Model ID: 2e26c0c3-7451-467f-9148-4b1736ed2e30
Sitecore Context Id: 2e26c0c3-7451-467f-9148-4b1736ed2e30;
During May Day this year, the Labour Movement shared its plans to move in tandem with the changing needs of the workforce by growing their network of affiliated unions and associations, U Associates (professional guilds and associations), U SME partners (SME bosses and HR personnel) and U FSE partners (freelancers and self-employed), and expanding their suite of services to better prepare our working people for the future. This unusual approach stems from the need to grow the interconnectivity of the Labour Movement network so as to better help our working people.
Building on this, our Unusual Labour Movement’s National Day Observance Ceremony 2016 (NDOC) is a unique one. For the first time, we celebrated Singapore’s 51st birthday with some 2,000 participants from the abovementioned partners of our Unusual Labour Movement and tripartite partners. At the NDOC, there were 24 booths comprising partners from our unions and associations, U Associates, U SMEs, U FSEs, National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) Social Enterprises, NTUC’s e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) as well as NTUC Membership network partners like U Creative, U Startup, U Future Leaders, U HR Leaders and U PME. Participants were treated to 120 minutes of interesting experiential activities, ranging from experiencing virtual reality through VR glasses, to on-site career profiling services and a sampling of various ready-to-eat food items. Please refer to Annex A for the full list of booth partners and their respective experiential activities.
NDOC is a platform to engage our Labour Movement partners – we want to continue our efforts in strengthening and broadening our network; expanding the Care, Fair, Grow and other services of the Labour Movement; and encourage partnerships that would benefit both working people and businesses.
Some aspects of the Care services include building a positive work environment, strengthening tripartism, raising productivity and meeting the needs of the people through NTUC Social Enterprises. Through advocacy, establishing Collective Agreements and helping with dispute resolutions, the Labour Movement will continue to ensure that workplace practices are Fair for our working people. We also want to grow with our working people by helping them to progress in their career. To do so, the Labour Movement is strengthening the core leadership, working with training partners to build future-ready skills in our working people and expanding our network to enable even more working people and partners to benefit from it.
Below are some examples of our initial efforts in help working people through leveraging the strength of our Unusual Labour Movement network:
a. The Chemical Industries Employees’ Union (CIEU), one of NTUC’s affiliated union, partnered with the Singapore Institution of Safety Officers (SISO), one of the U Associates, to equip CIEU members with workplace safety knowledge. In particular, how to identify and prevent potential hazards in the chemical industry. In the pipeline, SISO is also planning to work with other unions and U SME partners to further develop and strengthen workers’ workplace safety knowledge.
b. The Institution of Engineers Singapore (IES), a U Associate, has worked with the United Workers of Electronics & Electrical Industries (UWEEI) and Building Construction And Timber Industries Employees’ Union (BATU), both NTUC-affiliated unions, to develop a three-tier engineering progression pathway for engineers. By equipping them with the necessary leadership skills, technical skillsets and management knowledge, the initiative aims to nurture engineering talents into future leaders. The first-tier, the Young Engineers Leadership Programme, was launched in 2014 and has successfully reached out to over 300 young engineers. The second-tier, the Advanced Engineers Leadership Programme, was launched in 2016 and the inaugural intake comprised 24 senior engineers across different sectors.
c. U SME collaborated with the U Associates to provide workshops that would value-add to their small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). One of the strategic collaborations is between the SME dormitory operators and the Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore (SEAS), a U Associate. As the operations cost constitutes a sizeable portion of the overheads in the business, dormitory operators learnt how to effectively manage their energy output so as to reduce their expenditure. This would have a direct impact on their profit margins.
Moving ahead, our Unusual Labour Movement will continue to expand our service offerings and deepen our network’s interconnectivity to better serve the evolving needs of all working people. By doing so, we can then work together and even closer with employers and the Government to help companies and working people be future-ready and collectively, uplift Singapore’s economy.
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