NTUC going all out to attract more PMEs to unions

THE National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) is making a big push to speak up for more professionals, managers and executives (PMEs) in Singapore, a group that the labour movement says is under-represented as far as union membership is concerned.

A PME taskforce set up last October by the NTUC and the Singapore National Employers Federation has already reached out to some 8,000 PMEs, who have indicated that their main concerns are job security and a lack of employment opportunities.

Speaking to the media on Thursday, labour chief Ng Chee Meng said these concerns seem "more dire" for the mature PMEs - those aged 40 and above - as they cite their advanced age as the key reason or main disadvantage for their current plight.

Although PMEs currently form the majority - about six in 10 - of Singapore's workforce, only about 10 to 15 per cent of them are union members.

Based on a Milieu survey conducted in March this year involving 1,000 PMEs (75 per cent of whom were non-union members), 88 per cent of them said they perceived the role of trade unions as being important or becoming more important.

Nearly nine in 10 said they wanted an organisation to speak up for them and the problems they faced. However, some 58 per cent were not familiar with what NTUC did; 43.2 per cent did not think they were able to or were unsure if they could join unions.

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Mr Ng said one way in which the labour movement could help PMEs is to have the unions work closer with human-resource practitioners to improve HR standards, to ensure fair employment and greater job security. One way is to earmark certain jobs or jobs in selected sectors to secure more employment opportunities for mature PMEs.

"We can even explore ways to provide a safety net in some form of a transitionary support for those who are involuntarily unemployed as the sudden loss of jobs seem to impact mature PMEs more, and as they found it harder and took longer to find employment," he said.