Speech at The National Day Observance Ceremony Jointly Organised by Singapore Industrial & Services Employees’ Union and Singapore Technologies Aerospace

Mr Gan Kim Yong, Minister

Mrs Josephine Teo, Assistant Secretary-General, National Trade Unions Congress (NTUC), Executive Secretary, Singapore Industrial & Services Employees' Union (SISEU)

Mr Lim Kuang Beng, General Secretary, Singapore Industrial & Services Employees' Union (SISEU)

Guests and members of ST Aerospace

   Today as we celebrate our 44^th National Day we are also marking 50 years of self-government.  These are uncertain times as we face an unprecedented global economic downturn. Unemployment in the US rose to an all-time high of 9.5% in June.  As long as the world's largest consumer market continues to be weak, the global economy will remain soft. There are signs of hope with the new GDP estimates released last week by the US Commerce Department, which estimated that the US economy contracted just 1% in Q2, better than expected. But we should guard against premature optimism.

2          .Singapore's real GDP in the first half of the year dropped by 6.7%, compared to the same period last year.  Even though MTI has revised our growth forecast, the economy is still expected to contract between 4% and 6%, remaining in negative territory. The outlook for Q3 and Q4 is still uncertain. Seagate just announced last night plans to relocate its plant elsewhere. This will affect some of their employees. Just last Friday, my Ministry announced the employment numbers for Q2 2009. Job losses rose to 12,400. However, redundancies fell by more than half, from 12,760 in Q1 2009 to 5,500 in Q2 2009 while the unemployment rate remained at 3.3%.

3.  We can attribute this resilience to the strong tripartism among businesses, unions and the Government. The tripartite partners had acted together to provide timely help to employers and employees.  As early as November 2008, the tripartite partners released the Tripartite Guidelines on Managing Excess Manpower. This was quickly followed by the introduction of the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience.

4 .   SPUR was introduced as a way to help companies cope in the downturn. However, it is also an important tool to help companies build up capabilities for the future, beyond the recession. This is in line with our Continuing Education & Training Masterplan. As at the end of July 2009, just eight months since its launch, some 159,000 workers and 2,200 companies have committed to join SPUR.

5.   I am heartened to see that here at ST Aerospace, the company has leveraged on SPUR to develop its employees, thereby contributing to raising the skills level in the industry.  I understand that earlier in May, ST Aerospace signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with WDA, SISEU and e2i to tap on SPUR to support its training needs. ST Aerospace has committed to around 1,100 training places, 40,000 training hours for all levels of staff. It has also agreed to hire more than 200 aircraft technicians and engineers in 2009. As at the end of July 2009, the company has already sent some 1,012 PMETs and 74 non-PMETs for SPUR Training.  The company has also signed an MOU with the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) to enhance the training of students in NITEC Aerospace Technology and Aerospace Avionics Courses.  

6.   Let me highlight two employees who are shining examples of a life-long learner. Mr Ang Hock Hoe lost his job as a production engineering in the manufacturing sector. With the help of NTUC's e2i, he joined ST Aerospace on 1 Jun 2009 as a Senior Technician. Although he has a diploma in Mechanical Engineering, he is now attending a SPUR course, the WSQ Higher Certificate in Aerospace Maintenance. He will finish classroom training at the end of this month, which will be followed by 12 months on-the-job training. His determination and spirit of life-long learning is admirable. Let us give Hock Hoe a round of applause.

7.    Mr David Tan has been with the company for 20 years. He is a service engineer and contributes actively to staff suggestions and work improvement programmes. He is also ST Aerospace Systems' Union Branch Assistant Secretary. David is also a strong believer in lifelong learning. He has undergone the Work Place Safety and Health (Operations) training, which is now a course under SPUR.  Through the training, David has gained an understanding of his roles and responsibilities in the area of workplace safety, how to accurately follow workplace procedures for risk control and emergencies, and how to identify typical unsafe working conditions and work practices. David is here today to receive one of the five Model Employee Awards. Let us also give him a round of applause.

8.   ST Aerospace has also followed the Tripartite Guidelines on Managing Excess Manpower. It has adopted the “Flexi-Hour” programme since 2001 in place of more traditional methods like unpaid leave, half-paid leave or even job cuts. The programme helps preserve employees' take-home pay during times of lower work activities. Employees are ‘released' from the workplace when there is no work and given paid time off in advance. This paid time-off will then be recovered from the employee's next overtime payment. ST Aerospace's ability to think-out-of-the box has given the company greater flexibility on scheduling its working hours to minimise costs while saving jobs.  This scheme has been well received by both the employees and the union.

9.   These efforts will benefit the company in the long run and I'm glad to hear from the president that the company has remained profitable in the last six months, and with company has won four new contracts in the past two months, worth up to $161 million.  The aerospace industry shows good prospects. It has had a compounded annual growth rate of 13.3% since 1990. Preliminary figures indicated a record output of more than S$7 billion in 2008. The global Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) market is expected to grow strongly over the next 10 years. Just a week ago, Rolls Royce, one of ST's competitors, I must say, announced that it would build a new wide-chord fan blade factory in Singapore that will create 500 jobs.

10.   All these could not have been possible without the cooperation and support of employees, union and management. I am heartened to see this close cooperation at ST Aerospace – which exemplifies strong tripartism in action.

11.   The support of the labour movement has been crucial during this downturn. I understand that SISEU has facilitated many discussions between the company, WDA and e2i to see how ST Aerospace can tap on the various programmes, culminating in the MOU signed by the company, WDA and e2i in May. The close cooperation between management and the unions has helped to create win-win outcomes for all. I am happy to know that ST Aerospace has not retrenched any workers during this downturn.

12.   ST Aerospace must keep up this spirit of tripartism and keep it alive, as this is what will keep the company going strong through these challenging times. This tripartite partnership is also crucial in helping Singapore weather the downturn. While managing the short-term crisis, we must also stay focused on the longer term vision - to seize new opportunities when the economy recovers. Let us all, on our nation's birthday, reiterate our commitment on working and coming together, rising to the challenges so that Singapore emerges stronger, more competitive and more resilient.

Happy National Day!

Thank you