SINGAPORE — Singapore companies have committed to 820 productivity-improvement projects under a S$100-million programme launched by the labour movement in 2010.

Over 53,000 low-wage workers will benefit from productivity and wage increases when these projects are completed, said National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) Secretary-General Lim Swee Say yesterday at the inaugural Inclusive Growth Symposium.

Part of the NTUC Employment and Employability Institute’s key initiative for inclusive and sustainable growth, the Inclusive Growth Programme supports automation and process redesign for companies and aims to share gains with low-wage workers.

About S$42 million has been committed to the projects and two-thirds of the companies involved are small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Mr Lim said that, in the past five to seven years, Singapore’s workforce has been growing at about 3 to 4 per cent a year, but productivity has been slowing. “From an economic and social angle, we have no choice but to enter into a new phase of development, whereby we slow down the growth of manpower, not to reduce the number ... and yet, at the same time, focus on productivity.”

Among the companies that have tapped on the programme is Eighteen Chefs, which invested in food technology in the face of rising business costs and a shortage of workers.

Its Director Benny Se Teo said he was able to raise workers’ pay by between 8 and 20 per cent after they were trained in the new technology. “(The market is) now more competitive (and) F&B is a labour-intensive industry where we need a lot of workers.”

Mr Yeo Guat Kwang, SME Lead at NTUC, said more was being done to bring SMEs on board. “Some of the micro-SMEs, they are telling us ... they can’t benefit without economies of scale,” he said. “We are now exploring whether we can arrange ... a group-sourcing platform, so they can actually tap the scheme together.”