Amidst a dynamic economic landscape with a changing demographic marked by different segments of workers each with increasingly varied needs, “the Labour Movement (LM) must move out of its comfort zone in order to continue being relevant to all workers in Singapore,” said NTUC Secretary-General (SG) Chan Chun Sing in his press briefing to journalists on 28 April 2016, ahead of the May Day Rally on 1 May 2016.
Describing the ‘Unusual’ Labour Movement, SG Chan highlighted how NTUC will be focused on addressing the evolving needs of the workforce with an expanded suite of services that’s supported by a growing network of resources and partners that will be accessible to members.
“The LM has to keep expanding its services and its network in order to truly be a Labour Movement that Singapore and Singaporeans can be proud of. All this must translate into skills for the workers, so that they can command better salaries to take care of their families,” said SG Chan.
Evolving Needs
SG Chan described how the worker segments in Singapore have evolved beyond just rank and file workers to now include professionals, managers and executives (PMEs), freelancers, mature workers, young workers, with some on part-time work and others on full-time arrangements.
“Specifically, they are looking for career development opportunities, training programmes, opportunities to network and opportunities to work beyond Singapore where they can be globally competitive,” he added.
Expanding Services
While reiterating the important role unions play in fighting for and taking care of workers, especially those in need of support, SG Chan also underscored the importance of expanding the LM’s suite of services.
“The model of protection and privileges for our workers are still core staple businesses. But the LM has to expand to provide training and development opportunities for the entire workforce so as to uplift an entire generation of people,” he said.
One of the ways to do so is to work with NTUC’s tripartite partners to develop a stronger system of career counselling.
“Not just in the traditional sense,” explained SG Chan, “but to be able to fit people not just into current jobs, but in emerging jobs as well.”
SG Chan revealed that NTUC is co-developing a network of auxiliary career coaches together with the Singapore Workforce Development Agency and NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute).
“These are people who are still in the industry, working in the jobs of today, or tomorrow, who can provide advice to people looking for jobs—both students and mid-career individuals. We think that this is much more effective,” he said.
Additionally, the LM is also looking into making a series of programmes that can be readily available to all workers, so that they can pick up new skills that can speed up the process from course to market.
Growing Networks
As a means to reach out to and engage with a greater number of workers, SG Chan shared that NTUC will be working with professional associations and guilds through its U Associate programme.
“Complementing the unions will be two to three other parts that will grow in significance. One of this is the U Associate programme. Through our 31 U Associates, we’ve been able to reach out to 200,000 additional PMEs who are not already on our unions' list,” he shared.
NTUC will also continue to engage with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through the U SME programme, in addition to large multinational corporations (MNCs).
“We now partner the SME bosses and work with them. We now have more than 3,000 SMEs in our network benefitting more than 70,000 workers in the network and this will keep growing,” highlighted SG Chan.
Another focus lies in expanding the LM’s scope of protection to include workers such as freelancers and contract workers. Protection of their legal rights and financial counselling were identified as relevant services for them.
The eventual goal, according to SG Chan, is to create greater value for NTUC’s members, and at the same time, allow the unions, associates and partners to grow together with the Labour Movement.
To read SG Chan Chun Sing's blogpost on the Unusual Labour Movement, click here.
To read NTUC's May Day Message, click here.
