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13 SBS Transit bus drivers have applied to transfer their lawsuit against the company from Magistrates’ Court to High Court on the grounds of several important questions of law of public interest relating to provisions in the Employment Act.
Having filed the application on behalf of the drivers, their lawyer M Ravi of Carson Law Chambers said in a Facebook post on Thursday (11 Mar) that the questions of law related to such provisions will not only impact their cases, but may also affect the rights of all 6,000 SBS Transit bus drivers.
“The suits will also be a test for the rights of all employees in Singapore,” he said.
Mr Ravi noted that SBS Transit will be opposing this application, “based on the indication given by its lawyers” at the last court session.
SBS Transit is represented by Senior Counsel Davinder Singh and his team.
The case has been set for a three-day trial in May, Mr Ravi added.
On 3 Mar last year, five bus drivers argued that by failing to compensate its bus drivers at the basic hourly rate of pay for their waiting time between shifts, SBS Transit had breached an implied term stated in their service agreement.
The lawsuit arose after the two parties had failed to reach a settlement in their final mediation session between the first tranche of suits as reported in Feb last year.
In a statement of claim filed in the State Courts that month, the bus drivers alleged that the company has breached several provisions under the EA — the statutory legislation upon which the terms and conditions pertaining to their working hours and overtime were based on.
The bus drivers claimed that SBS Transit had failed to compensate them at the basic hourly rate of pay “for the period between 4 a.m. to 5 a.m. on the morning and split shifts” in which the drivers are “engaged to be waiting”, and “between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. on the split shift”.
SBS Transit, they added, had also failed to abide by Clause 24(9) of the Service Agreement by not compensating them the agreed allowance of $18 for work done on the night shift.
The company, they alleged, had also breached Section 36(1) of the EA by failing to provide on a roster a weekly rest day.
In addition, the company had violated Section 37(3)(b) and Section 37(3)(c) of the EA by not paying them “the statutorily prescribed rate” of a sum at the basic rate of pay for two days’ worth of work, the bus drivers argued.
By imposing a “Built-In Overtime” that resulted in the bus drivers working for longer than the statutorily prescribed daily work period of eight hours as well as 44 hours per week, SBS Transit had also breached Section 38(1) of the EA, according to the bus drivers.
Other breaches under the EA allegedly made by SBS Transit, as claimed by the bus drivers, include compensating them at the normal hourly rate of pay — instead of the statutorily prescribed rate of an extra day’s salary at the basic rate of pay for one day’s work, in addition to the gross rate of pay for that day — for work done on public holidays.
The five additional bus drivers bring the total number of bus drivers currently taking legal action against SBS Transit to 13.
Previous writ of summons filed on the grounds of discrepancy between the drivers’ working hour records and the monthly payslips received from SBS Transit
In a writ of summons filed by Mr Ravi and seen by TOC in Sep 2019, the five bus drivers, who have been working for SBS Transit between three years to a decade, alleged that the company has “breached the term of the contract on overtime pay and have underpaid the clients”.
The above claim was made based on the discrepancy between the drivers’ working hour records and the monthly payslips they had received from SBS Transit, which were below the Ministry of Manpower (MOM)’s regulated pay rate, the document read.
Mr Ravi added that the possibility of a breach of MOM’s regulated pay rate needs to be examined in the immediate case and that any “statutory sanctions”, if available, should be looked into accordingly.
Additionally, the suit will potentially delve into the “extent of various EA breaches that may have occurred with regards rest days and overtime pay in the Contracts of Employment”, according to Mr Ravi.
A statement of claim — filed the same month — stressed that four of the bus drivers had already “commenced similar suits” against SBS Transit in the Magistrates’ Court previously, but were told to “wait for the decision” regarding their claim and report against the company.
“However, both the claim and report were ignored despite attending two (2) meetings with the National Transport Workers’ Union (“NTWU”) and ComfortDelGro respectively,” the document read, noting that the meetings took place in Jul and Aug.
The particular plaintiff in the statement of claim had “officially lodged a report to Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM)”, which was then referred to the National Trades Congress Union (NTUC).
However, he did not receive any “conclusive answers” after the meetings and decided to request “an official letter” from SBS Transit detailing the breakdown of his monthly salary in order “to better understand where the Defendants were coming from”.
While SBS Transit purportedly agreed to send such a letter within two days of the bus driver’s request, he did not receive any response from the company, following which he “sent out four (4) chaser emails” to the company.
SBS Transit allegedly replied by “restating their position which is in breach of the contract”, according to the statement of claim.
