Labour Movement celebrating Children's Day
30 September 2007
Media Release
1. With a tight labour market[1], longer life expectancy and an ageing population, looking beyond offering conventional full time or fixed working-hours jobs may well be the next best human resource strategy to adopt to attract those who had left the workforce to start their families, or retain those who want to fulfill both their roles as committed parents and dedicated employees.
2. Ministry of Manpower’s Labour Force Survey results indicated that there was a declining labour force participating rate for women after they hit their thirties (refer to Annex A), indicating that women may have left the workforce to take care of their families, especially their young children. And in comparison to two other Asian countries of Japan and Korea who see a M-shaped employment rate where women return back to work after their children grow up, Singapore’s women remain at home after they leave the workforce, thus forming an inverted U-shaped labour participation graph.
3. The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) acknowledges the two co-existing needs to meet family and work commitment, as well as the practical needs of enterprises to attract and retain valuable human capital. With women making up half the population, this is a significant pool of talent and human resources that can be tapped on to support economic growth. At the same time, being employed helps women gain financial independence and financial assurance for old age with more savings to meet future retirement and medical needs.
4. NTUC family support the national initiatives to raise the employment rate of women by putting in place policies that allow women to be both committed employees and dedicated working mothers. NTUC and its twelve social enterprises, namely NTUC Childcare Co-operative Limited, NTUC Choice Homes Co-operative Limited, NTUC Club, NTUC ElderCare Co-operative Limited, NTUC Fairprice Co-operative Limited, NTUC Foodfare Co-operative Limited, NTUC Healthcare Co-operative Limited, NTUC Income Insurance Co-operative Limited, NTUC LearningHub Pte Ltd, NTUC Link Pte Ltd, NTUC Media Co-operative Limited, NTUC Thrift & Loan Co-operative Limited, with a total staff strength of about 10,000 employees are committing to implementing new initiatives for working mothers of young children.
Initiatives for Working Mothers of Young Children
5. The following initiatives allow working women to be committed to their young children during the time when the children need them most in the early infant stages. When their young ones’ needs have been well taken care of, they return back to work with a better peace of mind and perform better on their jobs.
6. Additional Three-month No-pay Maternity Leave. An initiative undertaken by NTUC and all twelve social enterprises to give female employees the choice to extend their current three-month paid maternity leave by a further three-month no-pay maternity leave to take care of their newborns.
7. Conversion from Full-time to Part-time Post (children below two years old). Another initiative for working mothers with young children of two years or younger to convert from working full-time to part-time.[2]
Family-Friendly Human Resource Practices
8. Working parents face the challenge of balancing competing priorities of work and family, and some are compelled to select one at the expense of the other. Several social enterprises of NTUC have in place family-friendly practices that help working parents strike the balance between work and family commitments.
9. Part-time Work Arrangement by NTUC FairPrice. An MOM survey ranked Singapore with the lowest part-time employment rate in comparison to nations in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD), at 6.3% of total employment in 2006[3]. In dramatic contrast, nearly one in two employees of FairPrice, 45% of total staff strength, works part-time with majority in the retail outlets. Part-time work arrangement is available regardless of marital status and age of children. FairPrice also provides the flexible option for staff to bi-convert between full-time and part-time positions to better match their needs for work-life balance. Profile of a part-time Cashier working at FairPrice Orchard Grand, Madam Parvin Sharif, is attached in Annex B-1.
10. Flexi-hour Programme by NTUC Income. Starting October 2004, NTUC Income allows employees to select the starting time of work from 7.30 am to 10 am for the most suitable time to fit their family commitments e.g. sending children or spouse to work. They are required to work eight hours each day. Currently, about one in four of Income’s total staff strength of 1,500 is on this programme. A profile of a male Senior Executive, Mr Keith Yak, is attached in Annex B-2.
11. Part-time Homeworking by NTUC Childcare. An arrangement where portion of work may be undertaken at home while spending certain ‘core’ times or days in the office to stay in touch with developments in the organisation. A high level of trust exists between the management and 780 staff of NTUC Childcare. A profile of a Manager, Ms Adeline, who works part-time at home is attached in Annex B-3.
12. Other Pro-family Measures. Besides flexible work arrangements, other family-friendly measures were also undertaken by the social enterprises such as subsidies to help working parents meet cost of childcare (NTUC Childcare), nursing rooms for lactating mothers to express milk (NTUC Club), and subsidies for employees’ family holiday trips (NTUC).
