As former Public Service Division (PSD) Permanent Secretary, Ying-I actively championed strong labour-management relationships in the public sector, and the development of a progressive, responsive and flexible human resource (HR) framework for the public service.
We caught up with her understand more on her contributions, and her relationship with the Labour Movement.
The bipartite relationship between PSD and the unions, particularly the Amalgamated Union of Public Employees (AUPE) and the other public service unions, is crucially important.
First, union leadership, buy-in and support for our HR policies and practices help to generate acceptance by our officers for these. Second, union feedback on our proposals helps us refine our policies. We listen closely to their advice and often take in their suggestions to make our policies more robust or operationalise them more effectively. They help us see our blind spots or where we have misread the situation. I can tell you that when AUPE leaders tell us that we are going in the wrong direction with a proposal, we listen closely and rethink our ideas! Third, unionists who are close to the ground will also know of emerging issues, and we can work with them to solve them before they become big problems.
Having a strong relationship of trust between PSD and the union allows us to debate issues rigorously and speak openly about disagreements, because we know that both parties are working for the best interest of officers.
Career opportunities are expanding, and developmental pathways are changing. In the past, officers expected more stable careers, going up the career ladder in the same area of work. Officers now want exposure to a wider range of learning opportunities. Jobs too are changing as organisations go digital and work processes change. So we must have a HR framework that is relevant to the times.
The public service wants our officers to stay with us because we are a good employer, and they believe they can learn and grow with us. This is why I thought it important to have a framework that allows people to develop their careers across a broader choice of pathways. If they know what competencies and traits they need to have to pursue their careers, they are better able to work towards achieving these.
Frontline officers can face unpleasantness or nastiness in their jobs – sometimes it is because of the nature of their jobs where they are in regulatory or enforcement roles; sometimes, it is because they are unable to support a request for subsidies. I felt strongly that while we ask our officers to be the best that they can be, to deliver quality service, they also deserve to be protected by us as they strive to do their jobs well. From my experience leading the Ministries of Health and Manpower, I knew of many instances of officers being abused or attacked. Why should our officers be committed to the public service if we don’t stand by them?
This should logically apply to workers who are delivering public services whether they are employees of ours or they work for our contractors. In protection against abuse or harassment, the technical status of their employment should not matter.
Helping our ageing workforce to be happily and productively employed is challenging. This is because our organisations are themselves transforming and all officers, young and not so young, need to keep on learning and adapting. Much depends on the nature of the job as it changes, and the individual’s abilities and attitude. We have made a start – for instance, PSD worked on redesigning jobs in Ministry of Education’s OSS scheme so that older officers could continue to do their jobs with the help of mechanisation and process changes.
But there is a long way to go. We need supervisors and workers themselves across the service to be willing to try to get the work done in new ways. Inertia is a risk we face; also, if older officers think they are entitled to carry on working in the same way they have before, even as organisational needs change and that way of working is no longer effective.
Tripartism is precious. It is our “secret sauce”. And its centrepiece is a forward-thinking Labour Movement that is anchored to ground realities but can envision how work in the next decades will transform. It is able to inspire and help workers to transform with the changing ways of work. It is also able to engage employers meaningfully, to help employers also look more holistically at their organisation’s sustainability and success. This is because employers run the risk of just focusing on business and the bottom-line.
In that way, the Labour Movement will stay relevant and strong.
