Speech by Ng Chee Meng, NTUC Secretary-General, at the NTUC Ordinary Delegates' Conference 2021 on 17 Nov 2021

A very good morning to our dear brother Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, ministers that are online, special shout out to

1. SM Teo Chee Hean, Brother Tan See Leng that are in our midst,
2. President Mary, my fellow Central Committee Members,
3. Past Sec-Gens that are also online, Brother Boon Heng, Swee Say and Chun Sing.
4. Dear sisters and brothers, People’s Action Party (PAP) comrades, tripartite partners. I am so happy to see all of you this morning.
5. I take nothing at ODC for granted. The very fact that we are gathered here, I’m happy. Happy, for one, that Singapore, we are progressing, in dealing with Covid, thanks to the collective efforts of the Government, the employers and the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC).
6. Second, I’m happy because we can have a much more fruitful Ordinary Delegates Conference (ODC) where we can gather physically to interact, share ideas, review the things that we have done, see where we can do better and importantly in the course of the next 12, 10 hours, to plot our way forward for NTUC and the Labour Movement (LM), for the next 2 years. 2 very important years as we get out of Covid and go back into the longer term, economic transformation that will anchor Singapore steadily, robustly for the future.
7. And thirdly I’m happy for a very personal reason. I’m simply glad to see all of you physically here. Some of you now I can stress face to face instead of being on Zoom. Some i can encourage. Most of all i want to hear all the feedback from you, and all the little needles that you usually poke at Sec-Gen, like President Mary, in front of Deputy Prime Minister (DPM).

RECOUNT LEADERS’ GOOD WORK

It has really been a tumultuous 2 years. For all the things that we have set out to do, to dream, to dare, to do in 2019, we did not expect Covid-19 to hit us right in the face a few months later. In the last 2 years, I’m glad that all of us have a shared value system, a shared purpose in anchoring all the work that we do and in that core purpose of NTUC, of caring for the worker, of anchoring for their interest, pursuing the 3Ws for them it has guided us steadily, through the 24 months of real challenges on the ground.

Since 2019, November, I am happy to report to all of you that we have done well. You have seen the video, in terms of the quantitative achievements. Amidst Covid, I congratulate our sisters and brothers for pulling our weight together and achieving much.

We have literally helped save thousands and thousands of jobs amidst COVID-19. Jobs, and livelihoods, through the different initiatives we have undertaken. Unions on the ground made a tremendous difference.

1. Food, Drinks & Allied Workers Union (FDAWU), in the hospitality sector, working with various hotels, working with the Singapore Hotels Association (SHA).
2. At the very onset of the covid crisis, we designed a strategy, implemented the plan to move workers out of depressed sectors and secure livelihoods for them. And importantly also, employers manage to have that cushion through government support like Jobs Support Scheme (JSS), to weather the initial onslaught of Covid-19.

RALLY & APPRECIATE UNION LEADERS & STAFF

In the aviation sector, unions like Singapore Industrial and Services Employees' Union (SISEU), ST Engineering Staff Union (STESU), SIA Engineering Company Engineers and Executives Union (SEEU), Singapore Airlines Staff Union (SIASU), all came together in many untold stories on the ground that you may not have heard about. Union leaders, after securing jobs and when there were inevitable job losses, hunkered down with management to negotiate retrenchment or redeployment packages, deep into the night, on the weekends.

I know in the aviation sector intimately how union leaders negotiated with management all the way into the wee hours 2am, 3am, to secure a fair, balanced outcome, ensure sustainable business and yet taking care of our sisters and brothers that were retrenched. And working with NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) to deploy them out later.

In the hospitality sector, FDAWU, Attractions, Resorts & Entertainment Union (AREU), The Singapore Manual & Mercantile Workers' Union (SMMWU) worked overtime to do all the above that I just mentioned and including in the last 18 months of all the different ups and downs in dealing with Covid to manage Safe Management Measures (SMM) on the ground in partnership with government officers. Securing the support of workers and really doing their very best to cope with the different changes that covid brought to the workforce.

