Prime Minister Brother Lawrence Wong, SM Brother Lee Hsien Loong, ESM Brother Goh Chock Tong, Cabinet Ministers,
President Sister Thana and fellow Central Committee Members,
SNEF President Brother Tan Hee Teck and Tripartite Partners,
Brothers and sisters,
Good morning, and Happy May Day! I am so happy to be here this morning with you to celebrate May Day.
I am doubly glad that for the first time, a Straits Times survey has listed NTUC as the top employer in Singapore! Sisters and brothers, we know we are unique. But we are unique that now we not only stand tall for workers, but we are also a choice employer in Singapore. A world first!
I must say – this May Day is a little different for me. It has been a very, very busy period to say the least. But every second of it has been worth it. Because every hour spent, every day spent, is for the larger purpose of serving fellow Singaporeans and workers of all collars!
If you are interested in a weight loss programme, come see me. For the past 45 days or so, I think I’ve been home for dinner about twice, and I’ve lost about 4kg. But it has been worth it.
This May Day, we have much to celebrate together! Our win-win tripartism; our unique Singapore strength that will carry us forward in a very troubled world; and within the Labour Movement, our innovations and breakthroughs in the past few years have achieved much to uplift our workers’ wages, welfare and work prospects across all collars.
Breakthroughs We Have Achieved
And it is possible only because, sisters and brothers, you led and you cared, and we have made needle-moving impact for our working people, regardless of whether you are a lower-wage worker, platform worker, Professional, Manager and Executive (PMEs), caregiver; or senior worker. In all these spaces, we have made a difference.
For the lower-wage workers, amidst rising cost-of-living, the Progressive Wage Model has raised wages – real wages – close to 6 per cent from 2019 to 2024.
And, to me, this is not just a number, but this is a real big change for our sisters and brothers on the ground.
Brother Hamdi is with us today. He used earn $1,000 or so, 10 years ago, as a cleaner. Today, with the Progressive Wage Model and skills upgrading, Brother Hamdi is earning $2,500 a month as a cleaning supervisor, in charge of 10 other cleaners. And together with Workfare Income Supplement, whilst life can still be challenging, Brother Hamdi is able to manage better.
Brother Hamdi, I’m glad you’re here with us today. Thank you for being on the ground as well. We will do our best to support you and fellow workers with the PWM.
And we know that there’s more to be done, but I am proud at the same time of our efforts. 155,000 lower-wage workers have been impacted by your leadership and care! Income inequality in Singapore is at a record low since 2000!
In the platform work space, we have also made significant breakthroughs. Today, our vulnerable platform workers have CPF contributions, Workplace Injury Compensation, and importantly, the right to be represented by our Platform Work Associations – NTA, NPHVA and NDCA!
And while the Government has passed the laws, NTUC and our unions have been hard at work and we have obtained official recognition from major players like CDG Zig, Grab and TADA. Well done!
In my recent house visits and walkabouts, one day, a young man came up and spoke to me in a stern voice. I recall his left arm is tattooed. And I thought to myself, oh dear, he must be unhappy with something. He asked me – are you the NTUC Ng Chee Meng? And I braced myself.
But when I said “yes, I am Ng Chee Meng”, he broke into a smile and thanked me because he said he was very grateful that NTUC stood up for delivery riders.
And over the past 40 to 45 days on the ground, so many of our brothers and sisters have extended their sincere thank you, and I want to relay this to all of you this morning.
He gave me two thumbs up! Having CPF, injury compensation and NTUC alongside has given him assurance. You have made a real difference!
We have also broken new ground to better support our Professionals, Managers and Executives (PMEs). I have heard the concerns of our PMEs, especially those in their 40s to 50s.
Together with SNEF, we launched the PME Taskforce and engaged more than 10,000 stakeholders to understand the PMEs’ concerns. At the end of that study, we called for bold measures to ensure a level playing field for our PMEs, amidst foreign competition, and for more support for those retrenched or involuntarily unemployed.
We knew that these were difficult asks. I’ll be honest – when we first surfaced these, many hesitated. But we persevered.
After long, protracted, very involved discussions, I’m glad the tripartite partners moved.
MOM set up the COMPASS system to help level the playing field. Parliament passed the Workplace Fairness Act to strengthen protection against discrimination.
And today, under the SkillsFuture Jobseeker Support scheme, our workers can get financial support of up to $6,000 over 6 months while they are looking for suitable employment.
It took frank and open discussions with Brother See Leng and Brother Hee Teck to move our jobseeker support for our workers. Brothers See Leng and Hee Teck, thank you for listening and working with us to make this happen!
