To gain better traction as a voice for working people across all collars, ages and nationalities, National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) is focusing on expanding its strategic initiatives to reach more working people. Announced at the U Summit 2015 held at the Universal Studios Singapore at Resorts World Sentosa today, the Labour movement is happy to share that resident unionisation rate has reached a new peak at 28 per cent in 2014, a 0.8 percentage point increase from the previous year in 2013. Membership growth remains healthy with a 7 per cent growth to over 888,000 members, as at August 2015.
Unions are at more workplaces to represent more workers
Last year, 106 new companies were unionised – the largest number of new unionised companies within a year by far. Out of the 106 unionised companies, 100 companies awarded NTUC-affiliated unions direct recognition. Such a high number of direct recognition from companies resonate the progressiveness of NTUC-affiliated unions, and good labour-management relations between unions and management in aligning to a common focus that our workers’ interests are well-taken care of. We now have over 1,630 unionised branches.
While NTUC continues to safeguard the interests of our rank-and-file workers, the recent changes in the Industrial Relations Act to expand the protection coverage for Professionals, Managers and Executives (PMEs) have also enabled the Labour Movement to reach out to more PMEs.
The upward trend of the unionsation rate is a positive indication of a stronger and more representative Labour Movement, where we establish good labour-movement relations with both unions and employers to ensure that the interests of workers across all levels are met. It also reflects heightened support from both companies and workers towards NTUC, and that more members and their families will benefit from the programmes and services offered by the Labour Movement as we expand our outreach.
Reaching more PMEs through U Associate Programme
There is an 8.8 per cent increase in the number of resident PME members – from 238,000 members as at August 2014 to 259,000 members as at August 2015. This increase signifies a step closer to benefitting more PMEs in the workforce for the Labour Movement. Including non-resident PMEs, NTUC now has over 300,000 PME members.
An attributing factor for the increase in PME membership is the result of customised programmes launched to cater to the specific needs of PMEs. One of such programme is the U Associate Programme, which saw the number of U Associates partnering the Labour Movement doubled over the year – from nine U Associates in 2014 to 17 today, with another three more U Associate partners slated to come on board in September. Another is the Future Leaders Programme comprising of Future Leaders Summit, Series and Mentorship Sessions. Since their launch, the U Associate and Future Leaders Programmes have reached out to almost 18,000 PMEs through conferences, dialogues and mentorship sessions organised specifically for each sector.
The U Associate Programme and the Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) have also come together to develop Sectorial Progression Pathways across various sectors spanning from engineering, to marketing and communications, from project management to human resources. One such initiative is the Young Engineers Leadership Programme (YELP), a year-long programme in which participants are put through a combination of classroom-based sharing, practitioner-led training comprising dialogue sessions and networking opportunities with policy makers and industry leaders.
Reaching out to PMEs at sectorial level allows the Labour Movement to better understand the challenges PMEs face in each industry, and thus, tailor programmes that will better serve the needs of PMEs.
Reaching out to more Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
Seventy per cent of the Singapore’s workforce is employed by SMEs. In a recent report by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, SMEs contributed to about 50 per cent of Singapore’s Gross Domestic Product in 2014. With such an extensive number of workers hired by the SMEs, the Labour Movement is extending arms to reach out to more members in this segment. NTUC is working with partners such as the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (ASME) to find new ways to help SME’s human resource specialists and management adopt new practices that will enrich the lives of their workers.
The U SME Secretariat was set up in 2014 to expand our reach to SMEs. Till date, NTUC has reached out to more than 200 SMEs through series of seminars and dialogue sessions. These initiatives aim to foster good relations with SMEs, help them in learning from best practices, and explore possibilities on how the Labour Movement can partner each company to bring about more benefits and assistance to both employers and workers.
“As the demographics of the workforce changes, NTUC is continuously innovating and evolving to ensure that the Labour Movement is representative of the Singapore workforce. Moving ahead, we would further strengthen our value-add to working people across all collars and ages. We will level up our engagement with PMEs through the fast growing U Associate Ecosystem across sectors and professions. We would also focus more resources to reach out to employers, HR managers and working people in our SMEs. Ultimately, we want to ensure that our working people are well-taken care of, their interests are protected, and they are given the right opportunities for career growth.” said Mr Vivek Kumar, Secretary, NTUC Membership Council.
U Summit 2015
In addition to the various programmes and initiatives that serve to benefit our members, the robust growth of membership numbers is made possible with the continual support of unions and partners to reach, retain and strengthen the relations between unions and members. This year at the U Summit 2015, 33 unions and partners are being recognised for their relentless efforts in reaching out to more members within their industry clusters. For more information on the awardees, please refer to Annex 1.
More than 1000 attendees, including union leaders, U Associates, merchant partners and NTUC membership communities were present at the U Summit, supported by NTUC strategic partner Resorts World Sentosa.
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