In the public service, the Amalgamated Union of Public Employees (AUPE), and the Amalgamated Union of Statutory Board Employees (AUSBE), the biggest unions in the public sector, anchored to ensure frontline civil servants are taken care of.

In the healthcare sector, Sister Thana, Healthcare Services Employees' Union (HSEU), for the last almost 24 months now, have worked tirelessly to ensure that our hospital system in partnership with Minister Ong Ye Kung and Minister Gan Kim Yong in the past to ensure that we can be taken care of. Each time I see sister Thana I always worry a little about her because I see her panda eyes getting darker and darker. Not a joke.

And in the teaching profession, in our 4 unions on the ground, whether Singapore Teachers' Union (STU), or the other 3 unions, they have gone through great changes, online learning, mental stresses, increased workload, to make sure that our children in school will continue to have the best education that Brother Chan Chun Sing and my former colleagues in the Ministry of Education (MOE) can deliver to them amidst these challenges.

Across all the unions and I cannot mention all of you, you have done really well on the ground. Stories are told, stories only you and I collectively know of what a difference they have made.

Including our National Taxi Association (NTA) brothers, National Private Hire Vehicles Association (NPHVA) brothers, our associations, that have championed the gig workers in the economy whether it’s through the Self-Employed Person Income Relief Scheme (SIRS) period, whether it is now, where different measures are taken, incomes are affected, you continue to be on the ground. Not to forget my staff in NTUC– Administration and Research Unit (ARU) that still continue to be on the ground in our red t-shirts, with our delivery riders, encouraging them to take a longer-term view and join NTUC so that we can champion their interests as well. If you see the men and women in red on the ground, with mostly green folks, you know that NTUC is there. Once in a while you may also see me, talking to the delivery riders to encourage them and to see how we can innovate to represent freelancers better in Singapore.

So, while the video shows you the quantitative achievements, my report in the next 10 minutes or so shows the qualitative data that when you have stood up, what difference you have made on the ground. As Secretary-General elected by all of you, I sincerely thank all of you union leaders, delegates, our tripartite partners, and my staff in NTUC for the wonderful work and the difference you have made in dealing with Covid.

NDC’S DIRECTION OF DREAM, DARE, DO IS ON THE RIGHT TRACK

All of you made “every worker matters” come alive. And I sincerely mean that. Besides the crisis management that NTUC had to go into in the last 24 months, well, we kept an eye on the longer-term future as well. And I'm glad to report to you, in 2021, what we decided to do 2019, is bearing fruit.

When we committed to “dream dare and do”, I did not expect the achievements that we have managed today.

1. SENIOR WORKERS
   1. In the area of senior workers. Where we worked with our tripartite partners to raise retirement age and re-employment ages. We have gone on to the first step of implementation, to secure this important portion of our workforce, as Singapore ages. Bringing them into meaningful work, upskilling into better work, and keeping our senior workers relevant, including retirement considerations like Central Provident Fund (CPF) adjustments upwards. In all this I must thank my Deputy Secretary-General Brother Heng Chee How and your team for doing excellent work.

2. PWM
   1. In the area of Progressive Wage model (PWM), I think DPM mentioned about what we have done in this sector. We are not only impacting thousands of workers, but now in the next 5 to 10 years, we will uplift hundreds of thousands of workers through our progressive wage model.
   2. Not at the expense of our employers because we intend to raise skills levels and up productivity both individually and at the business level so that we can have a sustainable win-win in the ecosystem. In this aspect I must congratulate Brother Zainal who has been working tirelessly to foster PWM not only in the 3 areas but extending outwards.
   3. And I must thank Brother Koh Poh Koon and Brother Chee Hong Tat for leading these efforts and also with a new entrant, Brother Fahmi coming into the fold to help.
   4. In the PWM sector, I must also thank our tripartite partners from SNEF and our Brother Zaqy and the leadership team in the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) for making this strategic move possible in engendering a new workers’ compact in Singapore that when Singapore succeeds, all of us Singaporeans will succeed together with Singapore.

