SINGAPORE — Its union leadership ranks have grown bigger, as well as younger, over the years, but labour chief Lim Swee Say is anticipating that stronger leaders will be needed in the coming years, as the Republic tries to transform into a manpower-lean economy.

So, the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) will, from January, progressively roll out a more structured system to groom its future union leaders — including roping in more young activists, some of whom have not even stepped into the workforce.

Although it has not set a quota on how big a pool of union leaders it wants to build — the number has jumped from 5,800 to nearly 6,200 this year — one of the things the NTUC is mulling is allowing young activists to sit in on high-level meetings as observers for them to get a peek into union work.

It is also looking at having seasoned hands mentor aspiring union leaders.

Speaking to reporters at the end of the biennial NTUC Ordinary Delegates Conference yesterday, Mr Lim explained why strengthening the labour leadership is “critical”.

“The transition of the Singapore economy will take some time. So ... to get the most out of this transition for business and for our workers, tripartism has to be strong because the government, the union and businesses have to find ways to work together to maximise the gain, minimise the pain for businesses, for workers, as well as for the whole economy,” he said.

And while having strong labour leaders at the national tripartite platform will continue to be important, “more and more of the action; consensus, we have to reach not just at the national level but also at the sectoral level”, in the future, said Mr Lim.

Currently, NTUC’s youth outreach extends to taking young members on learning journeys to organisations and companies across various industries, as well as letting them hone their leadership skills through planning activities and events.

Activists who are interested in becoming unionists are also invited to dialogue sessions with NTUC’s leaders, while there are also courses, such as those on industrial relations, at the Ong Teng Cheong Institute of Labour Studies.

Union leaders TODAY spoke to agreed that a structured leadership programme would come in handy.

Amalgamated Union of Public Daily Rated Workers General-Secretary G Muthu Kumar, who has been a unionist for 43 years, said: “Those days we just negotiated. Now you have to go through the proper channels, so you must have proper training — you cannot just go to the management and simply talk.”

Agreeing, Amalgamated Union of Public Employees Deputy General Secretary Yeo Chun Fing noted that employment issues are becoming “more complex”.

“Therefore they need to understand a broad range of issues, such as how the economy is doing, what we should be fighting for, what is fair to employers, and they need to understand a bit about the labour legislation,” he said.

Other skills a union leader must have include collective bargaining, grievance handling and counselling.

NTUC Deputy Secretary-General Heng Chee How noted that there are some challenges in attracting young union activists.

“Some people are worried about their time commitment. Others are thinking whether or not their companies would like them being involved as union leaders.”

Apart from focusing on leadership development as a key plank of their work for the next two years, delegates at the conference also said NTUC has to strengthen its engagement with the management staff of firms and the human-resources community in order to make better progress in extending the Progressive Wage model, and to reach out to more professionals.