Since she joined the National Library Board (NLB) in 2005, Senior Library Officer Tay Pei Lin has had three children, currently aged three, five and six.
While most working parents in Pei Lin’s position would have their hands full, Pei Lin decided to step up to do something more for others like her.
Voice of Working Parents
Pei Lin embraced the role when she was nominated to be a branch official by her immediate supervisor in 2008. As one of nine branch officials under NLB, Pei Lin attends regular meetings with them to discuss staff welfare and plan union activities.
What started out as an extracurricular activity became her passion over the years.
“I can see the work that I do being appreciated and helpful to other people. I can be the voice that brings up the difficulties that staff face at the workplace. It is also a way for the management to see how they can help the staff and for me to understand the management’s challenges. I can bring them together and strike a balance,” said the 36-year-old.
Later, with the support of the branch committee, she was elected as the assistant general secretary of Amalgamated Union of Statutory Board Employees (AUSBE) in 2012.
Since then, she has regularly negotiated better benefits for NLB staff with her management.
For example, after gaining feedback from the ground that those on shift work are unable to enjoy Eat-With-Your-Family Day where staff gets dismissed earlier for family dinners, Pei Lin requested the management to allow staff a few days to claim it. She also negotiated for the option of half-day childcare leave, so that employees can utilise their leave only when the need arises.
Once a month, she also meets representatives from the 12 statutory boards under AUSBE to exchange best practices.
Recognised for her contributions, she moved up to the role of deputy general secretary in AUSBE’s executive committee in 2016.
One of her recent projects involved building a digital resource kit together with NTUC’s U Family. The kit, which seeks to encourage family bonding, contained printable coupons that suggest how parents can reward their children in meaningful ways. It was distributed to companies and schools.
Juggling Work and Family
Like many mothers, Pei Lin was initially apprehensive about her work schedule when she took maternity leave to have her three children. Luckily for her, 60 per cent of the colleagues in her department are females, who can relate to the challenges she faced.
Pei Lin shared: “We worked together to tackle some of the workload distribution. For example, I would take care of logistics planning and administration work before an event that will happen during my maternity leave. They will then take over the actual execution during my absence.”
Speaking about the common challenges faced by working parents, Pei Lin brought up the importance of flexible working hours.
As childcare centres have strict pick-up timings, mothers who are unable to knock off work early or find a slot for their child in nearby districts often feel discouraged to return the workforce after their maternity leave. Thankfully for Pei Lin, she has the support of her in-laws whom she lives with to take care of her children while she is at work.
She encouraged employers to talk to their employees to understand their needs and scope out their workload or role accordingly. For example, a frontline service staff may wish to do supervisory or administrative work instead, so that he or she will be able to send and fetch the child from childcare centre.
Personally, Pei Lin makes it a point to complete the needful in the office and not to bring work home to set a good example for her children and reinforce the importance of dedicated family time.
“I would describe myself as an adaptive parent. My three kids have very different characters so I have to handle them differently. I also try to have constant communication with the teachers, so I know what they need to improve on, and can draw relations to what they have learned in school in my daily interactions with the kids,” she said.
Pro-Family Employer
According to Pei Lin, NLB has been very receptive to the union’s feedback on giving better support to working parents and has several existing policies that are pro-family.
Mothers can choose to take three months of maternity leave and use the remaining one month flexibly before their babies turn one. For unutilised annual leave, staff can bring over up to a year's worth to the next calendar year.
This flexibility allows mothers to use their maternity leave to attend ad-hoc appointments such as vaccinations and medical check-ups for their newborns.
NLB also encourages staff to start a family by providing incremental childcare leave, starting from six days for one child to 10 days for two children, and 15 days for three children and above.
Various staff engagement events such as "Back to School with Mum & Dad" and "Bring Your Kids to Work" days are organised on a regular basis for family bonding.
Some NLB branches such as the ones at the National Library and Tampines Regional Library are also equipped with a lactation room for staff and members of the public.
