A Union Leader Needs to Adapt to the Needs of Members

In the 27 years Mike Thiruman has been with the Singapore Teachers’ Union (STU), he has seen the evolving roles of teachers and their changing needs.

“Over the years, things have changed dramatically for teachers, their work conditions, parents’ expectations, and the profile of students. So teachers had to adapt and adapt very quickly. That adds a lot of stress to teachers,” explained Mike.

Mike is currently the union’s general secretary.

With the changing needs of teachers, STU saw the need to keep up to be relevant.

Mike said that STU’s priority was to help teachers in their professional development in the early years.

Today, that priority has shifted to helping teachers in their well-being and achieving work-life harmony.

Work-life Balance

STU last year conducted an internal focus group discussion with some 100 teachers.

While teachers in the focus group still see career development as necessary, more younger teachers see work-life balance as critical.

It is well-known how much work being a teacher is. They teach multiple subjects and co-curricular activities. On top of that, they also have administrative duties like attendance-taking, collating documents for bursaries, writing student reports and planning school events.

Mike said: “That’s why we are advocating for some kind of parameters in terms of the duties and the working hours, and the scope of work of teachers.”

While the Ministry of Education (MOE) has provided more administrative staff and allied educators to help teachers lighten their load, Mike said the issue could be systemic.

“Every school wants to offer the best for their students. And every school wants to provide a broad range of student programmes. However, their resources are limited at the end of the day.

“The teachers are stretched because of the overall programming in schools. So we need to find a balance to say, ‘How do we stop some of these programmes that may not yield as many results?’” said Mike.

Beyond Money

Teachers and allied educators have recently received an increase of 5-10 per cent in their monthly salaries.

STU had been actively calling for the salary review and subsequent increase.

While Mike said he is glad that MOE has answered STU’s calls, which he said was long overdue, he added that the salary increase does not address the overall working condition of teachers.

He said: “This is like looking after the financial well-being of teachers. Then we need to focus on teachers’ professional and emotional well-being. We all know, in this day and age, people don’t just become happy because of salaries, especially for this group of people who are educated Professionals, Managers and Executives (PMEs).

“This is a PME issue that we looked at during the #EveryWorkerMatters Conversations. There must be other systems beyond salary to keep and retain employees.”

Change Agent

With more than two decades of union work under his belt, Mike said that union leaders need to be catalysts and change agents.

He said: “We must look at our unions and see how we can change things in the workplaces and how unions operate with members. Always be on the lookout for our relationship with members and their needs and aspirations.”

Mike is one of the union leaders featured in the #EveryWorkerMatters Roving Booth that is making its way around Singapore. It is part of the #EveryWorkerMatters Conversations, a larger-scale series of engagements by the Labour Movement to engage all workers across various life stages.

To catch the next roving booth, visit conversations.ntuc.sg/activities.

To participate in the #EveryWorkerMatters Conversations, visit conversations.ntuc.sg.