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Brother Ismail Gafoor, my fellow union Brothers and Sisters, friends, I'm delighted to join you this afternoon at your special event.
You know, Brother Ismail says that this is a serious occasion, and he is going to read off the script; while on the other hand, where it is most important, I go off the cuff. So I'm so happy hearing the last part of your pledge; and it gives me great joy, as a Singaporean, as a political leader or a former minister, to know how unique our employer-employee relationships are in Singapore. For 60 plus years now, NTUC has been a partner with responsible employers to create this environment. And it makes my hair stand up just now, to hear employer championing the causes of workers.
Yes, you are not exactly a worker, you're a self-employed person. But in this space that is growing in Singapore, NTUC is taking active steps to come into this realm to represent self-employed persons like all of you, here and online. This is important because in Singapore, we have about 200,000 self-employed persons and we think that this will continue to grow, given the new economy and the new digital possibilities that are going to define the future economy.
NTUC actually looked into this some six, seven years ago. We set up our own U FSE (Freelancers and Self-Employed persons) basically an arm of NTUC to look into specific areas of SEPs like yourselves. This is important because, you may or may not know, the Employment Act that we have in Singapore does not cover freelancers like you. As I speak, one of my teams is working to see where we can go back into Parliament with our Labour Members of Parliament to put in the necessary thinking and legislation to ensure that you can be protected by NTUC; you can enjoy the privileges that your boss just sold for NTUC; the progression; and the placement that is going to be critical for you to maintain your employability and your expertise as salespersons, as agents in the property sector. This is what we call the four Ps.
So very important, I'm glad that we are able to start this Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) – with this MOU to represent 10,000 of our salespersons in the sector. And what essentially it will provide you is what I would say – fair employment contracts and all the full suite of NTUC privileges that your boss and I have just mentioned, at less than $10 a month. In fact, our pricing is $9 per month as a member. And with the generosity of your management, it will be reduced to maybe about $6 or so, or even less.
So you will have the full suite of possibilities, including importantly, what we call a company training committee setup. This Company Training Committee essentially is for all the workers to partner your human resource (HR) to put in the necessary learning in different areas for your own progression over time. So simply put, this is a momentous occasion for all of you online. If you sign up to this, you will be able to enjoy all the different categories of privileges that I've mentioned to you.
As Brother Ismail mentioned, we also understand that there are pain points in your industry as it undergoes different evolution and ways to do business. One of the key things this chapter that we will set up, together with PropNex, in Singapore Industrial & Services Employees’ Union (SISEU) is to ensure that you have fair employment opportunities and where possible, settle all the upfront issues through proper contracting and planning so that all the different issues can be resolved upfront with clear transparency and understanding. But following any issues that may come up, well, this committee will also be one of those that can help to resolve disputes and issues before it escalates further. NTUC will also be able to represent you in what we have what we call the TADM, Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management, in the event that things cannot be resolved.
So in simple terms, NTUC will be alongside all of you in this Chapter. And, again, I say this with all sincerity, thank you to the management partners that are coming forward with SISEU to anchor the interests of your agents. And in Singapore, we take a collaborative approach between employers and the union so that we can create the biggest win-win, possibilities for all of us, including the Government. The only strategy that can work well in Singapore is to create a tripartite environment where you, as agents, can make a good living and score a win for yourself and your family.
For this to be sustainable, unlike other unions around the world, we want to be value-creating partners of employers so that employers can win, and we can sustain this success for both parties. And if you aggregate this level of relationship across the whole economy, Singapore wins as well, across all the different industries, different sectors; and we as Singaporeans can create the best environment for ourselves, for our children, and for the future generations. This is essentially our unique tripartite approach towards labour-management relations.
Beyond the privileges that Brother Ismail has mentioned, a Company Training Committee will also be formed in PropNex. What this means is that, in addition to the normal exposure of training possibilities that you may have, this Company Training Committee can tap on the best practices across NTUC, across different industries to put in the learning programmes for you.
In fact, we have our own NTUC LearningHub – a learning provider that will help you if you're interested to seek out courses that may be relevant to your field of work. There can be adaptive courses for you to open up the mind and create new mindsets so that you can grow as a person in a general way. In your specific area as salespersons, what are the technical courses that can help you? Like what Ismail said, add value to your customer; how can you nudge; how can you persuade; how can you negotiate. These are what we call technical skills that may be relevant to you in your field.
And when I go into some of your websites, I see that technology is becoming more and more involved in the introduction of properties.
When I was much younger, when I was buying my place, you know, we just open up the Straits Times, call somebody and then arrange for appointments to go to the place to see right?
Over the last 30 years, I've seen the evolution – the value creation; where property salesmen like you embrace technology; the introduction of the full suite of possibilities; including flying drones over different places to show the value of a property. All these are things that can and will add value to your work as a salesperson.
So NTUC, together with PropNex, will set up a Company Training Committee to serve you in these areas.
Just think of it as this way. Singapore is into learning. But if you step out into the night, you have a night sky full of beautiful stars. But where do you go? Take it that the Company Training Committee can be that telescope for you to zoom in on specific areas that can be relevant to you. The Chapter, SISEU and NTUC, can partner you to scope it down even more and over a period of time, for you to attend different courses. This is really one of the pet projects I have since I became NTUC Secretary-General, to not just look at your immediate privileges like NTUC FairPrice, NTUC income; but importantly, helping you to scope your own learning management system that you can embark on, always pushing yourself to upskill and increase your employability over time.
And to do that, let me give you the mathematics once more since you are pretty good at mathematics. $9 we charge you, 13 months, $117 a year. If you have listened to your CEO, in UTAP alone, if you're above 40 years old, we give you $500 a year to upskill. $500 minus $117 sounds like a good deal, right? Yeah, pretty good deal. So if you're not convinced, then maybe you should consider taking up a course on mathematics and value creation (smile).
Well, I don't think you need to be that much persuaded. NTUC, like the pledge you made which I think your boss copied our tee-shirt – if you can see my tee-shirt (removed jacket, turnaround to show back of the tee-shirt) I don’t know whether you can see. Can you see the words? Every Worker Matters.
And we will always be Members First, Workers Always in all that we do with you in PropNex. Let us come into this relationship with trust, with transparency and importantly, to anchor win-win possibilities for both ourselves as workers; and importantly, for your company, so that we can have an ecosystem of success and take care of each other in a virtuous and sustainable way.
I look forward to other agencies coming on board with these good practices. And I congratulate SISEU and PropNex on embarking on this important journey together.
Thank you very much.
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