Introduction
The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) has actively championed the interests of workers who are also parents and caregivers for over three decades, calling for various forms of support to build an ecosystem of care, which will aid them in balancing their professional and personal responsibilities. NTUC’s calls align with findings from a poll it conducted, which revealed that caregiving is at the top of workers’ minds1. Here is a lookback at the calls made by NTUC.
Shared Parenting Responsibilities
Since 2012, NTUC has been calling for more support for working parents, including those with young children. These include calls for paid maternity and paternity leaves, as well as a higher uptake of paternity leave amongst fathers. Particularly, NTUC has consistently called for support which encourages mothers and fathers to share parenting responsibilities, which are traditionally borne by women2.
Before paid paternity leave was a national requirement, NTUC called for the Government to provide two weeks of paid paternity leave, over and above the 16 weeks of paid maternity leave, that may be used flexibly and shared with the mother in the baby’s first year3. A year later, the Government legislated one week of government-paid paternity leave and one week of government-paid shared parental leave, allowing eligible fathers to share one week of a working mother’s paid maternity leave entitlement for up to two weeks of leave in total.
NTUC continued to advocate for shared parenting, with Assistant Secretary-General Desmond Choo noting that fathers require more aid to play an active role in parenting while pursuing career ambitions4. The Government responded to this call by increasing the number of government-paid shared parental leave weeks from one week to four weeks (still out of the mother’s paid maternity leave entitlement), and government-paid paternity leave to two weeks.
Assistant Secretary-General and Director of NTUC’s U Women and Family (U WAF) Yeo Wan Ling further highlighted the importance of evening out the weight of parenting between couples, calling for the Government to give parents full flexibility in deciding how to share their maternity and paternity leave5. She added that the flexible redistribution of the total maternity and paternity leave entitlement pie “does not create additional burden to employers who are facing manpower shortages, and yet, places choice and full control in the hands of parents”.
Working caregivers often require flexibility in their schedules to balance responsibilities at home and in the workplace. Some turn to gig work to ensure they can make ends meet and attend to caregiving responsibilities at the same time. Noting that most self-employed persons work more than the office worker’s usual five-day work week, Director of NTUC’s Freelancers and Self-Employed unit (U FSE) Jean See called for the Government to adjust the calculation of government-paid paternity leave from 24 days to 28 days6. She highlighted that calculating government-paid paternity leave using a weekly index of seven days, instead of the current six days, would alleviate financial strains and allow self-employed fathers to “whole-heartedly embrace his duties as a supportive spouse and father to a newborn”.
Flexible Work Arrangements
Flexible Work Arrangements (FWAs) is another viable option for working caregivers, including both fathers and mothers, to better manage their work and caregiving needs. In a 2023 NTUC survey of 1,000 workers with caregiving responsibilities in the labour force, 85% of respondents selected FWAs as their most preferred form of support7. As early as the 1990s, NTUC has consistently advocated for Flexible Work Arrangements (FWAs) to allow working caregivers to continue providing care to family members while fulfilling their career aspirations.
Additionally, providing FWAs would allow companies greater access to a wider pool of talent and can better retain staff with caregiving responsibilities who may otherwise leave their jobs or drop out of the workforce.
More recently, NTUC published a Briefing Paper on FWAs in Singapore8, sharing best practices and learnings from unionised companies and partners who have successfully implemented FWAs. NTUC also played an instrumental role as part of the Tripartite Workgroup to develop the Tripartite Guidelines on Flexible Work Arrangement Requests (TG-FWAR), which will come into effect on 1 December 2024. The TG-FWAR mandates employers to consider formal FWA requests from their employees fairly and properly, providing an avenue for employees with less progressive employers to have their FWA requests given due consideration.
NTUC will continue to advocate for FWAs through its programmes and initiatives. One such initiative is U WAF’s Better Workplace campaign, which aims to recognise and showcase progressive employers who show commitment to creating better workplaces by implementing FWAs, Work-Life Harmony practices, and policies to manage workplace harassment. U WAF’s C U Back @ Work! (CUB) programme has also successfully attracted women back to the workforce by providing women returners access to flexible training and work arrangements, so that they can balance work and caregiving.
An Ecosystem of Support for Caregivers
Beyond calling for shared parenting responsibilities and FWAs, NTUC recognises that the needs of caregivers are unique and that there is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to supporting them. To meet the needs of more caregivers, NTUC’s focus is also on advocating for and developing an ecosystem of care and support.
Recognising that many Singaporean families engage migrant domestic workers (MDWs) to reduce the load of caregiving and that MDWs have become an important part of Singapore’s caregiving ecosystem, U WAF organised regular events with the Centre for Domestic Employees to encourage families to build trust and healthy relationships with their MDWs. These events encourage healthy interactions employer-employee interactions and enable MDWs to receive the social, mental, and emotional support they require to assimilate and adapt to a new environment, so that they can fulfil their caregiving responsibilities.
U WAF also partners with other women worker groups to empower and uplift women through their Women Supporting Women Mentorship Programme. Apart from mentorship, the programme offers resources to support individuals looking to return to work, as well as those seeking to juggle caregiving responsibilities and work obligations.
On top of these initiatives, NTUC has also called for more employers to provide family support schemes and facilities to all employees who have dependents who require their care. In 2021, NTUC co-developed the Tripartite Standard on Work-Life Harmony (TS-WLH) in response to recommendations by the Citizens’ Panel on Work-Life Harmony. The TS-WLH is a set of recommended employment practices that recognises the varying priorities of employees at different stages of their lives and supports them in effectively managing work and personal responsibilities.
NTUC’s enterprises, such as NTUC Health and NTUC First Campus will also continue to play a direct role in supporting workers by providing more options for eldercare and childcare services.
As the needs of society and working caregivers evolve, NTUC will continue to champion their interests and develop an ecosystem of support that enables them to thrive in the workplace and at home.
