Mr Chan Chun Sing has resigned from his position of secretary-general of the NTUC on 22 May 2018 to return to the Government. He has been Trade and Industry Minister since 1 May 2018 after taking over the post from Mr Lim Hng Kiang who retired from the cabinet.
Following a meeting held on the same day, the NTUC Central Committee unanimously elected NTUC Deputy Secretary-General Ng Chee Meng to take over the position of secretary-general effective immediately.
Mr Ng joined the Labour Movement on 23 April this year on a part-time basis. He has been serving in the Labour Movement on a full-time basis from 1 May 2018 since relinquishing his appointments as Education Minister (Schools) and Second Minister for Transport.
Grateful for the Experience
In his resignation letter, Mr Chan said: “I may be officially stepping down as the Secretary-General of NTUC, but I will not be leaving the Labour Movement.
“My new portfolio in the Ministry of Trade and Industry is, in fact, an extension of the work in NTUC to ensure that our working people can continue to benefit from good jobs, and our businesses will have the opportunities to become more competitive and remain steadfast in their quest to take care of our working people. I look forward to working closely with the Labour Movement and our partners to write the next chapter of our country's economic development, together.”
He added that he was thankful to have worked with many individuals in the Labour Movement and wished them continued success in serving the interests of workers.
The Central Committee accepted Mr Chan’s resignation letter and thanked him for his contributions to the Labour Movement.
In a valedictory letter to Mr Chan, NTUC President Mary Liew said: “Brother Chun Sing, you ‘disrupted’ the Labour Movement and turned us into an Unusual Labour Movement – one that is more representative and relevant to our working people, and one which can better serve and advance our working people’s interests. For this we truly thank you.”
According to Ms Liew, the Labour Movement is certain that Mr Chan will always have workers’ interests at heart even as he returns to serve the Government.
Mr Chan’s Notable Contributions
In his time as secretary-general since 2015, Mr Chan has expanded the Labour Movement network to bring in more workers into the fold.
They include rank-and-file workers, professionals, managers, and executives, freelancers and the self-employed, small- and medium-sized enterprise workers, migrant workers and foreign domestic workers.
He also started the fundraising efforts for the NTUC-Education and Training Fund in 2016 to support workers in lifelong learning and continuous training and upskilling to be future-ready.
To strengthen tripartism, Mr Chan enhanced and introduced initiatives such as the exchange programmes between the Labour Movement, the Government and the Singapore National Employers Federation.
Mr Chan also enhanced the relevance of the Labour Movement through NTUC’s group of social enterprises by ensuring the group synergised their services through a shared data infrastructure to better serve workers and their families at every stage of their lives.
Mr Chan was co-opted into the NTUC Central Committee as Deputy Secretary-General on 27 January 2015. In the same year, he succeeded Mr Lim Swee Say as Secretary-General on 4 May.
