Ministry of Manpower (MOM)
Ascertaining of labor management relationships is quite a complicated aspect because it involves the looking at the human characteristics and elements (Fashoyin, Geneva). The labor management relationships involve the interactions between management and labor that is, employers and employees. Labor and management are terms that are used in EC law and refers to interactions between workers and employers. Another similar word that can be used in this context is social partnership. Based on expositing, labor management brings about confliction and cooperation, and above all, the dealings of employees and employers (Tan, 1995). Nowadays, in many industries and probably all, negotiations rights between trade unions and employers determines the wages and conditions of an employee. A few American and European countries have developed democratic industrial actions and sharing of profits as a way to enhance worker’s participation. In addition, some companies are wholly owned by employees. The main objective of most industrial relations is to maintain and achieve motivated, competent workers who are inventive and fulfilling. A fall out in the relations in an industry will definitely lead to disputes within the industry. In 1947, a law was implemented to protect the public, employees and employers (Fashoyin, Geneva). The law controls the actions of trade unions activities and also offers a good arbitration process for protest that may cause national hiccups and emergencies.
This continues to grow as new and reformed laws are enacted and the court edicts help improve on the standard conditions of the employees. Acquiring of knowledge is very much important to constructing successful labor management interactions (Kaur, 2015). Therefore, we need to examine the most recent regulations and from them prepare sufficient information that will be effectively used in negotiations. Various attempts to make research on human relation scientific have been made. This has been difficult since human behaviors adjust from one point to another and hence to enable scientific, accurate prediction. The study can only be made by human observers but this has also proven not well enough since there are always distortions on the facts being observed hence no actual procedure put in place that achieves the actual truth (Fashoyin, Geneva). The human behavior as such becomes the study of endlessly varying, distinct and non-ascertainable situations, and not the determination of the recurrent, simplify able and observable behaviors. This is show that physical sciences cannot act as a social science model. Various attempts to ascertain the attitudinal structure of humans in a scientific way have also been made. Procedures, premises and concepts have been re-inspected so that determinations could be made possible through quantitative measures and empiric researches.
This is a government owned agency in Singapore that gives the directions for the formulating and implementing of policies and principles related to the workers and issues affecting them (Wong, 2000). The main objective of the authority is to create a worldwide competitive workforce and favorable conditions for workers with a bright economic future for all the people of Singapore.
This organization is systematized with three key most important outcomes:
- A worldwide competing workforce.
- Ensuring all Singaporeans have enough financially stable security and lifelong employment.
- Progressive and stable workplaces.
In industrial relations concept, the workplace division and labor relations of the authority is in charge of maintenance and promotion of stability and peace in Singapore through measures such as promoting cooperation. The industrial arbitration court that deals with making awards, dispute resolution, and advisory services is also part of the MOM.
National Trade Unions Congress (NTUC)
The MOM’s major role at first place was to dispute resolution and enforcement of laws and regulations but since the establishment of other federations such as the NWC, the authority has managed to work closely with the SNEF and NTUC to address several workforces complains and workplace issues (ILO , 2010). As these three parties, have improved the scope and nature of their dialogue, the government roles in industrial interactions have also improved way different from the traditional outlook (Fashoyin, Geneva). The MOM nowadays work closely with its social partners to enhance and coordinate all the views among the three parties, and in addition identify and address issues on employment in order to reduce conflicts and promote cooperation. Practices such as human development and creative employment are being promoted and implemented through work-life balance and flexible salaries and wages, in association with trade unions and businesses.
This is a National alliance and was formed in 1961 after the Singapore trade unions congress, a federation that was supporting the people’s action party in its drive for self-government, was split into two federations namely pro-PAP NTUC and the Singapore Association of Trade unions. The latter collapsed in 1963.Upto now NTUC has 60 united unions and six united associations (Napathorn, 2011). Only five unions are not associated with the NTUC. The federation has an estimated membership of about 530,000, this figure represents almost eighteen percent of the total work force in Singapore. This federation is also affiliated internationally to the ITUC as a member to the ITUC-AP, and to the ATUC and many of its associates are affiliates to the GUFs.
