By Shukry Rashid
The Labour Movement is going forward in providing relevant services to its members amid rapid changes and disruption to the Singapore economy and workforce.
The Unusual Labour Movement, first mentioned in 2016, will still be the driving force as it prepares all workers – not just the full-time workers, but also freelancers, workers of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and migrant workers – for the challenges of tomorrow, today.
This was the message given by NTUC Secretary-General (SG) Chan Chun Sing during a pre-May Day media briefing held on 25 April 2017, ahead of NTUC’s May Day Celebrations on 1 May.
Relevant Representation
Singapore is currently going through a drastic bout of changes. The number of professionals, managers and executives (PMEs) is increasing, forming the majority of Singapore’s workforce by 2020.
Furthermore, not only are workers more mobile with their employment by switching jobs more often and even switching industries, many are turning to freelancing, working part-time and being self-employed.
It is also important to note that SMEs employ 70 per cent of Singapore’s workforce. SMEs also make up 99 per cent of businesses in Singapore.
With that in mind, it is important for the Labour Movement to change and remain relevant, or it will end up representing the minority. Hence, the Unusual Labour Movement comes into play.
Affiliated Unions and Associations
At the core of the Labour Movement is still the 58 affiliated unions and two associations that represent workers through collective bargaining and other areas like wrongful dismissals, retrenchment benefits and employment terms and practices.
The unions have evolved to collectively represent more PMEs, following the amendments to the Industrial Relations Act on 1 April 2015. Besides that, rank-and-file unions can now also represent PME union members on an individual basis for re-employment disputes, in addition to the current areas of unfair dismissal, victimisation, retrenchment benefits and employment contract breaches.
U Associates
NTUC U Associate (UA) is another way the Labour Movement is reaching out to PMEs. Through UA, the Labour Movement reaches out to partner professional guilds, associations and its members by providing services such as networking, sharing of best practices and skills and upgrading.
Beyond networking, UA is also collaborating with its partners to create and develop relevant sectoral programmes to help workers grow in their profession.
Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises
NTUC U SME was set up to better support SME business leaders and human resources (HR) practitioners in helping workers of SMEs.
To date, U SME has signed memoranda of understanding that represent 13,000 SMEs and its 320,000 workers. U SME regularly organises symposiums, conferences, training workshops, networking sessions, learning journeys and industry roundtable sessions for both SME leaders and workers.
The latest initiative for U SME partners is the NTUC Club Corporate Membership Scheme, which was launched on 10 April 2017 to enable SME employers to purchase the NTUC Club’s corporate membership for their employees. The membership enables employees to enjoy privileges like access to club facilities, participate in sports and recreational activities and promotions from various NTUC merchant partners.
To find more information about the NTUC Club Corporate Membership Scheme, click here.
Freelancers and Self-employed
With the growing pool of freelancers and self-employed, the NTUC U FSE was established to support freelancing as a viable career option. Through NTUC and its extended network, some 45,000 freelancers and self-employed have benefited from U FSE.
Migrant Workers and Domestic Employees
As migrant workers and domestic employees form a third of Singapore’s workforce, the Labour Movement acknowledges the need to represent and protect them. The Migrant Workers’ Centre (MWC) and Centre for Domestic Employees (CDE) were launched for this endeavour.
MWC aims to promote responsible employment practices among employers, educate migrant workers on their employment rights and enhance their social integration.
CDE assists domestic employees in addressing their employment-related challenges. CDE has reached out to 14,000 since it was launched, handled over 500 cases and helped sheltered 110 foreign domestic employees.
CDE also plans to initiate a skills certification framework to set benchmarks across the industry regarding employees’ skillsets and employers’ expectations.
Collectively, these various and extended representation form the U Network of the Labour Movement, serving 1.25 million Singaporeans. NTUC is also represented in all the Government’s 23 Industry Transformation Maps.
Relevant Products and Services
The Labour Movement is also pushing ahead with developments and initiatives that are relevant to the workforce throughout their entire work cycle.
Training
NTUC is working with institutes of higher learning (IHLs) to enable the future workforce to be work-ready even before they enter the workforce. Since the first partnership with Nanyang Technological University announced at last year’s May Day Rally, NTUC has expanded its partnerships to all 14 IHLs.
While each partnership is customised, the collaboration includes career fairs, placement activities, workshops, preparatory workshops for internship and work, industry talks and learning journeys.
NTUC UA has also been working with its partners to develop professional standards and career frameworks to coordinate and establish core competencies for working professionals.
Thus far, NTUC UA has developed sectoral programmes for industries such as engineering, internet security and sustainable energy.
In 2016, e2i helped over 61,000 workers upskill through employability programmes and masterclasses. It has also facilitated over 88,000 training places, including almost 19,000 training applications for more than 2,000 courses under the Union Training Assistance Programme.
As end of last December, LHUB had provided 1.9 million training places for all types of workers from various industries. Also by December 2016, SEED Institute, a pioneer in early education, had trained about 4,800 pre-school teachers.
NETF provides the necessary resources to enable workers to further upgrade and upskill. Announced in last year’s May Day Rally, NTUC, with the help of the Government, has embarked on an initiative to raise and inject $200 million into the NETF, which has since funded over 3,200 courses.
SG Chan will be giving an update on this initiative during the upcoming May Day Rally.
Jobs and Placement
In 2016, NTUC also successfully placed over 10,000 jobseekers through e2i, with referrals from various NTUC entities such as unions, LHUB and U PME Centre. The placements were done through career fairs, direct referrals and place-and-train programmes.
NTUC also announced that a new initiative will be launched to support workers in their career journey.
With UCN, NTUC will grow and strengthen a group of industry professionals, volunteers, community leaders and partners to support their peers’ and community’s employment and employability needs.
e2i will equip this group with knowledge and skills on career guidance, labour market information and job search resources to enable UCN to better refer Singaporeans to training advisory, job search resources and career platforms.
The Labour Movement will continue to establish the future work needs through FJST.
Launched in November 2016, FJST functions as the Labour Movement’s nerve centre that captures relevant sectoral intel and turns it into necessary actions by e2i, LHUB and its Industry Transformation Productivity function.
The actions include customisation of relevant and accessible courses, and matching of in-demand and forecasted jobs and skills to workers represented by NTUC’s U Network.
Cost of Living and Society’s Needs
NTUC’s social enterprises (SEs) will continue to play an important role in improving the lives of workers. NTUC’s SEs will collectively provide integrated and seamless services, pioneer new concepts and experiment with new ideas to meet the needs of people at every stage of their life cycle.
The social enterprises are:
Good to Know
NTUC Secretary-General Chan Chun Sing also produced a blog post highlighting the importance of the Unusual Labour Movement in making sure that NTUC remains relevant and representative of the changing workforce.
To read more, click here.
