Not just a supermarket

Most Singaporeans identify NTUC with the supermarkets and pharmacies, and its insurance arm. But what many do not realise is NTUC is also an organisation that has touched the lives of workers of all collars, ages and nationalities, who work, live and play in Singapore. As it moves ahead with the times to provide the best leadership, services and support, six NTUC officers share how working in the heart of the Labour Movement is like.

By Shi Tianyun 

Since 1961, the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) has been the voice of workers in Singapore to help them earn a better living and live a better life. Traditionally, the rank and file group has been the organisation’s primary focus but with the changing demographics in the work force, it has also started to look into the needs of the growing pool of Professionals, Managers and Executives (PMEs). In order for the all-inclusive Labour Movement to ensure this group of Singaporeans do not fall out of the cracks, the Professionals, Managers and Executives Alignment Unit (PMEU) was established in September 2011.

A New Initiative

“The PMEU aims to pull together the different initiatives rolled out by the Labour Movement and consolidate and market them to the target audience in a more holistic manner. My job primarily includes internal coordination – working with all the units and departments in NTUC - to better reach out and engage the PME populace. Another area we are concentrating on is advocacy; we hope to emerge as the voice of the PMEs,” 

Francis Lee, Assistant Director of the PMEU, fills us in on the goals of his arm of the organisation. Indeed, to build an all-angled approach to connect with this group of the workforce, Francis has found it necessary to tap onto other units’ expertise. By merging existing PME initiatives to form bigger and better ones, NTUC can ensure there is no duplication of work. For instance, when it comes to the area of training and enhancing employability for the PMEs, Francis’ unit looks towards the e2i (Employment and Employability Institute).

Set up in 2008, e2i is the employability arm of the Labour Movement and aims to be the marketplace for workers, employers and training providers. e2i’s Deputy CEO (Worker) Ang Li May leads a team to drive job fairs and programmes that aims to develop workers’ skills, and enhance their employability so they can take up better jobs. Li May shares how e2i has contributed to the PME initiative. “When it comes to PMEs, my team is involved in the Professional Search function that provides a direct match to connect PMEs to potential employers. What’s exciting about being at e2i, is every one to two years, I am part of something new. Right now, it’s being given the opportunity to start a new initiative and transit the existing activities to extend the scope to cover more training and build up coaching capabilities with
the PMEs in mind.”

Senior Employability Coach Jennifer Khor, from the Worker Support PME Team in e2i, is also involved closely in the PMEU initiatives. Her portfolio consists of managing the current PME training programmes to support their needs by upgrading their employability and management skills, one of which is the Executive Workshop that covers relevant PME topics like resume writing and networking skills. Jennifer elaborates on her job scope, “As employment coaches, we also conduct one-on-one coaching sessions with job seekers. During these sessions, they will share their employment needs and in turn,we provide advice and resources for job search and development.” It’s through this face-to-face aspect that she finds satisfaction when she witnesses job seekers secure employment through their intervention, be it training or an event that e2i organised.

Jennifer says, “When those who have been unemployed for longer than three months emerge from our training and coaching with a more positive mindset, it’s a personal achievement for me.” 

Reaching out 

An on-going challenge the PMEU faces is convincing PMEs that NTUC is relevant to their needs. That’s where Samuel Lim comes in. As the Manager (Marketing Communications) of the Membership department, it is his job to communicate the membership benefits of NTUC through different channels. “PMEs are a different breed; they want to see and enjoy different things. To get the message across to them effectively, we cannot use the same method as we do with the rank and file,”  Samuel explains. “That’s how ‘Connect to the Power of U’, the e-newsletter targeted at the PME audience was developed. We feature articles of inspiring individuals, membership benefits and events all attuned to their interests, and also create awareness by covering how NTUC can help them through tripartite mediation, Industrial Relations Officers (IROs) trained to support them and our Legal Services Department.”

Catering to a different target audience definitely pushes Samuel and his department to think out of the box and embark on bold approaches that he admits can be exciting. He describes the latest campaign NTUC launched to be direct and straightforward and vastly different from what they have done in the past with an upfront tagline that forces the public to change their perception of NTUC - “Everyone thinks we are just a supermarket. Think again.”

Voice of the People

With the Membership department working hard to reach out to the PMEs, PMEU also looks towards the IROs to help spread the awareness of NTUC’s relevance to the PMEs on the ground. For example, the electronic industry has more than 80,000 workers, of which more than 30,000 are PMEs. Sabrina Liow, a Senior IRO with the union of United Workers of Electronics and Electrical Industries, explains more, “Day to day, I do up collective agreements, handle grievances of members and workplace issues, work with management partners to advocate upscaling programmes and productivity initiatives, besides being part of membership recruitment drives. The PMEs might feel that all these are unrelated to them because the law does not provide them to be included in collective bargaining - they can only be represented individually.

In order to reach out to them, our union is working closely together with companies to advocate an extension of scope to carve out a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Its purpose is to develop a clear understanding with the companies that these people can receive limited representation. Through publicising this, hopefully PMEs will be aware that if thereare any issues pertaining to the scope, they can come to the union.”

Besides MOUs, IROs also have to depend on goodwill – something that Syed Muzaffar Hussain hopes will catch the PMEs’ attention. The Senior IRO with the Education Services Union says, “Although we work within the constraints of the employment act and law, plenty of times when we try to push for something that may seem impossible, we have to appeal to the management’s heart instead of the head. It’s a great sense of accomplishment when even though the law doesn’t state it; we managed to get what we want through goodwill.” He hopes that through this, PMEs will realise that NTUC is able to provide them with a voice to speak out, even if their rights might not be covered under the law.

Leading the Way

Even though PMEU is still in its infancy stage, all these efforts have made a breakthrough. Francis proudly details the current initiatives that focus on creative freelancers to highlight issues close to their heart like the nonpayment of fees. “Before this, they felt that NTUC can’t do much for them but now they are starting to come round to the idea that we can help them!” He shares with a grin that reflects the common underlying sentiments of the other five officers – a career with NTUC is more than
just rewarding, it is meaningful. 

Syed rounds it up succinctly, “If you have the passion to make a real difference to the
community and individuals, NTUC is the place to be.”