SMRT Strike - The National Interest Perspective

[oppoibchief]

Ah Goh is a wily fox that sabo oppo...beware!

 

[Thick Face Black Heart]

Ah Goh is a wily fox that sabo oppo...beware!

Your nick is already 6 months old ... now den you know?!?!

 

[watchman8]

Ah Goh is a wily fox that sabo oppo...beware!

Fox, yes.
Wily, no.

 

[krafty]

it's alright, i dun mean a thing at all but i am astonished that they chose SPH as CEO, still dun understand what good in her, she looks tough but...SPH ...oh no, not referring to our newspaper but come to think of it, a lot gong chee byes in SPH too.

i didnt see your post as i normally just skip posts by you. just treat my post as add on can since yours didnt list transport also provided.

 

[aurvandil]

It is always nice to put a name and face to who is ultimately responsible for this state of affairs at SMRT.

Ms. Teo Chew Hoon has been an Executive vice President of Commercial & Roads at SMRT Corp. Ltd. since March 1, 2011. Ms. Teo served as Senior Vice President of Commercial Business at SMRT Taxis Pte Ltd and SMRT Corp. Ltd. Ms. Teo served as Vice President at SMRT Taxis Pte Ltd. of SMRT Corp. Ltd. since January 2010. Ms. Teo served as Vice President of Commercial Business at Smrt Investments Pte Ltd. She served as Director of Commercial at Singapore MRT Ltd. Before joining SMRT, Ms. Teo held positions as Group Sales Manager and subsequently General Manager of Airport Operations at DFS Venture Singapore (Pte) Ltd. since 1999. The businesses under her charge included Duty Free Liquor, Wines, Tobacco, Beauty, Fashion Goods, Watches, Souvenirs and Packaged Food. Ms. Teo graduated from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Economics.

Annual Compensation*
Salary $199,356
Bonus $195,627
Total Annual Compensation $394,983

Stock Options*
Restricted Stock Awards $49,428
All Other Compensation $12,000

Total Compensation*
Total Annual Cash Compensation $406,983
Total Short Term Compensation $394,983
Other Long Term Compensation $61,428
Total Calculated Compensation $456,411

http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=7998617&ticker=MRT:SP

Agree absolutely.

 

[scroobal]

Min wage for the country to provide decent remuneration for Singaporeans. Entry into the local work sector for foreigners controlled by tight criteria and only allowed when a sector has supply shortage.

At the moment, employers either do not increase pay or lower pay and then claim that no Singaporean takers.

In OZ, Canada, UK, etc have min wage, and entry is tightly regulated.

Pay in Singapore has stagnated for entry level jobs because in the pass, the govt will provide work permits and employment passes liberally. Why pay decent wages, when you get cheaper supply at the drop of a hat.

Afraid I may not have understood your stance entirely. Can minimum wage be effective (at reversing local work force displacements) without foreign labour supply constraints?

 

[enterprise2]

The mental image I have is that Lim Boon Heng is long dead and partially eaten. He however hasn't quite figured out he is dead and has therefore become what can only be described as a zombie.

Zorro Lim is tied to a stake and crying uncontrollably as he feels he will be next on the menu.

Circling round both of them like a vulture is Jo Teo who is greedily smacking her lips and positioning herself to get the best piece of meat when the axe finally falls on Zorro.

I like your description on the mental image of Jo Teo!!

 

[mojito]

Min wage for the country to provide decent remuneration for Singaporeans. Entry into the local work sector for foreigners controlled by tight criteria and only allowed when a sector has supply shortage.

At the moment, employers either do not increase pay or lower pay and then claim that no Singaporean takers.

In OZ, Canada, UK, etc have min wage, and entry is tightly regulated.

Pay in Singapore has stagnated for entry level jobs because in the pass, the govt will provide work permits and employment passes liberally. Why pay decent wages, when you get cheaper supply at the drop of a hat.

Here's a simple way to look at this incident.

Cheaper supply appears to be an initiative directed by the corporate suite. There must be a difference between unionized and non-unionized staff, the latter which is deemed to be transient. The strike is fully the result of the management failure to hire reliable transient staff, or perhaps even an over-reliance on transient staff such that services are noticeably disrupted.

A large and significant transient staff proportion on the other hand reflects poorly on the strength of unions in negotiating reasonable compensation for its members to maintain at its own proportion. Incidents from transient staff should not have caused a disruption as serious as this.

 

[mojito]

scroobal, I agree in principle but it is tricky when you institute minimum wage. For instance in this SMRT example if you mandate a minimum wage of say 3k (for illustrative purposes) for Singaporeans, the union just need to hire one Singaporean bus driver in order to increase the salaries for all unionized workers regardless of nationality as foreigners will desire parity with Singaporeans as the difference becomes large. Not that it would be demanding for SMRT considering its corporate suite seems to be unusually well compensated, but the ramifications need to be examined. Unfortunately only the PAP is able to do this now and we are forced to take their word for it.

 

[GoldenDragon]

Fox, yes.
Wily, no.

Just reminded me of an ang mo kawan of mine. His family name? Fox-Decent!

