A task force was set up by the then NTUC President CV Devan Nair on 15 March 1980 to restructure the two omnibus unions - the Singapore Industrial Labour Organisation and the Pioneer Industries Employees’ Union - into Industrial Unions. A protem committee comprising 11 potential branch leaders appointed by the chairman of the task force was entrusted with the responsibility of forming the new union. On 18 November 1981, the Registrar for Trade Unions registered the Singapore Industrial and Services Employees’ Union officially as another union affiliated to the NTUC with 3,600 members.

A month later SISEU held its Inaugural Delegates Conference at the DBS Auditorium. The first Executive Committee with 21 members was elected by the 200 delegates at the conference.

The Union was thus born, not just to join the ranks of the 50 odd affiliates of NTUC, but to promote better labour-management relations, which underpin industrial peace and higher productivity.