We have also achieved some breakthroughs for our caregivers. During our #EveryWorkerMatters Conversations, many workers expressed concerns about caregiving. They told us very clearly that to have peace of mind, caregivers needed that little bit of flexibility and support both in the workplace and outside the workplace. We took their feedback seriously.
We moved again with our tripartite partners to address our caregivers’ concerns and rolled out Tripartite Guidelines on Flexible Work Arrangement Requests. This gives our workers, including caregivers, the right to request flexible work arrangements.
The government also expanded paternity leave and introduced 10 weeks of shared parental leave for new parents.
I hope that these changes will make a real difference for our caregivers, whether you are caring for young children, elderly family members, or both.
We have also enabled our senior workers to work longer and build up their retirement savings. By 2030, retirement and re-employment ages will increase to 65 and 70 respectively. Our seniors will have a longer runway to work if they wish to.
This is important. With longer life expectancy, having a job is one way for our senior workers to build their financial security in their golden years, contribute meaningfully, and stay active in mind and body.
The government has also raised the CPF contribution rates, returning it to the previous levels in graduated steps, for senior workers to boost their retirement savings.
Enabling Workers’ Work Prospects
Sisters and brothers, these are all the wonderful work that you have done. But beyond protection and care, we have also innovated to enable our workers to progress in their careers. This is a new capability over the last 5 years that has gained strength and traction.
With the Company Training Committees (CTCs), we are helping to power business transformation on one hand, and the other hand, workers’ progression!
To date, we have established more than 3,000 CTCs. Together with the CTC Grant, we are supporting more than 400 transformation projects to spark productivity gains. These will provide better wages and work prospects for over 7,400 workers. Many of them will see their wages increase by 5 per cent above their annual wage increment.
Our CTCs have impacted workers and companies across various industries. And it’s quite amazing. Whether you are an egg farm like Chew’s Agriculture, local shops like Dr.Bags or Munchi Pancakes, or MNCs like ST Engineering, we have made a difference to their business and their workers.
Recently, I visited a home-grown brand, Munchi Pancakes. Many of you may have enjoyed their delicious “Min Jiang Kuehs”! If you have not, go to Lau Pa Sat – there is a shop there.
Munchi Pancakes has come a long way, growing from 4 outlets to 24 outlets across Singapore. Through the CTC and CTC Grant, NTUC and FDAWU have helped Munchi Pancakes and their workers to scale their growth by embracing automation and data analytics in their business processes, and bringing the workforce along at the same time.
I recently met Sister Trixie. She is in her mid-60s. She tells me that she has a passion for baking and joined Munchi Pancakes as a part-timer in 2019. Along the way, Sister Trixie went for training to learn how to use automated inventory management and staff scheduling systems. What used to take her hours to do manually, she can now complete in minutes!
Guess what? A part-timer, today, has become a Training Manager at Munchi Pancakes adept at using tech tools at her mid-60s! And what’s more, she also received encouragement in a wage increase above her annual increment. Sister Trixie, welcome to our May Day Rally!
Through our CTCs, our unions have effectively partnered with companies like Munchi Pancakes to impact businesses and their workers.
It is not just the MNCs that benefit from the good labour management relationship with the NTUC, but SMEs, mom and pop shops as well. We will continue to scale the CTC efforts across all the different industries and impact more companies and workers, also thanks to the Government’s additional $200 million grant. Thank you, Prime Minister!
Membership
Sisters and brothers, our innovations in our Business, Membership and Training Models have been espoused and embraced since 2019 and have made significant progress. Your efforts and achievements have impacted lives.
Because of your hard work, we now have more than 1.4 million members!
We are slightly ahead of schedule, but it is not the numbers I care about. It is about the real stories and real lives that you have reached and impacted. Let us press on with all the good work so that we can achieve 1.5 million by year 2030!
Summary And Thank Yous
I am immensely proud of all that we have achieved together. We have brought about a stronger and more just society – amidst COVID, one of the toughest challenges we’ve had to face together. By coming out of it, we know that we have resilience, a steel in our back to do more.
Well done, sisters and brothers! You have stayed true to your purpose — championing and fulfilling our compact to our workers! You have delivered high performance — to make a real difference to workers’ lives! And most importantly, you’ve kept our people – our workers – at the heart of everything we do!
The slogan on our backs – #EveryWorkerMatters – is no longer just a slogan. It is our purpose and endeavour to do. Keep it up!
Thank you for the many years of putting our heads, hearts and hands together to champion our workers’ interests.
To all my NTUC staff who have worked tirelessly behind the scenes – thank you for the hard work. Well done, all of you!
To union leaders, likewise, thank you for the countless hours of walking the ground and championed our workers’ interests!