13. On the labour movement’s initiatives to help working parents achieve work-life balance, NTUC Secretary-General Mr Lim Swee Say said, “There should not be a conflict of roles between being an employee and a parent. Employees are still as dedicated to their work, and can still contribute as much to their organisations when they become parents. What is needed is for employers to have in place systems that allow them to harmonise these two roles. And we recognise that raising the employment rate of women is not an easy task, but we are confident that with concerted efforts from all parties – working parents, employers, unions and the Government, we will succeed in bringing up the workforce participation rate of women.”
Family Day at Downtown East
14. In celebration of children on Children’s Day, NTUC organised a Family Day event, “Jake and the Amazing Amusement Arcade”, at the D’Marquee, Downtown East on 30 September 2007 where children enjoyed fun-filled activities in an amusement arcade cum musical play setting with their parents in parent-child activities such as Twister game, glittery tattoo sessions, balloon sculpting etc. Entrance is free and proceeds from the balloon sculptures would be donated to the Down Syndrome Association (Singapore). NTUC General-Secretary Mr Lim Swee Say was the Guest-of-Honour and he took on a role in the musical play and joined families at various activity stations.
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About National Trades Union Congress
The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) is a national confederation of trade unions in the industrial, service and public sectors representing 500,000 workers in Singapore. NTUC comprises 63 affiliated unions, 6 affiliated taxi associations, 9 co-operatives and 6 related organisations. NTUC’s objectives are to help Singapore stay competitive and workers remain employable for life; to enhance the social status and well-being of workers; and to build a strong, responsible and caring labour movement. NTUC's vision is to be an inclusive labour movement for all collars, all ages and all nationalities. For more details on NTUC, please visit our website at www.ntuc.org.sg
About NTUC Income Insurance Co-operative Limited
Established in 1970 in response to the growing needs for affordable insurance, NTUC Income has become a leading life, health and general insurer, earning the trust of 1.8 million customers. The $19 billion company has been rated “AA” by independent credit ratings agency, Standard & Poor's since 1999, the highest accolades to be given to a domestic insurer in Asia, reflecting a strong financial profile, flexibility and capacity to meet new challenges. NTUC Income's insurance plans benefit large numbers of Singaporeans from all strata of society, from the professionals and executives, to those with a more limited budget. It helps Singaporeans in difficult times by creating job opportunities and supports the community through financial contributions to charities and other worthy causes.
About NTUC Fairprice Co-operative Limited
NTUC Fairprice Co-operative Ltd was founded by the labour movement in 1973, with a social mission to moderate the cost of living in Singapore. From one supermarket, it has grown to become Singapore’s largest retailer, with a network of 216 outlets comprising 76 FairPrice supermarkets, 1 FairPrice Finest, 2 FairPrice Xtra, 2 Homemarts, 19 FairPrice Xpress and 116 Cheers convenience stores. NTUC FairPrice also owns a Fresh Food Distribution Centre and a centralised warehousing and distribution company. Today, with its multiple retail formats serving the varied needs and interests of people from all walks of life, the social mission of NTUC FairPrice has evolved to make the dream of living well accessible to everyone by moderating the costs of the good life.
About NTUC Childcare Co-operative Limited
The NTUC Childcare Group has 30 years of experience in providing quality early childhood care and education programmes, and has the largest pool of 18 full time early childhood professionals with Master and Doctoral degrees in Singapore. The Group focuses mainly on pre-school education and the training and consultancy of early childhood professionals. Under the pre-school education arm, the Group offers a range of services that suit the various needs of different parents with NTUC Childcare’s chain of 40 centres, the 4 centres by The Little Skool-House International, and The Caterpillar’s Cove.
[1] Seasonally-adjusted resident unemployment rate for second quarter 2007 is 3.1%, the lowest in the last six years.
[2] Exclude NTUC LearningHub.
[3] MOM Labour Force Survey 2006 showed Singapore’s total part-time employment rate was 6.3%. 2006 OECD Employment Outlook showed part-time employment rates of United States: 13%; Sweden: 14% (in 2004); France: 14%; Germany: 22%; United Kingdom: 24%; Japan: 26% and Netherlands: 36%.
