SINGAPORE: A tripartite standard which aims to encourage fair and progressive workplaces that better support media freelancers was officially launched on Wednesday (Nov 29).

Announcing the launch of the tripartite standard on the procurement of services from media freelancers, Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information Chee Hong Tat said that from Apr 1, 2018, companies must adopt the standard in order to qualify for media grants from the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and funding for Public Service Broadcast content.

National broadcaster Mediacorp will also adopt the standard and apply the same criteria in their commissioning process, he added.

The standard sets out industry best practices in four key areas: Written contracts, timely payment, dispute resolution and insurance. The aim, said IMDA in a media release giving more details on the standard, is to encourage fair and progressive workplaces that better support media freelancers.

“In 2015, the media sector workforce consisted of 83,600 employees, and contributed S$9.8 billion in nominal value-added to the economy,” said IMDA. “Based on MCI’s Study on Freelancers in the Infocomm Media and Design Sectors in 2015, freelancers augment the media industry workforce by 50 per cent.”

According to the standard, companies are to provide media freelancers with a written contract clearly stating terms such as the agreed deliverables, ownership of intellectual property and payment milestones. This is to ensure that both parties have a common understanding of the service to be rendered, and terms of payment, said IMDA.

Companies are also expected to adhere to the payment milestones outlined in the agreed terms.

In the area of dispute resolution, mediation should be taken as the first course of action. In support of this, IMDA provides subsidies for mediation services in partnership with the Singapore Mediation Centre for eligible media companies and media freelancers.

The standard also outlines that companies should offer workplace protection for media freelancers through insurance for production equipment, commercial general liability and work-related accidents.

Plans to develop the standard were first announced in March, during MCI’s Committee of Supply debate.

Currently, 11 companies and associations have adopted the standard. They include regional broadcasters like HBO (Asia), the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents and Mediacorp. The Association of Independent Producers (Singapore) has pledged to adopt the standard by April 2018.

The standard is jointly developed by IMDA with the Ministry of Manpower, National Trades Union Congress, Singapore National Employers Federation and supported by the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices. It is Singapore’s first industry-specific tripartite standard that addresses the concerns of media freelancers, said IMDA. 

SINGAPORE: The National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), Singapore’s labour movement, is a social organisation.

As the term implies, the labour movement as a social movement is all-encompassing and aims to represent and benefit each and every citizen. There are various social campaigns in Singapore such as the Speak Mandarin Campaign or the campaign to promote Graciousness in Singapore.

NTUC is distinctly different from all these social campaigns in two ways: First, NTUC is a fee-paying organisation. To be a union member, workers have to pay a monthly fee.

To understand why NTUC charges a fee, one has to understand its goals and dynamics.

The nature of the labour movement is such that it is imperative for NTUC to have a strong base of union members. If NTUC has a small membership base, it will not have enough bargaining power to rally workers to improve productivity and exercise wage constraint in exchange for continued employment during a recession.

This need for a strong membership base creates a dilemma for NTUC. As a social movement by design and by implication, NTUC produces a public good – better employment conditions for workers and employment stability for employers. But because of its public good nature, NTUC needs to provide exclusive financial incentives for its union members to get their buy-in on tough measures.

These exclusive financial incentives are the union benefits that NTUC has the sole power to bestow on members without relying on employers. These union benefits may be likened to country club benefits – joining NTUC is like joining a country club.

NTUC needs substantial financial resources in order to provide country club benefits sufficiently significant to sway workers to join the labour movement.

The Government is more than willing to help NTUC to provide such country club benefits because NTUC helps the Government to achieve full employment.

The close relationship between the NTUC and the Government has the support of a strong foundation because the leaders of both the labour movement and the Government come from the same political party.

NATIONAL VERSUS LABOUR INTERESTS

The second way NTUC differs from other social movements is that it puts national interests above its own narrow labour interests.

