Workers' Party MP Gerald Giam drew sharp responses from the ruling party's lawmakers after questioning whether NTUC could "fully advocate" for workers.
Workers' Party MP Gerald Giam drew sharp responses from the ruling party's lawmakers after questioning whether NTUC could"fully advocate" for workers.
Mr Giam said that as of 2017, there were 71 PAP Members of Parliament who were also advisers to the unions under NTUC, and that some of them were involved in governance of the unions.In Parliament on Monday , a lengthy exchange ensued during the debate on the Platform Workers Bill after MP Gerald Giam questioned the independence of Singapore’s labour movement.
"This could lead to a muted union advocacy where political alignment takes precedence over workers' rights. "Such a situation would lead to a loss of dynamism in labour policy-making, reducing the possibility of new and better approaches from emerging," he said. Leader of the House Indranee Rajah rose to ask Mr Giam whether he believed labour unions must be independent of political parties.
"I would like to just state for the record that WP supports the tripartite dialogue between employers, unions and the government of the day, but not ... an explicit alignment with any political party," he said. "What I can say is that the PAP would do its very utmost not to have to give them a reason to think that we would never support them, or that as a government, we would not do our very best for the workers and the trade union congress."
Ms Indranee replied that trade unions elect their own leaders, and that having PAP members among current union leaders did not mean that would always be the case. "And you look at the track record of the PAP for all these years that it has been in government. What has it delivered for this country? What has it delivered for the workers? Has it sold out the workers? Has it embarrassed our union leaders?"
"So I just wanted to this as my heartfelt response: Be fair to our union leaders, be fair to our unions, be fair to the NTUC," said Mr Heng. Speaker of the House Seah Kian Peng said that Mr de Souza made a"valid point". He later asked Mr Giam to refer to Section 50 of the Standing Orders of parliament, which says that MPs shall confine their observations to the subject under discussion and not introduce irrelevant matters.
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