3. SMEs
   1. In the area of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), if you remember in 2019, NTUC had very little presence in that space. In the last 2 years, under the leadership of Yeo Wan Ling and Yeo Guat Kwang, we have made a difference.
   2. In the depths of Covid-19, because of the benefits or the value-add we bring to SMEs, more than 300 SMEs have a relationship with NTUC where now, because we can impact employers in the SMEs, they are taking better care of our workers.
   3. Thank you to the U SME team for making possible green shoot achievements that I hope we can scale in time to come with the whole network, the whole of NTUC, backing U SME to succeed.

4. SELF-EMPLOYED & FREELANCERS
   1. In the freelancer space, we have made a big difference not just in the care for our traditional partners like NTA, NPHVA, we have also made inroads to champion the delivery riders, the freelancers in the arts and visual spaces. And today we represent more than 48,000 freelancers in Singapore and I hope that under the good work of Jean and her team, we will continue to make a difference in caring about them and importantly anchoring for better work prospects for freelancers in conjunction with the different things we are doing in NTUC.

5. PMEs
   1. And lastly, in the other green shoot that we have dared to make a difference, is in the Professionals, Managers and Executives (PMEs) space. It is still a nascent presence that we have in the workforce but under the leadership of Patrick Tay, we have made good inroads.
   2. With the PME Taskforce that has been submitted to the government, we hope to be able to understand the PMEs better so that we can represent their interests, cater to their needs and embrace another segment of the workforce that eventually will become even more dominant in Singapore. And when we succeed in that, that will be a day where NTUC, in our 3 I’s and 1 D, would have succeeded in actual transformation of ourselves to represent the new working class in Singapore.
   3. You all know the statistics, today we are already at about 60% of PMETs, in a few more years it will probably go up higher, where our children all are better educated than all of us, and want to succeed at that level. All the 3 I’s and 1 D and all the work that we have done, in building a better workplace for us in this room as well as anchoring for the future for all our children. So let’s continue on these important aspects of innovation and daring to do to achieve.

So to the team led by Vivek previously and now Steve Tan in the membership team, together with all the union leaders on the ground, thank you making this milestone possible, of us going beyond 1 million, as we now aim towards 1.5 million.

In all the things that we have done I'm glad to report to all our delegate Sisters and Brothers in a very simple phrase that in the last two years, if you cannot remember all the numbers that you have seen in the video, just remember, that you have been a champion for workers through the most difficult times of our Singapore history and I thank you for your wonderful work once more.

I have not forgotten Sister Hui Fong. Sister Hui Fong is my other Deputy Secretary-General. I have four of them in the last 2, 3 years, Hui Fong has been that thread, working all the different things that you have heard that I've articulated or seen, on the ground, pulling all the resources to care at the point where it matters most, for our workers. Hui Fong and all our staff, thank you very much for the good work.

And it would be amiss for me, even though Sister Josephine Teo cannot join us today, not to mention stellar support from her role as former Manpower minister in supporting us. Thank you, Josephine, and thank you Minister Tan See Leng and the leadership team in MOM for supporting NTUC in all these endeavours and not to mention my favourite brother who has taken the role from Sister Mary. Robert Yap and the team at Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) for always putting interests of workers on par with your business interests. Each and every time I have a golf session with Robert, he would be telling me the things we can do better for our workers. Including this morning where he couldn't join us for the Wednesday morning golf, Alex Melchers through all 9 holes, kept nagging at me. Thank you for the great partnership that you have provided both from government represented today by Deputy Prime Minister, and from the employers represented by SNEF, a sincere thank you as well.

REACHING 1 MILLION MEMBERS AS A STEP TOWARDS 1.5 MILLION

Well I don't have to announce anymore that we have reached the 1 million mark that Brother Lim Swee Say set for NTUC some years back. It is a very difficult endeavour. It is also an indication of the fruit that we have when we have undergone membership innovation.