If you do a Google search of the term “corporate social responsibility” (CSR), you will learn that a firm’s implementation of CSR goes beyond compliance and statutory requirements. A firm which engages in CSR engages in “actions that appear to further some social good, beyond the interests of the firm.”

In my writing, I have started using the phrase “union social responsibility” to describe the Singapore labour movement because NTUC puts the national interest above its need to attract workers to join the Union. NTUC has enjoyed substantial success as a social organisation and, at the same time, rising union membership because NTUC has played her cards well and has not politicised labour issues.

NTUC, with the assistance from the Government, has been able to help low-wage workers benefit from higher wages and help Singaporeans with little educational qualifications to get jobs. But these are low-hanging fruits, which are relatively easy to pluck.

This is because NTUC has some form of monopoly power over some contractors in some sectors to enforce a minimum salary for workers, such as the cleaning industry. It has protected this group of workers against low pay because it is an efficient organisation and a social movement with strong support from both the government and the employers.

This kind of tripartism can easily produce good results as all three parties have non-conflicting goals.

COVERING PROFESSIONALS, MANAGERS AND EXPERTS

Technological developments in recent years have led to disruptions that cause many PMEs to lose their jobs. These PMEs need assistance – but they are more educated than workers that NTUC already covers, and their high paying jobs are not around anymore.

As per its mission, NTUC will work tirelessly to extend the same assistance to help PMEs to be employable. But there is a big difference compared to the case of the cleaners.

To enhance PMEs’ employability, we need to train and re-train them. But – as detailed in the discussions of job market squeeze these days – it is not easy to figure out what are the skills needed to make PMEs employable. The Government solves this problem by contracting training institutes to reimburse the training fees when their trainees are employed.

In tandem, NTUC works with established industry partners to promote industry acceptance of various training initiatives to increase trainees’ employability.

This task of skills-matching and negotiating with employers, employees and training institutes is made all the more difficult as technology is changing and there is little margin to protect PMEs from foreign competition.

NTUC also encourages PMEs to find work abroad. Again, the right kind of training is necessary to acquire appropriate new skills in this context. NTUC can add value to this social mission because some PMEs can relate better to the labour movement than to the Government or to employers. 

PMEs who especially need assistance now are those who cannot compete with their peers in more productive, innovative firms or are in industries that have been disrupted significantly. Where average wages rise, these PMEs do not get a share of the gains but fall behind.

NTUC need to help these PMEs find jobs, not because they are union members but because NTUC takes union social responsibility in its stride.

PMEs who find new jobs find that their new pay is lower than their initial salary because they have to “downgrade” in their career moves. Skillsets from one company to another aren’t 100 per cent transferable, especially if one changes sector, with lower wages arising as a consequence.

Worse, downgrading may not be a one-time occurrence but a continuous process given that PMEs change jobs every few years and mid-career switches are commonplace. Preventing this downgrading from becoming a continuous process will be a key challenge for NTUC.

I believe that the labour movement can also strengthen its efforts to protect PMEs from unfair employment practices. Some employers and some top executives may have a preference for foreign executives not because the unit labour cost is lower for these foreigners – and sometimes it is even higher – but because of personal preference.

The policy of looking for local employees first for the first two weeks before they are allowed to employ foreigners should be rigorously enforced.  

So it seems NTUC has its work on PMEs cut out. Whatever the initial reason for NTUC to broaden its coverage, it has a tough road ahead in meeting this new mandate.

Chew Soon Beng is professor of economics and industrial relations at Nanyang Technological University.

SINGAPORE: Sirens blaring, Special Operations Command (SOC) officers rode in on motorcycles, firing at their targets with live ammunition.

The scenario: Multiple simulated “gunmen” in a room during a hostage situation. 

Shots rang out – so loud and piercing that even we, as journalists standing some distance away with earplugs safely on, jumped in shock.

Within a minute, it was over, the “threats” neutralised by the SOC’s rapid deployment troops and armed strike team.

