Labour Movement Workplan Seminar 2011

As the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, it continues to push unwaveringly towards its Labour Movement 2011 (LM 2011) vision to be an all-inclusive LM whereby workers of all collars, all ages and all nationalities can work, live and play together in Singapore; and gear up towards LM 2015, the first lap for the next 50 years. Taking a step closer towards LM 2011, NTUC unveiled three key worker-centric and member-centric priorities for 2011 at the annual LM Workplan Seminar this morning:

a) Achieving inclusive growth and inclusive employment for workers
b) Achieving sustainable growth and better jobs and pay for workers
c) Achieving an All CAN (All Collars, Ages and Nationalities) to 3-GEN (three generation) membership, with more benefits for more members

The seminar saw over 700 union leaders, NTUC staff, management and government representatives in attendance. (Please see ANNEX A for key details highlighted in the ‘talk show’ during the Workplan Seminar)

Achieving Inclusive Growth and Inclusive Employment – Having a job is better than no job at all

While Singapore’s economy did exceptionally well in 2010, with employment rates higher across various age and gender groups as compared to 10 years ago, the LM will continue to work closely with the tripartite partners to help Singapore achieve the highest employment and lowest unemployment rates in the world.

The LM will help more workers find jobs in an inclusive manner. For example, NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) will enhance workers’ employment and employability skills in 2011 by sustaining its pace of job assistance and placement with a stronger focus on quality – better jobs with better pay, and on a more inclusive worker profile – older workers and PMETs. NTUC Women’s Development Secretariat’s (WDS) will strengthen its 3R – Recruit, Re-adjust and Retain – strategy with a structured Mentorship Programme to enhance the employment rate of women who wants to return to work.

NTUC’s Raising Effective Retirement Age (RERA) team will get more unionised companies to adopt the Tripartite Guidelines of Re-employment of Older Workers and form a community of employers within the unionised sector to encourage the sharing of best practices and change of mindset in line managers towards re-employment. For foreign workers, the Migrant Workers’ Centre (MWC) will focus on maximising the economic contributions and minimising the social cost associated with foreign workers; enable fair treatment for them; and strengthen their social integration with the local workforce.

Achieving Sustainable Growth – Enjoy better jobs, better pay

In an effort to tackle the widening income gap here, the LM will continue to fire its twin engines – Cheaper Better Faster (CBF) initiatives and Inclusive Growth Programme (IGP) – to pursue sustainable growth and inclusive growth respectively so that more workers can enjoy better jobs and better pay in a more sustainable manner. The CBF and IGP are complementary strategies as CBF focuses on achieving sustainable growth to strengthen the economy through raising productivity across all sectors and levels of workers, while IGP focuses on achieving inclusive growth to strengthen the society through giving low-wage workers better skills, better jobs and better pay.

NTUC’s Unit for Contract and Casual Workers (UCCW), will widen its scope and reach out to more sectors and more contract and casual workers, so that they can enjoy better pay and in turn, receive Central Provident Fund (CPF) and enjoy the Workfare Income Supplement (WIS) scheme and get on the Workfare Training Scheme.

And in the face of fierce global competition, the LM will also help PMETs here remain relevant, capable and adaptable by developing them to be T-shaped PMETs who have broad as well as deep skills and knowledge, so that they can stay ahead of competition and make career smooth switches if necessary.

All CAN to 3-GEN Membership – Spreading the benefits of Union Membership
For the LM to remain progressive, responsive and relevant as a strong and effective tripartite partner, it would need to continue to have a strong membership base of All CAN – All Collars, All Ages and All Nationalities – members beyond 2011. The NTUC membership currently stands at 610,000 and it has a target to reach 700,000 members in 2011 and one million members by 2015.

To achieve this target, the LM needs to build on its All CAN membership base with a 3-GEN (three-generation) approach of reaching out to workers of yesterday, today and tomorrow. In 2011, it will strengthen its existing communities such as nEbO, Young NTUC, U Family and U Live through building lifelong membership engagement and creating affinity and familiarity through NTUC’s social enterprises and communities. The LM will also grow new communities this year, like exploring dual membership schemes with other associations; establishing professional chapters/communities in the unions; and growing web-based and new media communities.

Conclusion

2010 was a good year as the LM did the right things, together with the tripartite partners, to help workers and companies survive and rebound strongly from the global downturn in 2009. Looking forward, NTUC will continue to harness its ALL CAN-3 GEN membership base and communities; and progressive and inclusive unions and union leadership, to ensure a growing LM that is strong, effective and relevant as an equal tripartite partner. Together with the tripartite partners, the LM can then focus on achieving sustainable growth for a stronger CBF economy and inclusive growth for an inclusive workforce, so as to help working people of all collars, ages and nationalities live a better life through better skills, better jobs and better pay.