So to the team led by Vivek previously and now Steve Tan in the membership team, together with all the union leaders on the ground, thank you making this milestone possible, of us going beyond 1 million, as we now aim towards 1.5 million.

Why is this number important? It is a show of the collective strength of NTUC when we grow steadily, able to represent interests of our workers of each generation to build that strength of whole of NTUC to represent Singaporeans in the success story of Singapore.

NTUC IS STEPPING UP WITH DIGITAL INNOVATIONS TO DO MORE TO BETTER SERVE OUR MEMBERS

But, for all these achievements, let me cast our eyes a little bit further for the next two years. We cannot rest on our laurels, and as DPM said, we must build upon our successes and continue our commitment to the transformation of the 3 I’s plus 1 D that we set forth to do in the National Delegates’ Conference (NDC) 2019.

And one key area that Covid-19 disrupted us is in achieving our digital innovation. Essentially, we lost about a year. But now we are going full force into digital enabling to help us fulfil our mission and make NTUC and our leaders relevant to our employers and our workers. Why do I say this?

Through our Company Training Committees that you have heard about, we have institutionalised the structure and processes of partners, employers and HR to help businesses succeed and also at the same time, take care of workers. They have led to real transformation and training outcomes on both sides.

When I became your Sec-Gen in 2018, I often encouraged workers to go for upskilling, and workers would almost inevitably tell me “Sec-Gen, when I go for training, what is in it for me?”. Sister Atyyah, Brother Samad are realists, real hardcore unionists. “If you Sec-Gen want me to convince my workers to go upgrade, what is in it for them? Would it be better wages, or better work prospects?”

Then when I meet employers, they will also tell me, “It’s very difficult Sec-Gen, to motivate your workers to go for upgrading”.

So here I am the luncheon meat, sandwiched in between. And I have to crack my brains with my team, with Gilbert, to think about how to converge the interests of employers and workers so that we can have a win-win outcome akin to what DPM mentioned in his speech.

That ultimately to ensure the sustainable 3Ws, ultimately, I need my employer partners to succeed, to make it a sustainable ecosystem. And that’s where we came in with the Company Training Committees (CTC), with Operations & Technology Roadmapping (OTR), to lend value to company transformation. We came in with the CTCs at the onset, honestly, was for upskilling of workers. But when we put these together, we can have a win-win strategy.

And with the encouragement of what DPM has said, I will work closely with Robert Yap, to see how we can scale this CTC concept, from CTCs, perhaps to company transformation and training committees so that we can converge interests and scale and do an even stronger and more meaningful role in our economic transformation.

But in that, DPM you know that I will count on Minister Lawrence Wong’s support, from the Ministry of Finance (MOF), and I will count on Minister Tan See Leng and Minister Gan Kim Yong to give NTUC and SNEF the fullest support to succeed. In case you all did not hear, and did not record, DPM said yes, we will support you.

Today, you have witnessed the launch of the Learning eXperience Platform (LXP).

So what exactly is LXP?