 

[mojito]

Ah Goh is a wily fox that sabo oppo...beware!

GMS is but a singing hog. Rarely a song in tune.

 

[kingrant]

SINGAPORE - Four Chinese national SMRT bus drivers who were involved in the recent illegal strike were charged in court this afternoon for abetting fellow drivers employed by SMRT Buses Ltd to take part in a strike on Monday and Tuesday.

According to court documents, sometime between Nov 24 and Nov 25, He Jun Ling, 32, Gao Yue Qiang, 32, Liu Xiangying, 33, Wang Xiangjie, 39 took part in discussions to instigate workers to take part in a strike on Nov 26 and Nov 27.

He Jun Ling and Gao subsequently instigated fellow workers, sometime between 6pm and 10pm on Nov 25, at Blk 21 Woodlands Sector 1.

Sometime between 10am and 12pm on Nov 25, He Jun Ling also made a post in Chinese, addressed to all SMRT Service Leaders from China, titled "The insults and humiliations suffered by Singapore drivers (SMRT) (where is the dignity of the People's Republic of China bus drivers)" at baidu.com.

According to court documents, the post contained the following statements in Chinese:

"But why don't we think of it the other way around, if a few hundred Chinese Nationals take the lead, I am afraid the management of SMRT will be fired instead, not that we do not know the traffic situation in Singapore, a few hundred bus drivers do not report got work for a few days there will be public outcry in Singapore, Lianhe Zaobao, MyPaper and the English papers will all wait on us, trying to find out the reason(s) for the action. Land Transport Authority will have to start questioning SMRT."

"Rational and hot-blooded fellow workers have to take action! Let's go on MC together tomorrow 26, Monday and 27, Tuesday. We have to depend on ourselves for our dignity and interest, MC (whether paid or not paid) is nothing when compared to your own interest, just tens of dollars isn't? When it comes to fighting for our dignity it is far more important than tens of dollars. Please relay the message to as many as possible, not afraid of traitor(s), Monday morning at the entrance to hostels at Ang Mo Kio and Woodlands please inform those who are not aware, insist not to board the company transport. Boycott and despite those who are not taking any action, they will suffer guilty conscience. It concerns the interest if everybody, everyone should take part."

All four were charged under Section 10(a) of the Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Act, Chapter 7 read with Section 109 of the Penal Code, Chapter 224.

He Jun Ling was charged with two counts of the offence while the rest were charged with one count each.

All four have been remanded for a week for further investigations.

"Police investigations are still ongoing and we need to wait for police investigations to be completed before we comment further," said a spokesman from the Attorney-General's Chambers.

Two officials from the Chinese embassy were present in court to observe proceedings but declined further comment.

Section 10(a) of the Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Act states that any person who instigates to incites others to take part in, or otherwise acts in furtherance of, a strike or lock-out which is illegal shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding S$2,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both.

Section 109 of the Penal Code, Chapter 224 states that whoever abets any offence shall, if the act abetted is committed in consequence of the abutment, and no express provision is made by the Code for the punishment of such abetment, be punished with the punishment provided for the offence.

Under the Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Act, essential service workers cannot go on strike unless they give their employers 14 days' notice of their intention.

The case will be heard again on Dec 6 at 10am.

 

[kingrant]

With this latest expose, GMS's national interest perspective now looks pathetically naive. See how the PRC leaders plotted to exploit naive human rights mindsets to their goals? Had Opp parties come out to champion their rights, they would be tilting at windmills, and will be made to look like fools.

 

[Thick Face Black Heart]

With this latest expose, GMS's national interest perspective now looks pathetically naive. See how the PRC leaders plotted to exploit naive human rights mindsets to their goals? Had Opp parties come out to champion their rights, they would be tilting at windmills, and will be made to look like fools.

Spot on. It never pays to jump the gun. Verify and ascertain first before speaking up. The oppo parties are getting smarter.

GMS's "benefit foreigners in order to benefit locals" is exact facsimile to PAP's philosophy of "hire foreigners to create jobs for locals". Sama sama .... same lyrics same tune same song. I'm glad no oppo party listened to him.

 

[ahkow]

Spot on. It never pays to jump the gun. Verify and ascertain first before speaking up. The oppo parties are getting smarter.

GMS's "benefit foreigners in order to benefit locals" is exact facsimile to PAP's philosophy of "hire foreigners to create jobs for locals". Sama sama .... same lyrics same tune same song. I'm glad no oppo party listened to him.

Goh Meng Seng is always naive in the way he think and look at things. Just ignore him.

 

[CELLULAR]

The court took action pretty quickly this time. So when will they be sentenced? The quicker the better.

 

[Thick Face Black Heart]

Goh Meng Seng is always naive in the way he think and look at things. Just ignore him.

Don't worry bro, we're having loads of fun. Just happy he is no longer with an opposition party.

 

[GOONDUSAMI]

GMS is the worst jiat liao bi TWIT!

 

[GoldenDragon]

Just happy he is no longer with an opposition party.

For the moment, yes. But don't rule out GMS giving us all a pleasant surprise come next GE. Always expect the unexpected from certain people.