The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) vision is to be an inclusive and caring Labour Movement helping our working people have better jobs so that they can lead better lives. The Labour Movement pays particular attention to uplift the lives of our low-income union members and their families through the NTUC-U Care Fund as well as low-wage workers in Singapore through the NTUC U Care Centre.
Support for low-income union members and their families
Over the years, the Labour Movement has been working relentlessly to improve the livelihood of low-income union members and their families. At the NTUC Family Fair – Back to School edition, held at the NTUC Centre today, the Labour Movement announced a total of $9.1 million from the NTUC-U Care Fund has been disbursed this year to support low-income union members and their families through various NTUC U Care assistance programmes. Last year, the Fund disbursed $8.75 million.
The U Care assistance programmes aim to help low-income union members and their families lessen their financial burden, as well as support needy children and elderly in a meaningful way through the use of the U Care Fund.
At the stage event, NTUC Assistant Secretary-General Zainal Sapari, who is also Director of the NTUC Care and Share Department and NTUC U Care Centre, presented a cheque donation of $1 million from the U Care Fund to the Eldercare Trust. The Eldercare Trust aims to support and promote the material, emotional, psychological and physical well-being of the elderly. The cheque donation is one of the areas through which the Labour Movement aims to help low-income working families who need care services for their elderly family members.
The areas of assistance by the U Care Fund are listed in the table below.
|
U Care Focus Areas |
U Care Programmes |
Projected Amount Disbursed1 |
|
Supporting low-income Families |
U Stretch Vouchers ($100 per recipient with dependents in the same household in Singapore; or $50 per recipient with no dependents staying in Singapore) |
$2,157,250 (24,922 members) |
|
Family Recreation & Fun Carnival (worth $150 per family package) |
$1,466,100 (9,774 families) |
|
|
Champion for Children and youth by levelling the playing field |
U Care Back To School Vouchers ($125 per school-going child) |
$3,235,250 (25,882 school-going children) |
|
U Care Education Co-Funding Scheme (*Total awarded by Unions: $1,536,795) |
$729,990* (5,904 children) |
|
|
Donation to NTUC First Campus Bright Horizons Fund |
$520,000 (1,414 children) |
|
|
Caring for the Elderly |
Donation to Eldercare Trust Supporting seniors in: - 11 day/senior care centres - 1 nursing home - home care service |
$1,000,000 |
|
Reaching out to the Underprivileged |
U Care Caring.Sharing.Reaching-out Co-Funding Scheme
|
$27,006 (31 CSR projects) |
|
|
Total Disbursed in 2015 |
$9,135,596 |
1Figures as at 18 November 2015
For more details of programmes, please refer to Annex A.
To complement the U Care Back To School Vouchers, the NTUC Family Fair – Back To School edition was organised today, 29 November 2015, at NTUC Centre to provide a one-stop place for parents to get their children ready for the new school year. Besides exclusive deals and promotions, both parents and children get to participate in exciting programmes, educational talks and fun workshops.
More low-wage workers helped and outreach increased through the NTUC U Care Centre
Assisted more low-wage workers on workplace issues
NTUC U Care Centre (UCC) continues to assist low-wage workers in the area of work, to ensure they are aware of their employment rights and of opportunities to help them upgrade their skills. In 2015, UCC has assisted about 7,000 workers on workplace issues, such as educating them on employment rights and opportunities for training and job opportunities. This is a more than 25 per cent increase from last year’s 5,500 individuals assisted as more workers come to know about UCC. These workers approached UCC via its walk-in centre and hotline, and some now do so on a regular basis to seek advice on workplace issues. These workplace issues vary from assistance on calculation of leave, overtime payment to CPF entitlements.
Increased outreach efforts to low-wage workers
In its efforts to reach out to more workers in the heartlands, UCC organised four roadshows in 2015 in various locations across the island to educate them about their employment rights and offer guidance on any workplace issues they face. In addition to its existing U Care Seminars, UCC has also organised customised evening sessions on weekdays to cater to workers who are unable to attend the weekend seminars. UCC has conducted nine seminars in the heartlands, of which four are customised mini seminars. In total, these roadshows and seminars have allowed UCC to engage some 15,000 low-wage workers.
This year, as part of its efforts to reach out to a different set of audience, UCC also started to outreach to part-time working students and adults to educate them on their employment rights. Through its collaborations with the Institute of Technical Education and Polytechnics, this new initiative saw UCC connect with some 2,300 students. By doing this, UCC hopes that these students can also share their knowledge with their friends and family members.
This year, another new initiative by UCC was its outreach efforts in the Malay-Muslim community through collaborations with Enhanced Mosque Clusters and Mendaki SENSE. Till date, it has reached out to about 11,000 low-wage workers in the Malay-Muslim community. It has actively organised customised seminars and learning journeys for low-income beneficiaries to equip them with better knowledge to improve their lives.
UCC also launched pro-bono legal clinics to assist low-wage workers with non-employment related issues. Since its launch in April 2015, 60 cases have been handled through the initiative. They cover a range of issues such as housing and writing of wills.
Making low-wage workers’ jobs better and more meaningful
Having successfully rolled-out the Progressive Wage Model (PWM) in the cleaning, security and landscape sectors, low-wage workers in these sectors now enjoy better careers with opportunities to earn higher wages and learn more skills. At present, 38,500 cleaners are benefitting from the PWM with licensing kicking-in earlier this year.
Next year, about 33,000 security officers and 3,000 landscape workers will also benefit from PWM once the respective licensing regimes are implemented in 2016. These efforts have contributed to the lowest 20th percentile of the workforce receiving higher real wage increase in the last five years. UCC, together with its tripartite partners, will continue to review the PWM for the various sectors to ensure it is relevant and meaningful to the workers.
More companies joined the Appreciating U movement
Since the Labour Movement rolled out its Appreciating U movement in June 2014, UCC continues in its efforts to encourage companies and more members of the public to show appreciation to their low-wage workers. This year, the campaign was rolled out with a fresh theme, “Thumbs Up And Say Thank You”. In 2015 alone, 200 workplaces came on board the Appreciating U movement and organised various appreciation activities for their workers. Grocery vouchers from the Appreciating U fund were given out to the workers. In total, some 37,000 workers benefitted from these ground-up initiatives.
To further spread the message, UCC embarked on community walkabouts this year to engage more members of the public. To bring the message to the younger generation, UCC also engaged educational institutions such as Singapore Management University, Singapore Sports School and Punggol Secondary School, whose students joined in the momentum to thank the workers in their midst.
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