1. LXP is now the additional digital enabler into the CTC ecosystem, rounding out from the initial concept to now implementing training possibilities for our workers.
   1. What is LXP to the worker? Simply put, LXP to the worker is the ability to learn anywhere, anytime on your phone.
   2. And a number of the courses are already accredited to IHLs, and we hope to be able to bring more Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) on board to make learning fun, accessible, affordable to all workers. Essentially like what DPM said, for free.
2. What is LXP to union leaders? Union leaders, LXP is that tool for you, tangible tool for you, when you go back into the workplace, to talk to our HR partners, from the CTC transformation all the way to workers’ upskilling, NTUC and you can be partners for Human Resources (HR) to make that difference to nudge workers towards learning, both individual level and company level. It will help you recruit new members into NTUC and make an even bigger difference to the company and the level of our society, even.
3. And what is LXP to Brother Robert Yap and all the different employers that are here?
   1. Our LXP in the whole of the CTC ecosystem, is essentially, especially for the SMEs, a one stop shop for you, to help you understand what is industry 4.0, to help you plug into the government in the complexities of all the government is supporting SMEs and businesses with. And at the HR level, putting the training programmes, the job redesign, the different enablers that the NTUC ecosystem can bring to you to support your business to succeed.
   2. LXP is the last mile one stop shop from OTR all the way to implementation.
   3. With that understanding of LXP, as individuals, union leaders as well as employers, I hope we will continue to be able to push frontiers in this new arm called the training and transformation group. Led previously by Koh Poh Koon and now Chee Hong Tat with Nicholas, Gilbert and others in support. It has been very, very good work. When I first drew on that envelope in 2018 with Gilbert on the CTC, even though I dreamt about CTC being a success I did not envisage that we have come this far amidst Covid, to achieving close to 800 or 750 CTCs, and bringing learning real onto our handphones so that we can serve workers even better in the digital age. So thank you to all of you in the Training & Transformation (T&T) team.
   4. Poh Koon and I worked very closely together to set this up and now that he’s in MOM, I hope that he will whisper important things into the Minister’s ears to support NTUC as well.
   5. Why do I say that? Because fundamentally I believe in creating ecosystems to succeed. Employers should have nothing at all to worry about NTUC because our primary employers succeed, we succeed. NTUC is also embarking on what I call a ‘WON’ concept. Essentially bringing our internal capabilities, our networks, our capabilities, to serve the workers’ 3Ws to the best of our abilities.
   6. Somebody added a very important point to me that I will now change my thinking as well. It is not just the whole of NTUC coming together. If we can do what we have done in the last 2 years and put it into a strategy the whole of integrated NTUC, nothing would be impossible for us to chart the purpose, chart the achievements of NTUC for the next 60 years as we have done for Singapore and our workers in the last 60 years. together with our government, together our symbiotic partner the PAP, together with SNEF, if we are able, through this ODC, if we are able to bring together the whole of integrated NTUC capabilities with NTUC FairPrice, NTUC first campus, NTUC health, and other possibilities that we are building to serve all of us, NTUC will continue to succeed, NTUC will continue to be relevant.
   7. But ultimately in all that I have reported to you, the most critical ingredient, union leaders must do our part to do the hard work, to do the heart work. In all that we do, know that it is not all about strategies and plans, know that your work on the ground makes real differences to the workers on the ground.

CONCLUSION

I have mentioned many of the quantitative achievements but let me recount quickly 3 stories to you:

SHARING OF WORK OUTCOME

Sister Ananthi from the Building Construction and Timber Industries Employees' Union (BATU), single mother, two kids, I met. With our BATU and U Care support, we helped her tremendously. The amount of money, not astronomical but when we supported her, made a huge difference as she tells me when I met her last year.

Brother Amir Bin Rosli. He is from the National Transport Workers’ Union (NTWU). He has a special needs child. Life is not easy even though he has a steady job. The care that the union brings, the care that NTUC brings makes a difference to these 2 families to not only make ends meet, but hopefully save a little bit for the extras and for their own retirement.

Jason who has worked overseas for 40 years, coming back to Singapore amidst Covid because I think he lost his job overseas. Came back, totally unfamiliar, became a member of NTUC, we helped him reskill as a security officer and he has secured a good job in the last months to be able to support his ageing mother and a young daughter.

So why am I telling you all these stories? Out of today’s ODC, we will be talking about all the different plans, all the different things we have to do. Equally important, let us always remember the core purpose of NTUC, to care for our workers and ensure, enable our workers to live the best life possible that they are capable of in Singapore.

If we are able to combine our strategy, our plans with our head, and superior planning in conjunction with government and SNEF, if we can continue to be on the ground, the ears the hands the legs that will walk alongside, then we will succeed. Because we will live up to our mantra that every worker matters, and in NTUC we will serve our members first, workers always.

With that I conclude my report to you and I wish all of you a very good ODC.

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