Mr Lee Hoong Leong, President (Singapore Operations) UTAC
Mr Lam Pin Woon, CEO, Health Promotion Board
Mr Cyrille Tan, General Secretary, UWEEI & Parents & Children
Objectives
The NTUC Women’s Development Secretariat started the Little Ones @ Work or LO@W in December 2008. The objective of this programme is to help children understand better the kind of work that their parents do and what better way than to bring them to the workplace so that they could see this first hand for themselves. In our view, this certainly helps to promote family bonding and strengthen families as many parents spend a large amount of their waking hours at work
Of equal importance, is the need to create awareness among companies on the different roles that workers perform as they are not just employees but are also parents and have family responsibilities. Often, in the hustle and bustle of meeting bottom lines and datelines, we tend to forget this. Increasingly, I hear employees lamenting that it is not the pay that is their main concern with a company’s policy but of greater importance to them is the need for stronger support and understanding of their care giving responsibilities. We all know that a happy person is also a productive employee who will give off his or her best to the organisation.
40 companies involving 1,800 children benefitted from LO@W in 2009
Hence, the LO@W is intended to supplement the other programmes that we have initiated in order to promote work life balance at the workplace. Time and again we have seen surveys expressing the need for effective worklife integration programmes and I am therefore happy that this year alone a total of 40 companies had worked with the NTUC WDS to implement the LO@W benefitting 1,800 children and their parents.
First time collaboration with HPB to incorporate healthy lifestyle into LO@W
This year, we are introducing an important refinement to our LO@W programme. For the first time, the NTUC WDS will be collaborating with the Health Promotion Board, to incorporate a workshop for parents and their children into this programme. As healthy eating and regular physical exercises are important elements of healthy living, it is important to encourage children to adopt such positive habits from young. This workshop therefore equips parents with the knowledge and skills to help their children eat healthily and lead an active lifestyle. There will be a presentation, food preparation demonstration and various hands on activities. Many studies have shown that healthier workers result in lower absenteeism rates at the workplace and higher productivity. Likewise, workers with healthier children would be better able to focus on their jobs thus boosting productivity. I want to thank HPB for partnering with us on this initiative.
Thanks to UTAC and UWEEI
Finally, on behalf of the NTUC WDS, let me thank UTAC for their support of the LO@W. UTAC’s support is meaningful and important as we want to encourage more manufacturing companies to take part in this programme. There will be about 60 UTAC staff and their children participating in this day long programme. UTAC is one of the 16 companies involving 500 children who have taken part in this LO@W December school holidays programme.
Our thanks also to UWEEI which has greatly assisted in getting their companies to participate in our WDS programmes. UTAC is one example where we work with our affiliated unions in order to promote work life integration programmes at the company level.
Conclusion
This year, we have managed to reach out to 40 companies under this programme. Moving forward, in 2010, we intend to reach out to at least another 150 companies. We hope that over time, LO@W will help to raise awareness about the importance of work life integration so that it is possible for all working men and women to be both good workers as well as good parents. This is an important balance that we seek not just for the well being of individuals but, of greater importance, it is also a vital balance for the well being of our society and a key element in ensuring a sustainable economy and enterprises.
