The economies of the world are currently working to make Industry 4.0 succeed. However, Singapore believes that this can only happen if workers who fuel these industries are on board with the idea.
“Industry 4.0 cannot do without Worker 4.0,” said NTUC Secretary-General Ng Chee Meng at the 108th International Labour Conference held in Geneva on 12 June 2019.
He introduced Singapore’s Worker 4.0 concept to more than 5,700 international delegates representing the government, employers and workers of 187 countries.
In Singapore, a Worker 4.0 is someone who is equipped with adaptive, technology and technical skills. These skills are aimed at helping the worker become more productive, add value to businesses, and at the end of it all, earn better wages.
Of course, we know that big concepts and big words are easy to throw around. The hard part comes when it’s time to ensure practical steps are taken to transform individuals to become Worker 4.0.
With that in mind, Mr Ng elaborated on how the nation plans to prepare its workforce for the future economy.
“At the company level, our unions are working hard with businesses to set up company training committees (CTCs) where unions and management work together to help workers reskill and upskill,” he said.
CTCs help to accelerate the acceptance and adoption of technology, and the actualisation of transformation, said Mr Ng.
The CTCs are ground up initiatives initiated by Singapore’s Labour Movement. The response by companies to the CTC initiative, especially unionised ones, have been good.
Within three months of the start of the CTC initiative, more than 50 CTCs have been formed in various sectors. These sectors include hospitality, telecommunications, aerospace and the built facilities management.
As announced in Mr Ng’s May Day briefing to the media earlier this year, Singapore aims to achieve 1,000 CTCs in companies within the next three years.
For CTCs to work, a collaborative tripartism between the Government, employers and unions is key.
“With the support of our employers and Government, we can further invigorate our social contract and strengthen our social dialogue to bring the future of work into reality today and turn it into a strategic advantage for a small country like Singapore,” he said.
He added that economic growth must, at the end of the day, be shared with workers, otherwise it will be meaningless.
“We know that when businesses win, our economy wins, and when our economy wins, more importantly, our workers win. This creates a strong tripartite model to anchor economic success for country, businesses and workers,” said Mr Ng.
In her speech at the conference, Manpower Minister Josephine Teo said that tripartism plays a key role in charting the country’s future of work. She also supports the CTC initiative by the Labour Movement.
“We also recognise the need to support career mobilty for our workers through commitment from the tripartite partners. First, shared ownership of the future. It belongs to us together and we have to create it together. Second, shared values in being both pro-worker and pro-business in all that we do; shared vision of an inclusive workforce and progressive workplaces, and last and not least, shared resources to address fresh challenges as one tripartite movement,” said Mrs Teo.
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