U Care Centre helps local low-wage workers
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SINGAPORE: Local low-wage workers now have a place to turn to for assistance, thanks to the labour movement's first service centre and toll-free hotline, which were set up on Thursday.
It is part of the movement's ongoing push for increasing support for the sector.
59-year-old Susie Lim is a cleaning supervisor.
She said she had difficulty finding someone who could answer all her questions about things related to her job.
She can now turn to the newly-opened U Care Centre.
Ms Lim said: "We can come here to ask about our salary, bonus, and our annual or sick leave. We also can find out about compensation, if our employer dismisses us from our jobs because of our age."
The centre aims to provide low-wage workers with guidance on work-related issues, like employment rights, fair contract terms and statutory benefits.
Located at Jurong East, the centre is hosted within NTUC's Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) Career Services Centre.
This is expected to allow it to better help workers with job placements and skills upgrading programmes.
The move marks a transition from the previous centre, which was set up in 2010, which catered to only contract and casual workers.
The new U Care Centre will broaden this pool, to include all low-wage workers who are Singapore citizens and permanent residents, earning an average gross monthly income of S$1,900 and below.
The idea for the centre was mooted during a series of focus group discussions held by NTUC in August this year.
The discussions involved workers, service buyers, service providers, grassroots and union leaders.
One of the issues raised included a lack of targeted assistance for low-wage workers and uncertainty as to where they could go to for help.
With the launch of U Care Centre, workers who meet the criteria will be enrolled as U Care members when they walk in for guidance.
At a fee of S$12 per year, workers may also opt to sign up as U Care Value members for additional benefits.
These include being enrolled for basic group term life insurance, which covers workers for total permanent disability and death.
Other benefits include access to special discounts at selected NTUC social enterprises and priority invitations to social events organised for them and their families.
A new toll-free hotline was also launched for workers to seek help over the phone.
NTUC said the centre will also provide a platform for it to hear directly from low-wage workers.
This is through the formation of new U Care Communities for various industries - where focus group discussions will be conducted.
These include not just those from the cleaning, security and landscape sectors, but also other sectors like the pest control and carpark attendant industries.
NTUC said this will provide a more structured and targeted approach.
Zainal Sapari, director of Unit for Contract & Casual Workers at NTUC, said: "Previously when we engaged, the engagement was more with the service provider, the service buyer, with our tripartite partners and stakeholders.
“We do believe that low-wage workers need to feel there's someone advocating for them, being a strong voice for them to bring about a change. With this U Care Centre, we are providing them with this support platform, where they can come to us, individually even, to share some of their concerns, and we do hope to see whether there are particular trends, particular things happening on the ground, that can be addressed even at a national level.”
There were close to 400,000 Singaporean low-wage workers last year.
NTUC said it will study the demand before deciding whether to open more of such centres across the island.
- CNA/fa/xq