SINGAPORE – Almost 1,500 workers in various roles ranging from video editors to welding operators are set to receive an extra pay raise of 5.2 per cent on average through company transformation projects.

The raise is expected to come on top of their annual increment, and reflects the better productivity, redesigned jobs and improved work prospects these projects unlock. The new pay may start at any time within the project period.

The 84 firms that pledged the additional pay raises were able to defray the cost of these projects through the National Trades Union Congress’ Company Training Committee (CTC) Grant, said NTUC secretary-general Ng Chee Meng.

They come from industries such as built environment, hospitality and consumer business, and electronics.

Mr Ng was giving updates to the media on the impact of the grant scheme and the wider CTC programme ahead of NTUC’s National Delegates’ Conference on Nov 22 and 23 – an event held once every four years.

He said the CTC is an NTUC innovation that brings win-win outcomes for employers and workers, especially when businesses use the CTC Grant to remodel their business in conjunction with it.

Under the CTC programme launched in 2019, companies form committees together with unions to map out workers’ skills upgrading needs in the light of business and industry prospects.

As at Oct 31, over 1,700 CTCs have been formed, reaching over 123,000 workers, said the labour movement on Nov 21. Its target is for 2,500 to be set up by 2025.

It also said that 658 CTCs were formed in the year 2023 up to Oct 31, almost double the number set up in the whole of 2022. It said this reflects firms’ increasing recognition of a CTC’s value.

Companies can apply to NTUC’s Employment and Employability Institute for the CTC Grant to cover up to 70 per cent of qualifying cost of projects to raise productivity, redesign jobs and upskill workers.

NTUC said in September that 71 companies had applied for the grant, with $10.6 million committed to 88 projects. The $100 million scheme was launched in August 2022.

“I’m glad to hear from employers today that the business is better, with better possibilities of training and upskilling workers, and very importantly, the workers are also happier,” said Mr Ng, at a recent visit to Leathersolution, a grant recipient that provides bag restoration and repair services under the Dr Bags brand.

Leathersolution’s co-founder Esther Huang said the firm formed a CTC with the Singapore Manual and Mercantile Workers’ Union in February 2023, after joining the union in 2022, and mapped out a plan for the company’s growth in the next one to five years.

The plan identified two key digital transformations the company needed for growth – a new warehouse inventory system and a QR code-based enterprise resource planning system that allows its artisans to quickly find information on each project they handle, said Ms Huang, 38.

The company subsequently applied for and received the CTC Grant to help offset the $150,000 cost of these changes.

“This newfound efficiency isn’t just about optimising internal processes, it directly translates into an elevated customer experience,” she said, noting that lead times and repair accuracy have improved.

Ms Huang said that she initially feared the grant application would not be successful due to a lack of understanding about the firm’s business and industry, as well as what constitutes “significant innovation” in an artisanal field like luxury bag repair.

However, she said the advice it received from the labour movement in planning out its road map helped it fine-tune the proposal used in the grant application, with approval received in just under a month.

About half of the firm’s 40 employees have been impacted by the transformation project, with at least eight whose jobs have changed or have been redesigned.

The firm has committed to providing a 5 per cent wage increase for those who have taken on new skills and redesigned jobs.

One employee who has benefited is repair and restoration specialist Muhammad Syafiq Hamdan, 26.

Mr Syafiq said he used to spend a lot of time on back-and-forth conversations with the customer service team, who then liaised with customers, to confirm details of requests made. The process has become more efficient with the improved enterprise resource planning system.

He added that the new inventory system also came in handy, as it helps minimise the time needed to locate a single bag out of a few thousand items in storage.

“This enables me to focus on starting and completing my restoration works faster, and have additional time to guide and teach my newer colleagues.”