Educating foreign workers on unions

The illegal strike by 171 China-born SMRT bus drivers cast the spotlight on Singapore's reliance on foreign workers, and how they are treated and represented. Mr Yeo Guat Kwang, chairman of the Migrant Workers' Centre (MWC), and Mr Desmond Choo, the National Transport Workers' Union's (NTWU) deputy executive secretary and NTUC's deputy director of industrial relations, share their views with Tessa Wong.

The Straits Times, 1 Dec 2012

What do you think were the problems that caused the strike?

Mr Desmond Choo (DC): I think before we go into the problems that caused the incident, it's important to also understand that on a broad level, there has been an established system that tripartite partners have worked out to address issues such as this.

We have about 140,000 foreign workers already joining NTUC. A certain number of these workers have full collective agreement coverage, which means wage benefits are negotiated on their behalf. All the members enjoy industrial relations benefits, like grievance-handling, and social welfare benefits, like if they have health and safety issues.

Now when you have that as the big picture, how could this incident still happen?

Of course, wages was one of the issues they had, but when I talked to the SMRT bus drivers, I found two things that were very important to them: the living conditions - I don't think they were up to scratch, a lot more could have been done for the workers - and the second, were their concerns being addressed in a timely fashion? I think that was a big missing part. Also, in the dorms, they have six to seven in a place, but some are from different shifts, so their rest times are affected. Although it appears minor to some, it's critical for these workers.

These add up. When they start to see that they face all these issues every day, try to raise the matter but it was not addressed in a timely fashion, it builds up.

How could all these have been avoided? What could NTWU and MWC have done to remedy the situation?

DC: One thing that I shared with them was, if you joined the union and if we could represent you, would this have helped? They said, certainly, who wants to do this if they have alternatives?

(We said) ignorance of the law is no defence for the things you have done. In fact, you have not exhausted your avenues, you could have gone to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) for help.

But we also recognise that if there was this line of communication in place, then it could really have solved quite a fair bit of these problems.

Mr Yeo Guat Kwang (YGK): So far, the workers have not come to us (at MWC). When we first heard about this, we put up

our statements straightaway through the media and urged all the workers to come to us.

Since May 2009, when we set up MWC, we have been doing advocacy work. We extend assistance to the workers when they have disputes with their employers, even those who have been abandoned by employers, we provide shelter, we provide relief, even some ex-gratia payment to help them go back to their countries. This year alone, we have helped 1,500 workers who had similar problems.

So they have options like joining unions or coming to us. Unfortunately, some of the workers come from different cultures and backgrounds - they don't understand that we have a very strong tripartite relationship as a framework to help them.

We also have to highlight work attitudes and ethics. You can't say that because you don't know the law, then you will do (an illegal strike) without even considering that your action will affect a lot of members of the public.

Every foreign worker that comes into the country on a work permit is given an information booklet telling them about the foreign workers unit in MOM and the MWC hotline.

Throughout the years, we have organised a number of events and even gone round to all the dorms to organise roadshows to tell them they can come to us if they need help.

But couldn't the NTWU and MWC have done more to reach out to these Chinese workers? Did you see this coming?

DC: Definitely we try to reach out to all workers in SMRT. In fact, we want as many transport workers to join us as possible. You have seen that in SBS Transit, for example, a very good number of workers who came onboard. One reason that to me was clear is that if you have that strong relationship that members come onboard and join the union, things can be solved in a better fashion.

The culture of joining the union must be there. For example, in SBS, everyone comes and says, let's join. The fellow workers will also encourage you to join. That might not be evident on the other side. Of course, we would also encourage management to get all their workers from all nationalities to join the union.

Only 11 per cent of foreign workers are union members compared with 27 per cent among locals. Why do foreign workers generally not want to become unionised?

DC: Some of them see themselves as short-term stayers - "I'm here to earn my living for two years, then I'm gone." They see themselves as transient. If they are on a fixed-term contract, they feel that they have already negotiated with their employers before coming to Singapore, so they don't see the benefit in joining.

Some also say, "Oh, you know, I heard from my country that I'm not allowed to join a (Singapore) union." So maybe for misinformed reasons, some of them didn't join.

YGK: Coming from different countries, they may have a different perception of what a union is. Not every country has the strong tripartite relationship we have.

Many actually do not quite understand the benefits of unionisation. There are also unique factors, such as the intermediaries or employment agents who will threaten them and say, "You should not join a union."

What can be done to prevent such incidents from happening again?

YGK: Moving forward, all employers should learn the lesson. They have to continue to ensure they are treating all workers fairly, whether local or foreign, and make clear their terms and conditions to all workers. More importantly, all management should strengthen their communication with their workers, particularly foreign workers.

What we'll do at MWC is step up our publicity efforts further, maybe raise the frequency of events and roadshows to strengthen the outreach.

We will also consider making ourselves more visible. We are working with some of our partners to set up more outlets, and are thinking of adding another two more.

We also have to highlight to all these workers their social responsibility. When they are working in the essential and public services, they must understand that a strike must be the last resort.

DC: I think there will be more outreach, sharing of industrial relations and its benefits, what is proper grievance-handling about, what are the different ways they can approach a union, the different channels.

These are things we have done over the years. Let's not take a knee-jerk reaction and change our ways of engagement and all our systems of outreach.

Our numbers and membership have been growing and we have established a system of tripartism - let's not forget that.

Now, are there specifics that have not gone quite right?

One thing we see is the importance of communication between management and workers. Once you take that for granted, you let slip and you have an incident like this. So it's a timely reminder.

Why do we still need foreign workers to be our bus drivers? Can we attract more Singaporeans by paying higher wages?

DC: It's more than just a pay issue. It's not easy driving a bus; not everyone has the aptitude to do that.

A bus route can take an hour or an hour and a half, and you have to do that five to six times a day. These are tough pressures to handle.

Also the labour market is tight. Even in good jobs, it will be tough to get people, let alone in jobs where the working conditions are tough. So it's not surprising that we don't have enough locals.

Can pay get better? There was a recent pay revision, I think workers are appreciative of that. But we are also working to see if we can get better packages over the years.

Do some workers leave the industry because of other reasons than pay? There are. Some don't want to be on shift or don't want to be under pressure all the time. Workers leave the industry for a variety of reasons.

Are we over-relying on foreign workers to staff essential services like public transport?

YGK: No, the top sector that employs foreign workers is still construction.

DC: The marine sector, shipbuilding and shipping tend to have a lot more. These are tough manual jobs that Singaporeans have not been taking up for a while.

YGK: For public transport, most employees are still locals.