Addressing some 3,000 participants at the Labour Movement’s May Day Family Fiesta on 26 May 2012 at Downtown East, NTUC Assistant Secretary-General Cham Hui Fong announced that NTUC will be working with its tripartite partners to roll out a slew of initiatives to encourage companies to be more family-friendly.
Noting that NTUC is already implementing age-friendly practices to encourage older workers to stay employed, she said that family-friendly practices would enable working parents to have better work-life balance and thus be more productive at work.
“While we are working, we want to be productive, stay focused and put in our best at work. While we are at home, I don’t think we want to be distracted with work.
“I think we want to try to spend quality time with the family, spend quality time at home, so that we really enjoy our family time,” explained ASG Cham.
She also took the opportunity to highlight three companies that have successfully made the workplace family-friendly – KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, National University Hospital and SP Services Ltd.
The two hospitals are branches of the Healthcare Services Employees’ Union (HSEU) while SP Services is unionised under the Union of Power and Gas Employees (UPAGE).
For family-friendly companies to work, ASG Cham stressed that the mindsets of the employers and the supervisors must be aligned in the same direction.
This would make them more understanding and empathetic of staff who need to take leave or work flexi-time to care for their family.
Likewise, staff who go on leave should do so with peace of mind that they have their employer’s support and thus return to their jobs with the right work spirit.
Revealing that NTUC has the backing of the Singapore National Employers Federation and government agencies, ASG Cham said that it was looking to promote suitable family-friendly schemes to enable working parents to stay happy and productive at work, and hopes to have the support of more companies and NTUC members to do so.
