The agreement builds on the collaboration that started in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, said MOH, PSD and SIA Group.
“The trilateral MOU strengthens our national collective resilience and agility to respond to future crises,” they added.
MOH, PSD, and the SIA Group will collaborate in two key areas: Training and volunteer deployment of cabin crew to care roles, and tabletop exercises to stress test Singapore’s crisis response protocols.
The MOU was signed by Permanent Secretary (Health) Chan Yeng Kit, Permanent Secretary (Development) Teoh Zsin Woon, and SIA CEO Goh Choon Phong.
“While the SIA Group had surplus manpower at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, many public sector organisations needed more staff on the frontlines,” said Mr Goh.
“Working closely with MOH and PSD, we successfully transitioned over 2,000 of our people to roles with various public agencies and healthcare institutions.
“Being exposed to different types of support roles also benefitted our people, who used their experience and new skills to enhance our customer service.”
The MOU establishes a pathway to redeploy SIA Group staff “should a similar situation arise” in the future, he added.
SIA STAFF DEPLOYED DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, public agencies and healthcare institutions in Singapore faced an urgent manpower squeeze.
SIA and Scoot, after reducing operations due to closed borders, worked with MOH and PSD to redeploy more than 2,000 staff members to frontline roles from March 2020.
This included over 900 cabin crew members who served as care ambassadors to support healthcare institutions in patient care, which freed up nurses and other healthcare staff to devote additional focus to patients who required more complex clinical care.
SIA and Scoot staff were also temporarily redeployed as transport ambassadors, contact tracing executives and social service office processing officers.
“When borders reopened and crisis operations stood down, the crew were able to pivot back to their jobs, enabling the SIA Group to recover quickly,” said SIA Group, MOH and PSD.