Finding a seat and queuing to buy food and even dessert for an elderly lady who has difficulty walking every morning; spending personal time to coach a discouraged trainee in need of a job to support his family to pass a critical certification test; staying overnight to take care of a handicapped customer who was ill – these are just some of the caring acts of the 17 Care Ambassadors from the 12 NTUC Social Enterprises (SEs) who were recognised this morning at the NTUC Social Enterprises Day.
The NTUC Social Enterprises Care Ambassador Awards were presented by NTUC Secretary-General, Lim Swee Say and the respective Chairmen of the SEs at the Social Enterprises Day held this morning at Downtown East. Some 800 people comprising the Labour Movement’s Central Committee, key union leaders, management, staff of the SEs and NTUC management who attended the event re-affirmed their commitment to care for their customers, colleagues and working families in Singapore.
The NTUC Social Enterprises Care Ambassador Award was introduced to recognise the outstanding performance of the SEs staff who have demonstrated care in an extraordinary way for a customer or colleague as they go the extra mile to deliver their services. The award also seeks to recognise staff who demonstrate the spirit of care consistently towards both customers and colleagues as they discharge their duties and work responsibilities daily.
Referring to the Modernisation Seminar in 1969 which was a key moment for the Labour Movement where unionists collectively decided to expand the role of the Labour Movement beyond a wage-bargaining institution to one which seeks to meet core, under-met needs of working families, Mr Lim Boon Heng, Executive Chairman of the Social Enterprise Development Council, said “The idea of setting up Social Enterprises was mooted then to meet a few core, enduring human needs. These included stretching the hard earned dollars of workers by keeping the prices of essential goods and services affordable; extending financial security to workers; investing in training and development for better employability as well as caring for both the young and elderly dependents of our workers.”
Today, the network of 12 NTUC SEs serves more than 2 million customers a year. Moving forward, Mr Lim urged the NTUC SEs to continue to nurture the pioneering and fighting spirit of meeting the core needs that were identified in the early years.
