With industries transforming themselves, business models becoming more diverse and employment models getting increasingly varied, the need to be relevant to and representative of all workers in Singapore has been driving the Labour Movement forward to continually reinvent its products and services.
This was the message shared by NTUC Secretary-General (SG) Chan Chun Sing during a pre-May Day media briefing on 19 April 2018, ahead of NTUC’s May Day Celebrations which start from 1 May 2018.
Being Representative
At the NTUC Ordinary Delegates’ Conference in November last year, SG Chan recounted how the Labour Movement had secured a decisive vote to update the NTUC Constitution, allowing it to expand its network to better serve all working people in Singapore, regardless of sector, collar or nationality.
He said that the nature of the Labour Movement has to keep evolving and it now has various tools at its disposal to organise working people in Singapore for the purposes of training and progression.
“The Labour Movement is not satisfied just in helping to place today’s unemployed into today’s jobs. The most important thing is to help tomorrow’s unemployed into tomorrow’s jobs. The Labour Movement is working closely with the Government, training agencies and institutes of higher learning to upskill workers ahead of time,” said SG Chan.
While the unions remain the bedrock of the Labour Movement, he highlighted how they have stepped up their efforts beyond protecting the employment and legal rights of workers to helping displaced workers find employment as well as facilitate upskilling and career progression.
As a case in point, SG Chan detailed how unions and U Associates are working together as clusters in traditional industries such as in healthcare and OPEC (oil, petroleum, energy and chemical) as well as fast-growing sectors such as supply chain, infocommunication and technology and finance.
Leveraging each other’s strengths, they are working together to map out the necessary skills and training needed by workers to progress and to develop their respective industries to meet future challenges.
He also shared how NTUC’s U Associate (UA) community of professional guilds and associations has grown in number from 58 in 2017 to 67 to date. This has enabled professionals, managers and executives access industry expertise and widen their professional networks.
Similarly, NTUC’s U SME network has been working with Government partners and trade associations to better support small- and medium-sized enterprises, especially in upskilling their workers. NTUC’s U FSE also continues to represent and protect the interests of freelancers and self-employed individuals while NTUC’s Migrant Workers’ Centre (MWC) and Centre for Domestic Employees (CDE) have been working with the Government to help workers better settle in Singapore and support them in resolving issues.
Staying Relevant with Training
With training a key priority, SG Chan said that the Labour Movement has ramped up its efforts to identify the training needs of workers.
This has seen the Labour Movement working together with NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute), training providers such as NTUC LearningHub, government agencies like Workforce Singapore (WSG) and SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG), institutes of higher learning and even companies to develop curated training and make them readily available for workers.
While the priority is in nurturing a training and learning culture amongst workers, SG Chan shared that this has to be complemented by having accessible just-in-time and bite-size training modules for workers.
The Labour Movement has also established a Training Council comprising NTUC Central Committee members, NTUC’s e2i and LearningHub and leaders passionate about training in the Labour Movement network, to inculcate learning into the Labour Movement’s DNA.
Social Enterprises – Going Digital
While NTUC’s social enterprises, as a group, continue their social mission to help working people manage the cost of living, SG Chan highlighted how they are coming together to provide an integrated suite of services for workers and their families, enabled by data.
Citing the example of Kampung Admiralty, he detailed how social enterprises like NTUC FairPrice, NTUC Foodfare, senior care provider NTUC Health and childcare provider NTUC First Campus are working together to bring value-for-money essential services to the community living in the area.
Elaborating on the group’s digital transformation strategy, SG Chan explained that data is playing a key part in enabling the social enterprises to more effectively deliver relevant products and services to consumers.
He added that the Labour Movement is also progressively forming new partnerships with external networks to better serve working people in Singapore.
Supporting Industry Transformation
The Government has led the way with the introduction of 23 different Industry Transformation Maps (ITMs) designed to increase jobs and skills, boost productivity, innovation as well as international competitiveness to uplift Singapore’s industries.
On how these national efforts dovetail with the Labour Movement’s priorities in training workers, SG Chan said that the Labour Movement’s advantage is its ability to translate these plans into tangible action for workers.
The difference here, is in the scale and scope in which the need for training is communicated to workers, mobilising them to undergo training, and mapping out the relevant training frameworks for them.
