All that waiting so little IMF action
Drivers say they wasted 2 weeks' leave as they had nothing to do.
But employer says they were told not to take leave
By Faith Teo and Tan May Ping
October 11, 2006
THE international delegates have long gone home.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF)-World Bank meetings have
become a distant memory for most Singaporeans.
Not for these four men, though.
The volunteer drivers are still fuming.
--David Tan
Too few driving days, too long hours and poor planning were but a
few of their grouses about the event which lasted from 11-23
Sep.
Like many others, they volunteered to be delegate drivers and took
leave to do the job.
They say they didn't do it for money.
After all, they claimed, two of them earn upwards of $4,000 a
month.
They said they decided to sign up because they wanted to do some
'national service', and they hoped to make new friends.
But they did not get the chance.
Mr Ang (they did not want to give their full names), 36, a sales
promoter, said he was put on duty only twice and both times were
spent waiting.
He never got to drive the BMW 730Li, the event's official
limousine.
HAD TO CALL RENTAL FIRM
He said he had to call C&P Rent-A-Car, the company in charge of
recruiting and assigning drivers, before being assigned.
'I had to call them before they told me to go down to Suntec to be
on standby,' he added.
'I waited there for nine hours from midnight to 9am with more than
20 others, and there was no proper place to rest or sleep. In the
end, they just told most of us to go home.'
He was told that his delegate had failed to show up.
The second time he was called, he spent the entire time
waiting.
When asked how much he earned from his two days of waiting, he said
with a laugh: 'I don't know how much. I didn't calculate.
'I was so frustrated already, sitting there and doing nothing.
Anyway the money is not much, and not important.'
Mr Ng, 50, got to drive a delegate for seven days and made about
$570 - but the ample-sized man had to do it in his own white
shirt.
'C&P called me before the event to tell me to collect my
uniform.
'But when I went there, they tried to give me an XL shirt when I
had specifically indicated that I needed an XXL.
'Of course, it didn't fit and I spent my money buying one,' he
said.
16 HOURS A DAY
Mr Ng showed us a chit indicating the hours he clocked. Most days
he had to work 16 hours, from 7.30am to 11.30pm.
'It was very tiring. With so many people waiting on standby, why
couldn't they have planned it better and spread the work among more
people?
'All these people took leave for the whole period, which is about
two weeks and in the end, many of them just wasted their
leave.'
BETTER COORDINATION
Mr Ng felt C&P could have done with better coordination.
'If they know a delegate is not turning up, let us cancel our leave
and go back to work instead of leaving us hanging like this,' he
said.
Said Mr Seah, a part-time maritime engineering trainer who recently
retired from the navy: 'Some people were just sitting at home for
14 days like fools.'
He also had to call C&P before being assigned.
The drivers also complained that they were not treated well, from
the way C&P officers spoke to them to the way they had to pick
up meal boxes from the floor.
Said Mr Ng: 'I got a small scratch under my car's mirror, and the
C&P representative questioned me on where I went.
'We are volunteers, why treat us like that? Even delegates treated
us better than the organisers.'
The delegate he drove bought him a box of mooncakes and invited him
to fly over for a visit.
Mr Ng beamed proudly as he passed round a handwritten note by the
delegate listing his personal contact information.
'This is why I volunteered,' he said with a smile.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All selected worked at least 3 days, says firm
OF the 600 drivers selected for Singapore 2006, 563 were activated
and they drove an average of four days each, said C&P
Rent-A-Car.
Senior manager Helen Chua said all selected candidates were
activated and worked at least three days as agreed in the
contract.
'There may have been some drivers who did not respond to our calls.
We would have endeavoured to contact them but after the fifth
attempt, we would consider it unsuccessful,' said Ms Chua.
Of the 37 not activated, nine were compensated as they were not
assigned official badges, while some drivers resigned and others
were not contactable.
Referring to complaints from the drivers that they had to call
C&P before they were assigned, Ms Chua said: 'C&P was
monitoring this issue closely. During the pre-event briefing, the
drivers were pre-empted to call us in the event they were not
contacted by 18 Sep.
'Having said that, all drivers were activated by that date.'
Ms Chua said the drivers were not told to take two weeks'
leave.
Rather, they were 'advised to make themselves available' and to
call its hotline to inform C&P if they were able to work only
on certain days. She said standby drivers were needed for the night
shift in case of unscheduled arrivals.
That was agreed upon in the contract with the S2006 transport
sub-committee.
On why some drivers had to work longer hours than others, Ms Chua
said: 'Our delegates and VIPs would prefer to continue with the
same driver throughout the duration of their stay, so it would not
be wise to upset them.'
A team was commissioned to monitor the drivers' welfare. If a
driver exceeded his designated hours, a new driver would have been
assigned to take over, she said.
As for complaints about the lack of a proper rest area and drivers
having to pick up meal boxes from the floor, Ms Chua said the rest
area was not within C&P's control.
And even though C&P was under no obligation to provide any
meals, it still provided hot beverage machines and simple
breakfasts.
Ms Chua said that only one driver who needed an XXL shirt had
approached the company for a reimbursement. C&P paid him $40
for the two shirts he bought.
She did not say why it could not provide XXL shirts.
When asked, in hindsight, if there could have been better planning
and management of the drivers, Ms Chua said: 'We value all feedback
constructively and will take them into consideration for future
enhancements and improvements.'