Good Morning Comrades, Ladies and Gentlemen
I am happy to be here with you this morning.
Singapore Today
1. The environment today in Singapore is one that is ever changing and changing rapidly too. With the advancement of technology, people, services and resources are increasingly mobile among countries. Even viruses and bacteria, and security threats find their way more easily outside their own territories these past few years!
2. In such a globalised world, everyone is affected, one way or another, from the highly skilled to the lowly-skilled. The skilled workers will find it easier to adjust due to their knowledge, skills, flexibility and ability to tap on and maximize resources. They are in demand – as high skills are in short supply. However, the less-skilled will find it more difficult to cope because there are so many millions of less-skilled workers around the world. With globlisation, the low-skilled jobs are more at risk. They are easily taken over by “cheaper” labour overseas or through automation. Foreign labour need not be here – the investments move to the low cost areas. Hence, life generally has been tougher for the lowest 20% of households for the past few years.
Inclusive Society
3. As what President Nathan said in his opening address at the Opening of Parliament a month ago, we will build an inclusive society which leaves no one behind. While incomes vary among Singaporeans, and while we do not have a welfare state like in Europe, nevertheless we do have a system where the lower income enjoys a good quality of life. Our lower income lives in good housing because of the HDB. They also receive high quality medical care, at subsidized rates. All children have places in school, and it is possible for them to go as far as their abilities take them. Nevertheless, more can be done to narrow the social gap. That is the focus of Government’s programmes in the coming years.
4. Our Labour Movement is also playing its part. The NTUC group has focused on job creation, job re-design, and retraining to help workers add value to their jobs, get better pay. We find re-employment for displaced workers. With the economy growing now, we see the fruits of our programmes – unemployment has come down, the employment rate has gone up, workers get better wages in some sectors. For families in hardship, we provided financial relief in the form of Hardship Grants, various programmes that give out vouchers to help them defray cost of transport, groceries, utilities and school expenses for their children. Families in temporary hardship find the assistance programmes helpful. However, on-going programmes and assistance will still be needed to narrow the social gap.
5. To play our part in contributing to an inclusive society, we will need to be more cohesive, to pool and make better use of our resources to achieve better synergy. This is what we have done, and will continue to improve.
NTUC “Back To School” Programme
6. The NTUC “Back To School” is aimed at helping the low-income union members and their families. It is also an initiative whereby various members of the NTUC Family, partners from the Education field, such as MOE, ITE, Special schools, and retailers pooled their resources together to help those in need through giving their children a better footing in area of education. The Singapore Labour Foundation contributes up to $1.5 million to this programme. Other supporters are NTUC Club and NTUC Fairprice for their Used Textbooks Collection Programme. By the way, the UN Global Compact has cited the NTUC FairPrice Used Textbooks Collection Programme as an exemplary social programme that also protects the environment.
7. By this programme we help families invest in their children. This programme complements the bursaries and scholarships that our unions and co-operatives give out every year. We believe in helping every child get the best possible start in life. With the “Back To School” Programme, parents save a portion that is set aside for spending on their children’s new school term. Children under this programme will not be deprived of the school’s necessities when they start school each new year.
8. Since NTUC started this programme last year, the feedback we get is that many are hoping that it will continue again this year. This year, the “Back To School” Fairs will be in 2 locations, one here in Downtown East and another in Yio Chu Kang Community Club. To create more choices and better value for the vouchers, more community-minded retailers offering better deals, have joined the Fairs this year. To date, this programme has benefited more than 19,000 students from families of our union members.
Conclusion
9. On this note, I would like to thank also, all union leaders for their efforts in bringing this programme to their members. A lot of time and effort has been out in to support this programme, from dissemination of programme details to processing of applications. As we work towards the Vision of Labour Movement For All, let us continue to work towards fostering a stronger support among the members of the union family for the benefits of our members!
Thank you.
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For media queries, please contact:
Julie Tai (Ms)
Principal Executive
Corporate Communications Department
National Trades Union Congress
DID 6213 8186
HP 9848 2483
Email taihl@ntuc.org.sg