It was part of a behind-the-scenes look on Monday (Nov 27) at the Home Team Tactical Centre’s drive-in range at Mandai Quarry Road, where Singapore’s elite men in blue train to handle a gamut of threats, from counter-terror scenarios to hostage situations.

In another scenario, officers demonstrated how they breached a door and neutralised the threats behind it.

But no drill, however well-planned, is without its complications – and in this instance, officers found that the door handle was stuck and simply would not budge.

Outside the building, officers from the Special Tactics And Rescue (STAR) unit, which handles hostage rescue operations and high-risk scenarios, showed how they rappelled from a mock helicopter.

Regrouping on the ground, the officers also showcased their ability to breach a building, using explosives to create an entry point.

We were also taken through the mechanical method of entry (MMOE) houses – a facility that helps hone the ability of Singapore Police Force officers in general, not just those belonging to the SOC.

Perhaps the highlight, for me, was the opportunity to step into the shoes of SOC officers responding to incidents and try out their weapons, including the HK USP (Universal State Pistol) compact and the FN SCAR (Fabrique Nationale Special Operations Forces Combat Assault Rifle).

The operational gear – including one’s weapon, helmet and ballistic resistance vest – easily weighed more than 20kg in all, and its sheer weight and bulk gave us a sense of how it was like not only to run with the load, but also hit targets after that. 

SINGAPORE: A flight from Bali to Singapore usually takes two-and-a-half-hours, but for some Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Scoot passengers stranded in the Indonesian resort island, making their way home could come in the form of an 18-hour journey by bus, boat and plane. 

This is one option being offered by the airlines, as Bali’s Denpasar Airport remained closed for a second day on Tuesday (Nov 28) due to ash from the eruption of the island’s Mount Agung volcano.

Indonesia’s transportation ministry had said in a statement that “aircraft flight channels are covered with volcanic ash”.

In a Facebook update at 12.30pm, Scoot said it has managed to charter coaches to transport its passengers overland from Bali to Surabaya – about 13 hours’ drive away – where they can then take Scoot flights back to Singapore.

Including a ferry crossing, the journey will take about 18 hours, said the low-cost carrier.

“Unless otherwise stated, coaches from tomorrow onwards will depart at 10am local time,” said the airline, adding that those who want to take up this option should go to Scoot’s counters at Denpasar Airport by 9am.

“We seek passengers’ understanding that seats on the coaches are limited and Scoot reserves the right to prioritise passengers with needs.”

Scoot added it would stop selling tickets to and from Bali for the travel period up to Dec 4.

On Tuesday evening, SIA posted a similar update on its Facebook page, offering its customers an 18-hour journey from Bali and Surabaya. 

“Customers will need to be at Denpasar (Bali) Airport at 0600hrs. Due to limited seats, customers are encouraged to proceed to the airport only if they receive a confirmation email from Singapore Airlines.”

SIA had said earlier that passengers can re-route their original Bali-bound flights to other Southeast Asia destinations “within the same cabin class, subject to seat availability”.

FLIGHT CANCELLATIONS FOR A THIRD DAY

The closure of Bali’s international airport looks set to extend beyond Tuesday, with Scoot and Singapore Airlines announcing flight cancellations on Wednesday (Nov 29) as well, the third day running.

Indonesia’s transport ministry had said earlier that the airport closure was due to end at 7am local time on Nov 29. 

Local authorities have also been helping to shuttle tourists to Surabaya to catch flights out of the country. The head of Bali’s transportation agency said earlier on Tuesday that they were “preparing 10 buses”, with the possibility of more vehicles being provided.

Mount Agung began spewing smoke and ash last week but authorities fear a major eruption is imminent. If that happens, flight disruptions in and out of Bali could extend for some time, according to Mr Abbas Ismail, course manager of Temasek Polytechnic’s Diploma in Aviation Management and Services.

Amid the uncertainty, Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has urged Singaporeans to postpone travel plans to Bali. Those stranded in Bali will receive consular assistance and MFA officers are currently deployed at Bali airport to help those affected.