WORKERS in the service sector that facilitate tourism, healthcare, education, food and beverage activities need to become people pleasers. In this growing industry, they need a new set of skills and adopt new attitudes to be able to interact with people, understand their customers, empathise with them and see to their needs.

“Customers today are very demanding. They will no longer be happy with sales staff who just tell them, what you see on the shelves is what we have and what you will get. So our workers must learn how to give a five-star level of service,” said Mr Lee Hsien Loong, guest-of-honour at a National Day Observance Ceremony organised by the financial and services unions cluster, at NTUC Centre on 3 August 2004. Mr Lee was sworn in as Singapore’s third Prime Minister on 12 August 2004.

Home Of Labour Revisited

DID you know that Mr SR Nathan’s first job was a welfare officer in the seamen’s union?

Later, in 1962, he joined NTUC’s Labour Research Unit as Assistant Director and went on to serve as the unit’s director till early 1966. Just as the President of Singapore recollected the old days while walking through the NTUC Gallery, workers will one day – from reading the Guest Book which he signed – also fondly recall his visit to NTUC Centre on 16 July 2004.

Doing Double Duty

TAXI drivers can also become licensed tour guides. So far, there are 40 on the road. Another 140 cabbies have signed up for the course organised by Singapore Taxi Academy. To do double duty, taxi drivers must pass a written test – comprising of 150 multiple-choice questions covering a ide range of topics from local food to Singapore history – and an oral test where the he must prove his conversational and public speaking skills. Soon, the Academy will be launching a Functional Literacy for Our Workers (Flow) Programme for applicants of taxi driver’s vocational licence who have little or no basic use of the English language.

Every Cent Saved Is Every Cent Earned

Cabbies Save 2 Cents
FOR every litre of diesel that a cabby puts into his petrol tank, he gets a 2-cent rebate. For someone who uses about 40 litres each day, the savings come up to $25 a month. To enjoy this
cost-savings, you must first of all be a Comfort, YellowTop or CityCab taxi driver… then you must drive into one of 14 ComfortDelgro Engineering pumping stations. The diesel rebate scheme, launched in July 2004, will benefit some 35,000 taxi drivers.

Shoppers Save 2 Per Cent
THE 2 per cent increase on Goods and Services Tax (GST) for FairPrice Supermarket’s Basket of 400 Essential Items will continue to be absorbed by NTUC Fairprice Co-operative Limited until end-December 2004. In a statement released on 6 July 2004, Chairman S Chandra Das said Fairprice, which covers more than half of the supermarket business in Singapore, was doing this to help workers and lower-income families stretch their dollar as far as possible.

Back