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Why the community needs to be part of Singapore’s tripartism

Singapore’s economic success over the last 50 years has been driven by many factors – location, timing, luck, an industrious labour force and stable politics.

Workers can expect to make transitions in job type and in industry several times during their work life, something Singapore's tripartite model needs to evolve in addressing, says the author.

Workers can expect to make transitions in job type and in industry several times during their work life, something Singapore's tripartite model needs to evolve in addressing, says the author.

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Singapore’s economic success over the last 50 years has been driven by many factors – location, timing, luck, an industrious labour force and stable politics.

There is another major contributory driver which is not self-enacting but the result of a unique framework of relationship between government, employers and the labour force. This is the tripartite framework.

In a sharp contrast to the Communist inspired economic disruptions by unions in the 1950s and early 1960s, Singapore today enjoys industrial peace arising from unions working collaboratively with employers and the government.

The success of the tripartite framework is the result of decades of hard work.

The stakeholders – government, employers and workers – have competing interests on a constituency basis. But an overriding commitment to tripartism by each stakeholder has engendered a focus on national interests and committed the actors to find ‘win-win’ solutions to industrial and economic challenges and changes.

That is not to say the tripartite framework need not change, especially in the face of rapid technological advances and an ageing demography.

The Singapore labour force is in transition. It is moving from a semi-skilled base to one which is predicated on a higher level of aggregate education and skills.

This is reflected in a rising share of Professionals, Managers, Engineers and Technicians or PMETs among workers here. In 2017, PMETs formed 56 per cent of the resident labour force.

The economy as a whole is also undergoing transformation. The digital economy and the advent of artificial intelligence and sentient robotics will lead to displacement of jobs but also the creation of new occupations.

Disruptions from technological change are likely to be an enduring feature of the work experience in this century. This means that workers can expect to make transitions in job type and in industry several times during their work life.

These episodes of transition may last a few weeks or even several months as they undergo upskilling and reskilling to be able to rejoin the labour force.

This duration is longer than historical norms and the incidence of transition is far higher than before. The tripartite framework was not intended to cope with such repeated periods of lengthy transitions.

NEW LINE OF SUPPORT NEEDED

Historically, the family has been considered the first line of support for displaced workers. However, family sizes here continued to shrink, with Singapore recording a historically low Total Fertility Rate of 1.16 in 2016. More in each generation are remaining single or marrying late. In 2015, 70 per cent of Singaporean females in their 20s reported being single.

The upshot is that the role of the family as the first line of support for workers in transition is rapidly eroding. While the State does provide financial assistance through ComCare and provides subsidies for skill development, it cannot provide the vital psychological and emotional support to keep workers in transition motivated.

To address this emergent phenomena of the work experience, the tripartite framework needs to evolve to a ‘quartet’ framework by including the community.

Singapore needs to find ways to activate the community to perform a proactive and sustained supporting function to ensure workers in transition feel understood, cared for and encouraged.

A possible model for such a function would be the Pioneer Generation Office (PGO) approach. PGO was established in 2014 and absorbed into the Agency for Integrated Care in 2018 and concurrently, renamed the Silver Generation Office.

The PGO adopted a high touch, one to one, approach to communicating public policy, specifically the Pioneer Generation Package, to the policy’s target audience.

Its outreach to some 450,000 Pioneers (Singaporeans born before 1950) was done through community volunteers, called Pioneer Generation Ambassadors, who received training and guidance from full-time staff of the PGO.

The outreach quickly evolved beyond communication to include facilitation of access to social services, companionship, and encouragement of community engagement.

The PGO example can be adapted to build a national network of community based volunteers to create neighbourhood level social support systems to provide personalised emotional and psychological support to workers in transition.

Data analytics can also be deployed to ensure efficiency in identification of such workers and customisation of the outreach.

Leveraging on technology, a platform can be implemented to coordinate support, where appropriate, with self-help groups, volunteer welfare organisations as well as with skills development entities such as SkillsFuture and the institutes of higher learning to ensure that the right mix of social, emotional psychological, skills development and professional support is provided on a customised and timely basis.

Labour resilience is crucial to the continued success of the Singapore economic model. The tripartite framework has served us well and it must be sustained but also evolve.

The workers of tomorrow must feel that their work experience is factored into the industrial relations model, if they are to remain cooperative, constructive and committed.

The Ministry of Manpower, the National Trades Union Congress, the Singapore National Employers Federation, amongst others, should come together with the People’s Association to work out effective ways to strengthen the new fourth corner.

Starting early is essential to ensure that a quartet framework is in place as the coming waves of disruption wash upon our economic shores.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Devadas Krishnadas is chief executive of Future-Moves Group, an international strategic consultancy and executive education provider based in Singapore.

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