With $30 million committed to impacting some 33,000 workers across over 30 sectors as of March this year, the Inclusive Growth Programme (IGP) spearheaded by NTUC’s Employment and Employability Institute is well and thriving in helping companies increase productivity since its inception in August 2010.
Some 543 projects have been funded in the last 18 months through the IGP, and about half of the 33,000 workers impacted are expected to enjoy a wage increase of at least 10 per cent, shared NTUC Secretary-General Lim Swee Say.
He was on a Learning Journey on 18 April 2012 to visit four companies that have raised their productivity levels through the IGP, leading to a raise in workers’ wages.
One of the companies, Pedro Investigations and Security Services has equipped its guards with devices and technology through the IGP fund, benefitting workers who can now opt to work shorter hours while earning the same salary or work the same hours to enjoy a salary increase of 20 per cent.
F&B retailer Mr Bean International is yet another example of a company that has gained from the IGP funding. By replacing manual cash registers with a point-of-sale system, sales and inventory, and information can now be updated automatically. With greater efficiency, some 285 frontline staff have benefitted from an average annual increment of 9.5 per cent.
Similarly, through increased productivity by installing semi-automated packaging machines, some of People Bee Hoon Factory’s staff have benefitted from a salary adjustment of up to 22 per cent.
At the Park Hotel Group, a job re-design scheme – which sees workers trained to perform the role of three job functions of receptionist, waiter and housekeeper – has led to a salary increase of up to 50 per cent.
Shared SG Lim: “On these four companies, you will see that the wage increase ranges from 10 per cent to as high as 50 per cent, but there’s one common feature across all the four companies… they are all supported by higher productivity, multi-skill and innovation.
“As a Labour Movement together with tripartite partners, we believe that the best way to help our low-wage workers is to improve their wages and to sustain that. For their wages to keep going up, the best way is to ensure that wages and productivity, the two can go hand-in-hand.”
