NTUC's letter to ST Forum
25 August 2009
Dear Editor,
1 I refer to the article “Give women the right to ask bosses for flexi-work”, 25 August 2009.
2 I agree that employers can do a lot more to help women juggle work and family to make it easier for them to have more children. Flexi-work is certainly one measure that will help although I am doubtful whether having legislation akin to the British Flexible Working (Procedural Requirements) Regulations 2002 would be beneficial to our women. The danger is that we may end up with employers refusing to employ women so as not to open themselves to prosecution for non-compliance with the demand for flexibility under the legislation.
3 Instead, we should encourage and highlight more positive examples of companies that have embraced flexi-work to the mutual benefit of both employers and employees. One such example is KK Hospital, which was the first hospital to heed the government’s call for a five-day work week. KKH also allows flexi-time so that a female employee can report later for work if she has to send her child to a childcare centre in the morning. We also have DBS bank, which allows a female employee to convert from full-time to part-time employment when she has a baby and subsequently, convert back to full-time subject to agreed conditions.
4 Employers wanting to introduce flexi-work can now tap on the Flexi Works! fund launched in 2008, which is a joint initiative by the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and Singapore Workforce Development Agency, and administered by NTUC’s Women’s Development Secretariat. To date, 132 companies have benefitted from the fund and have committed to place 4,130 women in flexi-work.
5 We also need to look at other measures to help working mothers strike a balance between family and work. The high female labour force participation rate in the Scandinavian countries, which also has a higher fertility rate, is partly due to their easy access to good quality childcare centres. In Denmark, where the female labour force participation rate is 73.7%, more than 90% of the children between the ages of one to five years old are in day care centres. The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports’ proposal to build 50 childcare centres annually over the next five years would help more working mothers to accommodate their childcare duties.
6 What is also equally important is changing society’s stereotypes on the role of men and women. If men are prepared to share more of the work at home, women would feel less pressurised and less guilty, and more encouraged about going out to work. But even in the Scandinavian countries, this is a work-in-progress. In Norway, only 18% of the men take more than the obligatory non-transferable 10 weeks of annual leave that fathers are required to take. It is mostly mothers who take the parental leave. In Sweden, 80% of the parental benefits are consumed by women.
7 Our working mothers deserve more support and understanding from everyone. They particularly need more enlightened employers.
Mdm Halimah Yacob
Deputy Secretary-General and
Director, Women’s Development Secretariat
National Trades Union Congress
