By John O'Callaghan and Kevin Lim
SINGAPORE | Wed Nov 28, 2012 5:58am
EST
(Reuters) - This week's walkout in Singapore by dozens of mainland
Chinese bus drivers over disparities in pay would have been
considered small, calm and short-lived in almost any other
nation.
But the strike, in breach of the law and mostly over by Wednesday,
was the first
significant industrial action in the tightly regulated Asian
financial centre in more than 25 years.
For the first two days of this week, buses ran late and crowded in
a city that prides itself on efficiency, leading to complaints from
customers.
"This is Singapore NOT China. If you cannot
follow the law of the land please go back to your own country and
strike," Today newspaper reader Leonard Low wrote on the paper's
website.
After a tough election last year, the strike highlights challenges
for the long-ruling government of the majority ethnic Chinese
island as it tries to defuse anger over an influx of immigrants
while discouraging labour unrest that could hurt investment.
The action by the drivers from China, over complaints they are paid
less than Singaporean and Malaysian peers, also underlines the
treatment of lower-skilled foreign workers who are vital to
the construction,
hospitality and transport sectors in the wealthy city-state.
"There's a danger in becoming too emotional about it," said Bank of
America Merrill Lynch economist Chua Hak Bin. "Not many Singaporeans want to work
as bus drivers at this kind of wage levels. You need foreign
workers to fill the gap."
Chua said companies would have to get used to higher wage demands
by lower-skilled foreign workers, given the much larger salary
increases in countries such as China.
In the case of SMRT Corp Ltd (SMRT.SI),
one of two bus companies that ply Singapore's roads, Chinese
nationals account for about 450 of the 2,000 or so drivers on its
payroll.
Kit Wei Zheng, an economist at Citigroup, said more labour disputes
could emerge given developments in the region.
"Globally and regionally, there is greater labour activism taking
place," he said. "In China, you have seen more assertive industrial
action so, in hindsight, it was not surprising that some of these
pressures reached Singapore's shores."
As a global
financial centre with the world's highest concentration of
millionaires, Singapore is awash with flashy cars, pricey shops and
fancy restaurants that
epitomise the wealth of foreign and domestic businesspeople and
bankers.
But much of the vitriol against immigrants - about stealing jobs,
pushing up housing costs and crowding public transport - is
directed at the most visible, those who do the tough and dirty work
and are among the lowest paid.
"These (Chinese) drivers don't deserve the same salary and
benefits," Singapore resident Bao Heng wrote on Acting Manpower
Minister Tan Chuan Jin's Facebook page.
"Many Singaporeans would agree with me that Malaysians drivers are
safer drivers."
While comments in newspapers and Internet postings suggest many
Singaporeans favour a hard line against the striking bus drivers,
support for them was high in their native China.
"Come back
brothers, plenty of opportunities back home," one person wrote on
the Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo.
"Should go on
strike. This is a form of discrimination. Should be equal pay for
equal work," said another posting.
ZERO TOLERANCE
Singapore, which
saw its last major industrial action in 1986 at a U.S. oilfield
equipment firm, has no minimum wage and prohibits workers in public
transport and other essential services from going on strike without
giving notice of 14 days.
In taking action that Tan, the acting manpower minister, said
"clearly crossed the line", 171 Chinese drivers did not show up for
work on Monday and 88 did not report on Tuesday.
Most of them returned to duty on Wednesday after officials from the
Chinese embassy spoke with them late on Tuesday.
Tan said his ministry expected SMRT, controlled by powerful state
investor Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd , to address the grievances but
that the government had "zero tolerance for such unlawful
action".
The National Trades Union Congress, which does not represent the
Chinese drivers, said "any action that is illegal must and
will be dealt with firmly, regardless of whether the workers are
local or foreign".
The drivers complain SMRT switched them to a six-day week with
slightly higher pay from a five-day week that had allowed them to
earn more by doing overtime.
One driver told the Lianhe Wanbao newspaper he now was paid S$1,400
a month, lower than the S$2,000 he used to be able to make with
overtime on days off. The Chinese are also angry about getting less
than Singaporean and Malaysian drivers.
Bus drivers,
whether Chinese or Singaporean, are not highly paid in a country
where the 2011 median monthly salary was about S$3,250 for citizens
and permanent residents. Foreign maids and nannies
- most of them from Indonesia, the
Philippines and Myanmar -
do even worse, getting as little as S$500 a month.
SMRT, which calls its drivers "service leaders" (SLs), said it
lodged a police report over possible breaches of the law and urged
the Chinese workers to use proper channels for complaints.
"We have stressed to the SLs that the lines of communication to
management remain open and they should not take such unlawful
actions to air their grievances," it said in a statement.
One of the
striking workers, from China's Henan province, told media the
drivers had gone to supervisors and their company human resources
department but were told nothing could be done as the salary
decisions were made by senior managers.
"If we didn't
speak up for ourselves, we could be further disadvantaged in the
future," the unidentified driver said. (Editing by
Robert Birsel)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/28/uk-singapore-strike-idUSLNE8AR01J20121128
