The Labour Movement (LM) shared its responses to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's National Day Rally (NDR) during its Labour Leadership Lighthouse (L3 for short) dialogue session held at the e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) on Tuesday, 3 September 2013. This was the first such dialogue held at the LM's new Devan Nair Institute for Employment and Employability.
The LM's L3 is a platform for the LM to closely engage top unionists, namely Presidents, General Secretaries and General Treasurers, as a leadership group within the LM, where they can engage in in-depth briefings and discussions on labour and national issues.
During the session, NTUC Secretary-General Lim Swee Say and about 130 key union leaders shared views and insights on how the LM can further strengthen and deepen its support and assistance to different worker groups. During the NDR, PM Lee had called for a better and more affordable Singapore and in response, the L3 dialogue session centred on what the LM can do to contribute to the process of achieving this goal.
Contributing to a more affordable Singapore
From the discussions, the LM wants to set out to help more Singaporeans better afford housing and healthcare by contributing in these areas:
Firstly, to help as many Singaporean families become working families so they can afford their own home and have access to healthcare.
Secondly, to help these working families with household incomes earn higher incomes so they can afford bigger homes for their families and save more for their retirement and healthcare.
Thirdly, to help more Singaporeans come on board the social safety net. This applies to, for example, freelancers, the self-employed and contract workers, who may not be able to save enough in their Central Provident Fund (CPF).
Stepping up support system with enhanced services at e2i
For low-wage workers, SG Lim announced that the LM will be taking a big, bold step forward to set up a one-stop centre, called the U Care Centre, to champion for and provide expanded assistance to all workers. And to better assist PMEs, the LM will also set up the U PME Centre to serve PMEs in the areas of training and job placement.
And stemming from previous discussions on labour market testing, one of the outcome the LM hopes to see is the establishment of the National Job Bank, where Singaporeans will have access to job openings and be assisted by e2i to be better placed on these jobs.
In addition, the LM will intensify its engagement with Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to help bridge the gap in employment. This includes facilitating SME's search for workers and where necessary, assisting them in making their jobs more attractive, and helping up-skill their workers to increase competencies, with the ultimate aim of helping them grow their businesses
In summary, SG Lim said the LM will be stepping up efforts to make every worker a better worker, make every job a better job; and help better workers find better jobs and help better jobs be matched with better workers, to achieve Better Jobs for All.
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