NTUC will continue to champion the interest of its members and workers to ensure that the Labour Movement remains relevant to their needs, even as Singapore navigates its way through the changing economic and labour landscape.
NTUC released its Secretary-General’s Report on 16 November 2021, a day before NTUC held its Ordinary Delegates’ Conference 2021 (ODC 2021).
Since its National Delegates’ Conference (NDC) 2019, NTUC has focussed on three key areas of innovation, namely, innovating its business model to further champion and protect the interests of even more worker groups; innovating its membership model to better serve members through their various life stages; and innovating its training model to further improve workers’ employment and employability.
NTUC will hold its ODC on 17 November 2021 at Resorts World Sentosa. The conference will see union delegates from NTUC’s affiliated unions and associations review the progress made in the last two years since NDC 2019, to determine what more needs to be done for members and workers before the next NDC in 2023.
“As demands and expectations of our economy and society keep evolving, NTUC must continue to embrace innovation and digitalisation; expand our advocacy to wider groups of workers; and strive to meet our members and workers’ changing needs,” said NTUC Secretary-General Ng Chee Meng.
Recognising the rise in alternative work arrangements, freelancers and self-employed persons (SEPs), NTUC innovated its business model to build stronger relationships with these worker groups.
With a better understanding of these workers’ expectations, NTUC says it has been better able to represent and champion these workers’ interests and rights in areas like career progression, job security, wage negotiations and workplace matters.
This innovation has helped NTUC engage over 250,000 PMEs in 70 professional associations through its U Associate efforts, as well as onboard over 14,000 members from some 371 SMEs in the last two years.
To further strengthen its membership value proposition to provide relevant privileges and benefits, NTUC embarked on new membership programmes across various platforms.
It expanding into areas such as the new Family Membership, Social Enterprise Membership(s), and a membership for migrant workers.
With these initiatives, NTUC expanded its membership base to include more PMEs, freelancers and SEPs, SME workers, migrant workers and domestic migrant workers.
In June 2021, NTUC’s membership surpassed the 1 million mark, hitting the record of 1,075,958 members.
NTUC had previously set a target of achieving 1.5 million members by 2030.
By innovating its training model, NTUC was able to provide its members and workers with more training and employment opportunities.
With the support of its unions and workforce groups, NTUC developed training and transformation partnerships with companies to help workers improve their employment and employability, while simultaneously benefiting their employers.
Company Training Committees (CTCs) were formed with over 700 companies to support workers in achieving better work prospects through upskilling, with some 115 companies embarking on Operation & Technology Roadmaps (OTR) with NTUC to transform their workforce for the long run through training and business strategies.
In a test of the collective strength of NTUC and its unions, associations, social enterprises and related organisations, Mr Ng shared that this came to the fore when the Labour Movement had to quickly respond to the challenges which arose from the pandemic.
He said: “When COVID-19 struck, NTUC helped many members and workers preserve their jobs and livelihoods. And for those who lost their jobs, we were there to care and support them. And now in economic recovery, we will be there alongside to upskill [workers’] personal skills so that they can hopefully enjoy better work prospects in the new economy.
“I encourage workers, including PMEs, to join us so that we can make a difference together.”
