NTUC Social Enterprises take on a mid-field, offence and defense strategy to upturn the downturn
11 May 2009
Media Release
1. The National Trades Union Congress’ (NTUC) 12 Social Enterprises (SEs) have pledged to do their best to save jobs for Singaporeans and help their families overcome the downturn as socially responsible members of the united Labour Movement. NTUC Secretary-General Lim Swee Say highlighted in his May Day Rally speech the football analogy of ‘Singapore United’, where the Labour Movement is tackling the current economic crisis through a Mid-field, Offence and Defence strategy. The NTUC SEs, too, have adopted this strategy: Mid-field – strive for zero retrenchment; Offence – grow their capabilities; Defence – avoid record unemployment; and Medic – care for workers and their families.
2. At the NTUC Social Enterprises Job Fair held today at NTUC’s Employment and Employability Institute (e2i), nine SEs (namely NTUC First Campus, NTUC FairPrice, NTUC Income, NTUC LearningHub, NTUC Eldercare, NTUC Healthcare, NTUC Club, NTUC Foodfare and NTUC Link), NTUC Administration and Research Unit (NTUC ARU), and related organisations Orchid Country Club and Aranda Country Club, are collectively offering more than 1,000 different jobs across different sectors for Singaporeans.
Mid-field Strategy – Strive for Zero Retrenchment
3. The number of workers retrenched in the first quarter of 2009 is expected to rise to 12,600 from the previous quarter . Despite this tough economic climate, all 12 NTUC SEs have made a firm commitment to strive for zero retrenchment during this downturn. They are focused on being worker-centric by doing all they can to save their staff’s jobs by cutting costs.
Offence Strategy – Grow Social Enterprises’ Capabilities
4. Saving jobs alone would not be adequate to upturn the downturn. The NTUC SEs understand this and have, thus, decided to take an offensive approach by expanding their operations and continuing to hire more workers, including fresh graduates, retrenched workers, back-to-work women and older workers. Responding to the tripartite partners’ call, the NTUC SEs will also seize the opportunity during this downturn to upgrade their workers’ skills, productivity and service quality so that they can be better positioned for a faster and further growth when the economy recovers.
5. For example, NTUC LearningHub is expanding its training capacity and plans to double its classroom numbers in order to accommodate a 15,000-increase in training places every month, over the next one or two years. By the end of this year, NTUC LearningHub projects its SPUR training places would double from 90,000 to 180,000. Working as a partner with other Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) providers, NTUC LearningHub aims to provide a one-stop training solution for employers in growing industries such as Infocomm, Logistics, Security and Precision Engineering, to close the gap between their workers’ skills and the skills as required by the available jobs, through training and skills upgrading. Today, NTUC LearningHub has over 600 company staff and trainers, including part-time positions.
6. Other SEs going on the offence include NTUC First Campus, which will increase its number of childcare centres from 50 to 80 by 2010, and will, thus, have more jobs and training opportunities for Singaporeans. In 2009, First Campus will also hire 660 employees which include both teaching and non-teaching positions. Additionally, NTUC FairPrice opening five new stores in 2009 as well as investing $40 million to upgrade their stores and systems, enhancing workers’ productivity and service quality for their shoppers. By increasing its healthcare outlets from 43 to 51 this year, NTUC Healthcare aims to serve more members of the public through its wider network of Unity and The Living Pharmacy outlets, and create jobs for Singaporeans. NTUC Income aims to achieve the number one position in life, health and general insurance within the next three years.
7. During this downturn, NTUC SEs are also strengthening their capabilities. For example, NTUC Club, NTUC FairPrice, NTUC First Campus, NTUC Foodfare, NTUC Income, NTUC LearningHub and NTUC Link have already or are sending their staff through the Customer-Centric Initiative (CCI) training to improve their service standards so as to better serve their customers. The benefits derived from better-trained service staff will serve as an impetus for the other SEs to embark on the CCI and for them to help raise the service quality bar for the nation as a whole.
