On the Right Track

Public transport operator, SMRT, introduced the new ‘SMRT Trains Career Scheme’ for staff in its Trains group in an event attended by NTUC Secretary-General, Lim Swee Say, senior SMRT staff, and National Transport Workers’ Union (NTWU) leaders. The scheme, which will benefit 4,000 workers, is the result of six months of discussions with the NTWU. 

Adopting the Labour Movement’s Progressive Wage Model concept, the scheme has four key thrusts:

• Clearer career ladder so employees can better understand their route of advancement.


• Deeper specialisation and stronger focus on competency-based training to improve the capabilities of the employees, enabling them to operate the rail system at a high level of reliability.


• New Specialist track offers better and more career progression opportunities to the employees to become subject matter experts and mentors.


• Additional tiers of Supervisory grades to serve as progression pathways which eventually point promising supervisory staff to managerial roles. Non-graduate staff who acquire the right competencies and skill sets through SMRT’s structured training programmes can be promoted to be executives and managers.

In November 2013, SMRT launched a similar progressive career scheme for its bus captains. The two schemes will now benefit some 6,000 employees.

“I am glad to see that SMRT is one of the pioneers in Singapore to truly embrace the Progressive Wage Model for the benefit of the workers. With both bus and train workers with SMRT benefitting from the new schemes, we hope they will become Better Workers through enhanced career pathways coupled with productivity, skills and wage improvement,” said SG Lim.

Original article written by Florina Oo, and can be found in NTUC This Week (13 July 2014)