May Day Awards 2018: Nasordin Mohammed Hashim

May Day Awards 2018: Comrade of Labour (Star) – conferred on serving and deserving trade unionists who, after receiving the Comrade of Labour, continue to make significant contributions for four years or more to the Labour Movement.

Veteran unionist Nasordin Mohammed Hashim has been serving the Building Construction And Timber Industries Employees’ Union (BATU) since he was elected as the first union Branch Chairman of the ESMACO branch in 1993.

In 1999, he was elected as an executive committee member of BATU and eventually became General Secretary from end-2001. In 2008, Nasordin was elected as president of the union, a position he holds till now.

Nasordin has been instrumental in helping BATU achieve its milestones. Under his leadership, BATU’s total membership increased more than 85 per cent from 23,000 in 2006 to 43,000 in 2017. 

Wearing Many Hats

Since 2003, Nasordin has also been serving and contributing in various NTUC and tripartite committees. He has given strong support to the Labour Movement and tripartite causes through his current and past appointments in the various committees, including: 

1. a. Chairman of the NTUC Building and Facilities Management Services Cluster Committee;
2. b. Member, and subsequently Vice Chairman of the NTUC Industrial Relations Committee (Industrial Sector). He was also appointed as Member of the NTUC Industrial Relations Council; Member of the Tripartite Clusters for Cleaners and Landscape Industry. With his in-depth knowledge of the cleaning industry, he contributed positively to the development of the Progressive Wage Model (PWM) for cleaners and landscape technicians. 

Nasordin has also been involved in NTUC Club for some eight years, serving on both the Management Council and Costa Sands Resort (Pasir Ris) Advisory Committee. He has provided invaluable advice to NTUC Club, particularly in the area of members’ feedback and engagement.

Serving All Members

Nasordin is honoured to be conferred the Comrade of Labour (Star) award for his contributions to the Labour Movement, especially BATU.

He said: “More importantly, it is a recognition for what all my Sisters and Brothers at BATU have done and will continue to do for all our union members.

“The challenge ahead is to get our members to embrace – and not to fear – technology so that they can manage their work processes smarter and faster, thereby lifting their productivity and value-add. We need to constantly remind and encourage our union members to go for training to upskill and reskill themselves to be future-ready.”