The NTUC has three ranks of union leadership where all leaders are elected. The elections are done by use of secret ballot to ensure effective and more competent leaders in their association. The elections start at the company level where Seven thousand branch leaders are elected among the five hundred and thirty thousand members (Leggett, 2007). Then, one thousand two hundred members are elected to serve as the executive committee members at the union headquarters. Central committee members are then elected at the national level and they are only 21 members elected after every four years (Fashoyin, Geneva). The membership of this union is divided into two major groups:
- The ordinary branch members who are represented directly by the unions and they enjoy rights to make decisions in the union
- The general branch members who work in the non-unionized companies but their issues are effectively handled by the NTUC’s support.
The NTUC has managed to come up with 12 social enterprises that contribute to price stabilization, protecting and strengthening workers’ buying power and also enabling leaders gain adequate experience and skills on management so as better labor relations can be attained (Fashoyin, Geneva). The union was also able to set up three closely related organizations,
- Consumer association of Singapore
- Ong Teng Cheong Labor Leadership Institute.
- Employment and Employability Institute
The whole NTUC union offers several benefits especially to the union members which include grants and scholarships, subsidized training opportunities, deductions and discounts on products, recreational and social benefits, low cost and totally free insurance coverage.
This stands for Singapore Employers National Federation (Gollan, 2017). This federation was founded in 1980 through the merging of two employer organizations, the National Employer council and the Singapore Employer Federation. Currently, it has an approximate membership of 2000 members who are employing about 540,000 employees, or just approximately eighteen percent of the total population just like the NTUC. There are approximately 4000 foundations with more than 50 employees in Singapore (Leggett, 2007). This number is quite good but a big one as compared to firms that have fewer than 50 employees in there 141981 firms. Two-thirds of the total member companies are non-unionized. Only half of the total number of firms have at least 200 employees and they are all SNEF members.
Singapore Employers National Federation (SNEF)
The major vision of this union is to be an advance guard for the employees in maintenance of industrial harmony and by enable workforce competition (ILO , 2010). By doing that, the union seeks to improve the living standard of the employees and also obtain the optimum requirements of consumers, employees and shareholders. The main activities of the federation include the following:
- Training of employees to ensure employability and enhanced managerial skills.
- Offering consultancy and give advises in relations of the industry and interpret labor laws and issues in management.
- Raising awareness on a number of issues and programs that are accessible.
- Holding seminars and group meetings to enhance sharing of information on the latest industrial developments as well as practices.
Majority of the employees do not get proper remuneration or good working environment. At such to be able to receive proper payment, most of the employees normally forms employee labor unions to fight for their plights (Kochan, 2003). The employees have a duty to join labor unions since the labor unions plays a very crucial role in representing the interests of the employees to the employers, especially when it comes to bargaining of better working terms. Employees exchange their views with the concerned management to enhance better working relations (Oyelekan Ayantunji, 2013). Additionally, employees desire to share the decision-making powers reserved for the management, and at such by joining labor unions, this desire can be easily realized.
Singapore had always experienced challenges until the early 1960s. This had been due to unstable political systems, occasional strikes, high unemployment rates and social wars and unrests. When the country became independent in the 1965, a lot had to change especially the country’s labor relations. The main problems at that time was to entice and maintain the foreign investors so as to establish and realize growth and development (Fashoyin, Geneva). To realize all this most of the social partners started working jointly to move away from the challenging labor relations and strive to obtain peace in genuine and fair way aiming at national progress. This eventually led to conducive labor interactions which led to growth in the economy and constant decrease in industrial strikes.
The major support for this was establishment of the first tripartite institution that brought the government, workers and employers together with an aim of formulating the wage guidelines in order to achieve uniform wage increase and prevent disputes on the wages. The NWC was Albert Winsemius inspiration, an economist from Holland who had led a team from the UN to Singapore in 1960 to do a survey on Singapore potential in industrialization (ILO , 2010). The ILO also made a bigger impact on the design of the national economic development strategy.
