Comrade Hawazi Daipi, Senior Parliamentary Secretary (Education and Manpower)
Comrade John de Payva, President, NTUC
Comrade Swithun Lowe, NTUC Central Committee Member and Chairman of the Education Cluster
Comrades and friends,
Good afternoon!
First let me briefly recap the thinking behind the formation of clusters of unions. In 1999 we observed that technological change was blurring the lines that defined industries. For example, advances in IT led to the emergence of broadband telephony, which in turn led to telephone companies moving into media services. At the same time optic fibre technology led cable television providers to move into telephony. How should unions respond to such convergence?
The Union of Telecoms Employees of Singapore, the Singapore Union of Broadcasting Employees and the SPH Employees’ Union and the Singapore National Union of Journalists now had common issues to deal with. We decided then that we should set up an informal cluster of unions to facilitate discussion and sharing of information and experiences. Since 1999, 5 clusters were formed.
The clusters have proceeded cautiously. They started with issues that were the least sensitive, for example, safety and health. But really, after establishing mutual confidence they should discuss industry trends, the likelihood of restructuring, impact on workers, how to ensure that workers affected by restructuring remain employable, and how alternative jobs can be found for them if they were retrenched.
Today we are launching the Education Cluster. It is timely. Many changes have been introduced, such as through-train systems, the International Baccalaureate as an alternative to the ‘A’ levels, specialists secondary schools (sports and maths, for example), reduction in curriculum, new approach to the teaching of second languages.
With these changes, it is all the more necessary for unions in the education sector to come together to discuss issues arising from these changes.
At the same time, private schools are being set up. Employees in such schools are represented by other unions. But there could be overlap with the national education institutions. So the unions covering private training institutions ought to be brought into the cluster.
Individually the resources of each union will be limited. There would only be so much that an individual union can do to study the trends and implications. Collectively, there will be more resources. Therefore it makes eminent sense to come together, pool resources so that a broader range of issues can be studied in depth for the benefit of all the unions. With better knowledge, our unions will then be able to represent members better.
The cluster will start with a dialogue today on strategic directions in the education sector. It is a good start. Following this, I would expect that the cluster will also discuss how to update the professional qualifications of those engaged in the education sector. Another issue, following the establishment of private education institutions, would be how to ensure that professional standards are maintained.
You should not confine yourselves to discussing matters directly connected with education. There are other issues that you could discuss that would benefit your members. For example, the Medishield system is being reviewed. While this is an issue that would be discussed by the broad body of the union movement as it affects all workers, you should discuss it also. The concerns of your members will be different from the concerns of say, the Amalgamated Union of Public Daily-Rated Workers. While they would be more concerned about the new deductible and increase in premiums, your members would be more concerned about insurance coverage over and above basic Medishield, and how means testing will affect them.
Since the public announcement by Mr Khaw Boon Wan, Minister for Health, I have been trying to find out the reaction of unionists and other grassroots leaders.
My observation is that most do not know enough of the subject to offer considered views. Therefore the first thing to do is to study the subject and understand what the review is all about. In the past year, a study team in NTUC had been engaging the Ministry of Health. The team had put up a comprehensive paper on the subject, and this paper had been submitted to the Ministry of Health. Therefore you could organize workshops to study the NTUC paper and the changes that have been announced by Ministry of Health.
Medishield will be the basic hospitalization insurance plan for all of us. We have been discussing the need for a portable medical benefits system. Medishield allows us to develop the portable medical benefits system. So we have to understand what it provides, before we can engage employers to discuss how existing medical benefits can be revamped so that workers will get the maximum benefit.
There need not be only one way of revamping employer benefits. As I said, your members interests or priorities will be different from those of the AUPDRW.
My remarks have been brief, but it is enough to illustrate that we have a lot of work cut out for us in the months ahead. I expect your cluster to meet quite frequently!
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