ABSTRACT
This chapter overviews the national context within which Singapore's employers engage with workers and government in industrial relations, labour market planning and workforce development. It offers a framework for analyses of the structure and strategies of the Singapore National Employer's Federation (SNEF), its affiliates and of other employer-related organizations, and of their roles and functions in Singapore's industrial relations, manpower planning and workforce development. The chapter assesses the scope and level of influence of the SNEF over Singapore's employment and industrial relations. The high-wage policy from 1979 left employers more dependent on the SNEF's representation in the National Wages Council (NWC) and other tripartite bodies. Indeed, part of the government's rationale for suggesting the merger of the Singapore Employers Federation (SEF) and the National Employers Council (NEC) was to provide a single voice for employers. Singapore's employers' associations were formed as a collective defence against industrial strife.