Strong partnerships have been a major competitive advantage for Singapore. It forms a base for the following: The competition in the economy, the harmony in the labor relations and the whole economic progress. All the three major unions mentioned earlier attest to the fact that they all want to address, formulate, find solutions and also implement employment and industrial issues (Wong, 2000). The unions also promote peaceful relations at the company level which lead to solving problems, taking into account mutual interest and create partnerships. Social dialogue has been built by the following five most important values:
Common understanding
This is achieved through both informal and formal sharing of information as well as having frequent dialogues between the three partners (Fashoyin, Geneva). This is done so that diverse problems affecting the employees, employers and the whole country at large can be addressed.
Sharing of responsibilities
The three unions have made a commitment to work together and share responsibilities so as to achieve a stable economic progress and good social environment. The government of Singapore also plays a major role by promoting a favorable climate for investments by formulation of policies that maintain an organized peaceful industrial relation (ILO , 2010). Workers also have a responsibility of expanding their employment opportunities by upgrading their skills, continuous learning and also improve on their living standards. The employers also have a responsibility of increasing productivity and competitiveness to enable well paid off jobs.
Mutual respect and trust
The three partners have developed trust and respect for each other over the years (ILO , 2010). The confidence earned through such trust enables an open exchange of views as well as facing challenges together.
Mutual benefit.
To gain adequate support on actions and decisions made by the union leaders and representatives of employers there should be benefits realized from the decisions and they also need to be understandable by all they represent (Kaur, 2015). The three parties’ close interaction and cooperation has led to benefits to all. The cooperation has enabled the government to efficiently formulate policies that are aimed at achieving economic and social economic. Workers enjoy a good share of economic gains at good times. However, during difficulties the pain is shared among the three parties by having enough consultations, this enables retention of jobs and high competition.
Unstoppable efforts
Without continuously making extra efforts, the benefits among the tripartite parties will not be successful (Tan, 1995). This parties have committed themselves to work endlessly for further strengthening, deepening and broadening of their relationships and also lead to high economic progress.
Conclusion
Under no circumstance will there be replication of a structural design of trio partnership. The respect, trust and confidence are the primary principles of a good tripartite system and these have to be designed, built upon and fully owned. If the three basics do not exist, then a such a system would not work well. For them to work well then suitable government policies must be in place and people should respect any ruling of law, issues such as corruption must be addressed and dealt with. Though the tripartite model in Singapore is quite distinct and hence difficult to replicate the whole of it, some of the elements that lead to its success can actually be replicated or altered to explicit national contexts. Singapore declaration of treat.144 would provide the best chance to share experience with other ILO members, particularly those seeking methods to strengthen tripartite models in their countries and find other alternative ways to address the challenging industrial relation models that they experience.
In conclusion, the mission noted that Singapore has managed the conflict well. It was able to come out of the conflict early enough, particularly due to the tripartite partnerships followed by the country. Although, the measures were put into practice quite early even before the ILO jobs pact was approved they are in line with the pact.
References
Fashoyin, T. (Geneva). Tripartite cooperation,labour market reform and economic upturn in Singapore. 2010: Industrial and Employment Relations Department .
Gollan, D. L. (2017). Advances in Industrial & Labor Relations. Los Angeles: Zoe Morris .
ILO . (2010). ILO Study Mission on Singapore’s Tripartism Framework. Singapore: ILO .
Kaur, A. (2015). Workers, Employment Relations, and Labour Standards in Industrialising Southeast Asia . Armidale: University of New England.
Kochan, T. A. (2003). Collective Actors in Industrial Relations: What Future?
Leggett, C. (2007). The fourth transformation of Singapore’sindustrial relations. University of South Australia.
Napathorn, C. (2011). Recent Labor Relations and Collective Bargaining Issues in Thailand. Interdisciplinary Journal of Research in Business, 66-81.
Oyelekan Ayantunji, M. M. (2013). Actors in Industrial Relations: Competitors, Collaborators Or Compatriots? Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business , 818-826.
Tan, C. H. (1995). Labour management relations in Singapore . Singapore: Simon & Schuster .
Wong, E. S. (2000). Partnership of trade unions in national development programmes and in promotion of labour mobility in Singapore. Singapore.
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