Record High 105 Awardees recognised for their outstanding contributions to the Labour Movement

The Labour Movement kicks start its May Day celebrations with the annual May Day Dinner. At this year’s May Day Dinner, 105 recipients will receive the prestigious May Day Awards in recognition of their significant and valuable contributions to the Labour Movement. This would be the highest number of awardees since the first May Day Awards was held in 1963.

The May Day Awards recipients, comprising outstanding individuals and organisations from the triparitite partners demonstrated their support to fellow workers in the area of skills upgrading, workfare and staff welfare; maintained strong labour-management relations; and strengthened the Singapore workforce by supporting key Labour Movement initiatives like the Progressive Wage Model, re-employment of older workers, among others. Their stories are a testament to their passion and hard work that brought about better jobs, better workers with better wages.

The event is attended by 1,600 guests comprising tripartite partners – senior government officials, company management and trade unionists, and was officiated by Guest-of-Honour Mr Tan Chuan-Jin, Acting Minister for Manpower.

Medal of Honour Award

Nominated by the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), the highest award honour this year, is presented to Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, who is also the Co-ordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs, as well as Chairman of Council of Advisors for United Workers of Electronics & Electrical Industries and Advisor of The Singapore Manual & Mercantile Workers’ Union; and Minister for Health, Gan Kim Yong, who is also Chairman of Council of Advisors of Singapore Industrial & Services Employees’ Union and Chairman of Singapore Labour Foundation.

They will receive the Medal of Honour Award which is conferred on special individuals who have rendered distinguished services to the Labour Movement.

Other Awards Presented

A total 105 awards were presented in 13 different categories.

The Distinguished Service (Star) Award, Distinguished Service Award and the Meritorious Service Award are conferred on non-unionists who have been active and rendered significant contributions to the Labour Movement, while the Comrade of Labour (Star) Award is given to serving and deserving unionists who have made outstanding and significant contributions to the union and fellow workers.

The Medal of Commendation (Gold) Award is conferred on senior management personnel who made very significant contributions toward the Labour Movement, particularly by strengthening labour movement relations within their industries and companies.And, the Plaque of Commendation (Star) and Plaque of Commendation (Gold) Awards are conferred on companies on organisations which have made very significant contributions towards promoting good industrial relations, ensuring workers’ welfare and workfare, and supporting NTUC’s initiatives, programmes and projects.

For full citations of the 105 awardees, please refer to May Day Awards Citation 2014 on U Portal.

The May Day Dinner sub-committee and May Day Awards sub-committee would like to thank the Singapore Labour Foundationand NTUC FairPrice for their generous support, without which this year’s May Day Dinner would not have been possible.