Defence Strategy – Avoid Record Unemployment
8. Reflecting the sharp deterioration in economic conditions, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate among the resident labour force is expected to increase to a five-year high of 4.8 per cent in March 2009 . Though faced with the same difficult economic challenges, NTUC SEs have banded together to take the lead as socially responsible employers to create over 1,000 employment opportunities for Singaporeans, including rank and file workers, Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians (PMETs), fresh graduates, older workers; and women back to the workforce. The NTUC SEs are able to make an impact on the employment front because collectively, they employ a total of 11,500 workers currently. By increasing the total NTUC SEs workforce by another 10 per cent, they are able to create more jobs for Singaporeans and expand their operations and ride on the waves of recovery more quickly.
9. One such SE is NTUC FairPrice, of which 95 per cent of its staff are Singaporeans. At today’s job fair, NTUC FairPrice will continue to hire another 80 frontline staff this year to meet its business expansion plans. NTUC FairPrice is also a strong supporter of working mothers that want to return to the workforce, implementing a part-time scheme which allows women to work while at the same time, take care of their family.
Medic Strategy – Caring for Workers and Their Families SEs reacted swiftly to economic changes in 2009:
10. Last year, NTUC SEs rolled out several initiatives to help fight rising inflation . This year, the NTUC SEs are also quick in rolling out initiatives to help Singaporeans cope with the uncertain economic situation this year. For example, NTUC FairPrice has extended its 5 per cent housebrand discounts till the end of this year and this scheme will help Singaporeans save $6 million this year. NTUC FairPrice will also continue to ensure that its basket of 400 essential items is priced lower or at least equal to its competitors to help Singaporeans stretch their dollar. In response to the economic downturn, NTUC FairPrice also embarked on the Yellow Dot scheme to highlight cheaper items to the budget-conscious consumers.
11. In December last year, NTUC Income launched a special $6 million Incomeshield Assistance Scheme to help lower income and elderly Incomeshield policyholders cope with insurance premium revisions. On 6 May this year, NTUC Income announced a free health insurance upgrade for children 16 years and below. The upgrade from a Medishield plan to Standard Incomeshield Plan B for children translates to a subsidy of $19 per child by NTUC Income. Today, NTUC Income announced a special health insurance upgrade for children of NTUC Members from Medishield to to Enhanced Incomeshield Basic Plan, which translates to a subsidy of $37 per child. The one year free upgrade scheme will cost NTUC Income $2.8 million.
12. NTUC First Campus will continue to maintain its fees below national median. In addition this year, NTUC First Campus has held back its fee increase of $30 per month, resulting in an estimated savings of $1.2 million for parents. This is however, done in tandem while continuing to invest in its teachers to provide quality pre-school services.
13. Furthermore, NTUC Healthcare is maintaining the affordability of a basket of 200 essential items at its pharmacy chain; and NTUC Foodfare is extending its 5 + 5 per cent elderly discount and sale of breakfast sets at $1.40 at Foodfare outlets till March 2010, to help lighten Singaporeans’ financial burden. NTUC Club will keep family recreation affordable through its six Family Recreation & Fun Carnivals at $1.5 million, up from four carnivals the previous year. NTUC Link has delivered more than $8 million worth of LinkPoints savings to union members.
14. To help retrenched union members, NTUC Thrift will consider rescheduling the loan repayment terms of its members to ease their cash flow difficulties. Families and children of retrenched workers will also receive help subsidies from NTUC Eldercare Trust Fund and the NTUC First Campus’ Bright Horizon Trust (BHT) Fund.
SEs’ collective contributions towards Labour Movement U Care Fund:
15. One of the Labour Movement’s core commitments is to extend a helping hand to lower income workers and their families, and this is even more apparent during this economic downturn. NTUC Choice Homes rallied support from its corporate partners to donate $334,600 to the NTUC U Care Fund. This year, NTUC SEs have contributed generously to the Labour Movement U Care fund, which will be used to scale up programmes, initiatives and assistance schemes to help union members and their families. Thus far, NTUC SEs have contributed a total of $10.66 million to the U Care Fund.
Annex A
NTUC SEs fighting rising inflation in 2008:
The mission of all NTUC SEs is to deliver good quality goods and services at affordable rates that are widely accessible for all working people and families in Singapore. Staying firmly rooted to its social role, NTUC SEs have helped Singaporeans fight rising inflation last year and will continue to make a difference through various initiatives to help moderate the cost of living and extend a helping hand to lower income workers and their families.
In 2008, NTUC SEs have helped families save $76 million through various programmes and initiatives like ‘Stretch the Dollar’, GST absorption, LinkPoints programme, and donations to charitable causes.
