THE National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) wants to do more to help professionals, managers and executives (PMEs) – who now form nearly half its members – in areas such as career protection, progression and job placement.

Urging more PMEs to join the labour movement so that they can benefit, secretary-general Ng Chee Meng said: “A mountain for us to climb is to shift the general understanding of PMEs – that NTUC unions are for the blue collars – into one that NTUC is for all collars.”

Speaking at a media session on Thursday (Apr 25) ahead of May Day celebrations, Ng said: “Up to this stage, I think we’ve made good progress in all the things we’ve set out to do. And I hope that it will be some evidence that PMEs will find partnering NTUC can be worth (their) while.”

When asked, he said that NTUC does not have a target for what share of its membership should comprise PMEs.

PMEs now account for about 45 per cent of NTUC members, excluding migrant workers and students – comparable to the national proportion of PMEs, at 42 per cent.

Different ways to help

On Thursday, Ng set out various ways in which the labour movement aims to serve PMEs better, in line with recommendations set out in the joint PME taskforce formed by NTUC and the Singapore National Employers Federation.

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One area is workplace fairness. Here, one taskforce recommendation was for 12,000 human resource (HR) professionals to be certified by the Institute for Human Resource Professionals by 2025, to raise HR standards and practices.

To date, more than 9,000 such professionals have been certified, Ng said.

Another area is representation. PMEs comprise about 40 per cent of the cases seen by the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management@NTUC, which is for union members. Since 2021, the highest recovery settlement recorded for a PME in a dispute is S$68,000, noted Ng.

Apart from disputes, NTUC also provides representation more generally through its 58 affiliated unions and seven associations, more of which are now representing PMEs too.

A third area where NTUC has been helping PMEs is in career progression and wages, particularly through Company Training Committees (CTCs) and associated grants.

Budget 2022 had announced the CTC grant to scale up the initiative. Since then, CTC grant projects have helped 727 PMEs from 61 companies gain an average wage rise of 5 per cent on top of their annual increment, or benefited them through a career development plan.

Finally, NTUC helps PMEs in changing careers and with job placement.

Last month, the labour movement’s Employment and Employability Institute opened its first career centre in the central business district, to help workers – especially professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) – boost their employability.

Nearly 90 per cent of walk-ins have been PMETs, about half of whom earn over S$8,000 per month, NTUC said. Ng noted that an equity adviser, a financial firm’s chief operating officer and a doctor have been among those seeking career transition support.

“Our PMEs will face all the different transitions that our Singapore economy will be going through,” he said. “We hope to see new opportunities, with all the technological changes around us.”

Artificial intelligence (AI), for example, could both complement or displace workers, he said, noting that there have been AI-related worker strikes and demands for contract revisions overseas. As AI’s effect on jobs can be uncertain, NTUC is keeping an eye out to see what disruption might be headed this way, he added.