SNEF have worked on areas such as occupational safety and health, tripartism, labour market information and labour migration since the first signing.
“The importance of Tripartism and Social Dialogue was also being reinforced at the conference where the ILO Director-General emphasised that tripartism ‘not only adds value in the world of work, but is a most potent antidote to some of those negative trends we are observing in public and political discourse.’
“This is a timely reminder for our tripartite partners in Singapore to continue the good works that we have done and to approach the future of work in the spirit of tripartism to achieve positive outcome for our workers,” said NTUC President Mary Liew.
Apart from continuing with the activities on workplace safety and health, tripartism, and other workplace practices, the new partnership will see joint operations between ILO and Singapore on the organising of the Maritime Labour Convention for ASEAN countries and Mongolia, and the 11th ASEAN Forum.