To our tripartite partners – SNEF President, to our Government partners, Minister for Manpower Tan See Leng, and to our symbiotic partner – comrades in the PAP, thank you all for championing workers’ interests in Singapore! Thank you for your trust and partnership in my time as Secretary-General.
Breakthroughs We Must Work Towards
But sisters and brothers, even as we celebrate, there are dark clouds overhead.
As I was coming to Downtown East this morning, on BBC, I already heard that the US is entering a potential recession. The US tariffs have caused much anxiety and volatility. The rules-based world order – in trade, in security – is fraying.
Our economy will be impacted. Our 2025 growth forecast has already been revised downwards to 0 to 2%. Trade volumes will likely drop.
What does this mean, therefore, to our workers? Our businesses, jobs and workers will be hit. It will no longer be a distant reality. Unemployment rates have already crept up in the first quarter of 2025. Some of you have already told me in your surveillance that companies are planning to freeze hiring and freeze wages.
What does it mean for our workers? Our youths coming into the workforce will be concerned about job availability – whether there will be enough jobs when they graduate to be absorbed into the workforce. Our workers, including PMEs, are concerned about their job security. And more workers are likely, in the time ahead, to experience potential job transitions. Moving away from industries may not be viable in time to come with all the shifts in the global set up of trade, logistics, and so forth.
At NTUC, we will do our best to support the efforts of the Singapore Economic Resilience Taskforce. We will work closely with tripartite partners, to advance our workers’ interests and enable them to seize new opportunities in a changed world.
NTUC will also stand alongside our workers in the road ahead. Given our strength in NTUC with an innovative culture, we will innovate and strengthen our Jobs Security Council.
During COVID-19, we launched a pilot called the Jobs Security Council, and within a few months, we had to put the JSC into full-fledged operations, in helping displaced workers in aviation industry and other sectors quickly pivot into other jobs. Since then, we’ve placed over 110,000 workers.
Now, given the outlook and support of the taskforce, we want to refresh the Jobs Security Council – to create a JSC version 2.0 – as good jobs are the best security for our workers. We have already set up a Job Security Directorate to coordinate and drive the efforts of this refreshed Jobs Security Council.
Through JSC 2.0, we will push for more business transformation and workforce training through our CTCs; deepen efforts to help workers future-proof their careers through upskilling, career guidance and mentorship; and importantly, enhance our ability to match workers into good jobs with stronger hiring networks; and AI-powered tools like our Virtual Career Coach.
With these tools, workers will have the ability to identify their unique goals, their circumstances, chart training pathways and job opportunities to match into good jobs. We will also use these AI tools to help them enhance their resumes and prepare for interviews!
In tandem, we will scale the capabilities of our CTCs to leverage closer collaborations with tripartite partners, and other organisations like IHRP.
At the same time, we will form Cluster Training Committees to drive transformation at the industry level. What does this mean?
It means that we are partnering Queen Bees, like ST Engineering, to catalyse industry-wide change and uplift workers across the value chain. As I said, earlier this year, we formed our first Cluster CTC with ST Engineering Land Systems and SkillsFuture Singapore. The partnership is expected to upskill at least 1,000 workers across 40 SMEs within ST Engineering’s supplier network.
Now, we are working with SkillsFuture Singapore and Queen Bees, hopefully, to form more clusters across different industries so that more workers can benefit. Cast our imagination forward – 1 Queen Bee, 1,000 workers. 20 Queen Bees, 20,000 workers. That is the vision we must embrace to bring our CTC vision forward so that we can use innovative ideas to earn a better keep together with our business partners.
Conclusion
Sisters and brothers, in conclusion, you know that we have come a long way together. We have battled the dark days of COVID-19 together. We have gone through thick and thin together.
In the most uncertain world, let us continue to be strong, to fight – for the good of our workers, our economy and Singapore.
Let us re-double our efforts to deliver on our Workers’ Compact for our youths, PMEs, caregivers, senior workers, and vulnerable workers! Because Every Worker Matters! Because YOU Matter!
In my NTUC journey, I have learnt what it means to persevere on. In 2020, I felt that I had let all of you down. Dealing with that setback, in turn, has been humbling. But it has also taught me many good lessons. I have learnt more deeply that failing does NOT equate to failure. It is not our losses that define us. It is how we continue to press on and do our utmost that counts. And with your support, I’m glad I’ve done so.
So, sisters and Brothers, this May Day, let’s rally and unite for what matters! For better lives and livelihoods of our workers; for a brighter future for our children; and for a stronger Singapore.
Are you with me?
Let us “Dream, Dare, Do and Deliver” for our workers and Singapore!
Majulah NTUC! Majulah PAP! Majulah Singapura!
Thank you!