More at https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/20...-of-law-related-to-employment-act-provisions/
Having filed the application on behalf of the drivers, their lawyer M Ravi of Carson Law Chambers said in a Facebook post on Thursday (11 Mar) that the questions of law related to such provisions will not only impact their cases, but may also affect the rights of all 6,000 SBS Transit bus drivers.
“The suits will also be a test for the rights of all employees in Singapore,” he said.
Mr Ravi noted that SBS Transit will be opposing this application, “based on the indication given by its lawyers” at the last court session.
SBS Transit is represented by Senior Counsel Davinder Singh and his team.
The case has been set for a three-day trial in May, Mr Ravi added.
On 3 Mar last year, five bus drivers argued that by failing to compensate its bus drivers at the basic hourly rate of pay for their waiting time between shifts, SBS Transit had breached an implied term stated in their service agreement.
The lawsuit arose after the two parties had failed to reach a settlement in their final mediation session between the first tranche of suits as reported in Feb last year.
In a statement of claim filed in the State Courts that month, the bus drivers alleged that the company has breached several provisions under the EA — the statutory legislation upon which the terms and conditions pertaining to their working hours and overtime were based on.
The bus drivers claimed that SBS Transit had failed to compensate them at the basic hourly rate of pay “for the period between 4 a.m. to 5 a.m. on the morning and split shifts” in which the drivers are “engaged to be waiting”, and “between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. on the split shift”.
SBS Transit, they added, had also failed to abide by Clause 24(9) of the Service Agreement by not compensating them the agreed allowance of $18 for work done on the night shift.
The company, they alleged, had also breached Section 36(1) of the EA by failing to provide on a roster a weekly rest day.
In addition, the company had violated Section 37(3)(b) and Section 37(3)(c) of the EA by not paying them “the statutorily prescribed rate” of a sum at the basic rate of pay for two days’ worth of work, the bus drivers argued.
By imposing a “Built-In Overtime” that resulted in the bus drivers working for longer than the statutorily prescribed daily work period of eight hours as well as 44 hours per week, SBS Transit had also breached Section 38(1) of the EA, according to the bus drivers.
Other breaches under the EA allegedly made by SBS Transit, as claimed by the bus drivers, include compensating them at the normal hourly rate of pay — instead of the statutorily prescribed rate of an extra day’s salary at the basic rate of pay for one day’s work, in addition to the gross rate of pay for that day — for work done on public holidays.
The five additional bus drivers bring the total number of bus drivers currently taking legal action against SBS Transit to 13.
Previous writ of summons filed on the grounds of discrepancy between the drivers’ working hour records and the monthly payslips received from SBS Transit
In a writ of summons filed by Mr Ravi and seen by TOC in Sep 2019, the five bus drivers, who have been working for SBS Transit between three years to a decade, alleged that the company has “breached the term of the contract on overtime pay and have underpaid the clients”.
The above claim was made based on the discrepancy between the drivers’ working hour records and the monthly payslips they had received from SBS Transit, which were below the Ministry of Manpower (MOM)’s regulated pay rate, the document read.
Mr Ravi added that the possibility of a breach of MOM’s regulated pay rate needs to be examined in the immediate case and that any “statutory sanctions”, if available, should be looked into accordingly.
Additionally, the suit will potentially delve into the “extent of various EA breaches that may have occurred with regards rest days and overtime pay in the Contracts of Employment”, according to Mr Ravi.
A statement of claim — filed the same month — stressed that four of the bus drivers had already “commenced similar suits” against SBS Transit in the Magistrates’ Court previously, but were told to “wait for the decision” regarding their claim and report against the company.
“However, both the claim and report were ignored despite attending two (2) meetings with the National Transport Workers’ Union (“NTWU”) and ComfortDelGro respectively,” the document read, noting that the meetings took place in Jul and Aug.
The particular plaintiff in the statement of claim had “officially lodged a report to Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM)”, which was then referred to the National Trades Congress Union (NTUC).
However, he did not receive any “conclusive answers” after the meetings and decided to request “an official letter” from SBS Transit detailing the breakdown of his monthly salary in order “to better understand where the Defendants were coming from”.
While SBS Transit purportedly agreed to send such a letter within two days of the bus driver’s request, he did not receive any response from the company, following which he “sent out four (4) chaser emails” to the company.
SBS Transit allegedly replied by “restating their position which is in breach of the contract”, according to the statement of claim.
More at https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/20...-of-law-related-to-employment-act-provisions/
