Thread: Singapore : Migrant Bus Drivers Bailed after Singapore Strike

Migrant Bus Drivers Bailed after Singapore Strike
HEATHER TAN
December 7, 2012


A police van reverses out of the premises of a dormitory as negotiations with striking bus drivers continue within the building in Singapore.
(Photo: Reuters)

SINGAPORE—Four Chinese immigrant bus drivers accused of inciting the city-state’s first labor strike in 26 years have been granted bail in a case that highlighted growing social friction caused by an influx of foreign labor.

A fifth Chinese driver has already been sentenced to six weeks in prison even though prosecutors said he was not an instigator of the strike, which was called to demand equitable pay.

Walking off the job in protest is almost unheard of in Singapore, and the swift prosecution following the Nov. 26-27 strike was a clear sign that the government of this strictly-enforced country will not brook any disobedience from its work force.

Three of the men who appeared in court on Thursday were allowed a bail of 10,000 Singapore dollars (US $8,200). A fourth driver, He Jun Liang, who faces an additional charge of making an online post in Mandarin, was given a bail of S$20,000 ($16,400).

It is not clear if they will be able to raise the money to get out of detention before their case resumes on Dec. 12.

A Chinese embassy official who was present at the hearing declined to comment on the cases. If found guilty, all four men face up to one year in prison and a fine of up to $2,000.

The four drivers and the fifth already in jail were among 171 Chinese bus drivers of a state transport company who went on strike in protest at being paid nearly a quarter less than their Malaysian colleagues. The labor action disrupted about 5 percent of the city-state’s bus services.

Singapore requires essential service workers to give 14 days’ notice of a strike.

The last strike in the country was in 1986 by shipyard workers.

The government revoked the work permits of 29 other drivers and deported them to China.

The remaining drivers in the group were issued warnings, and will be allowed to remain and work in Singapore.

Authorities say a police investigation found that the strike was premeditated and that the drivers were absent from work without reason.

The bus company’s chief Desmond Kuek has said that the Chinese drivers’ salary was fair.

He said the Chinese were paid less than the Malaysians because the company bore their expenses for transport, accommodation and utilities.

Singapore relies on hundreds of thousands of immigrants from countries such as Indonesia, Bangladesh, China, Malaysia and Burma to work as maids, construction workers, waiters, garbage collectors and at other jobs deemed unappealing to many locals.

But the massive influx of foreigners has created much resentment among locals who see them as undisciplined and noisy.

They also blame the foreigners for the overcrowding that has put pressure on infrastructure, and for raising housing prices because of bigger demand on limited supply.

The case has not caused any diplomatic rift between Singapore and China, a major trading partner. But activists in Hong Kong staged a protest outside the Singapore consulate on Wednesday.

irrawaddy.org

Originally Posted by Mid

The case has not caused any diplomatic rift between Singapore and China, a major trading partner.

Give it time, and a few more episodes like this, may soon change that.

China would have shot them all.

Multiculturalism at work

A lot more to this story than being published in the daily papers (isn't there always!)
bottom line is Singapore needs it's slaves to be obedient! or else! there certainly not going to get a fair hearing!

Originally Posted by Necron99

China would have shot them all.

Don't think for a minute that this wouldn't be the case in Singapore as well.

The perfect little clean imaged city-state.

What lies underneath is sinister.

The Chinese already run the place anyway.
Any comparatives are all quite moot.

Why Chinese drivers went on strike in Singapore

Chen Jipeng

SINGAPORE, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Close to 200 Chinese bus drivers working with Singapore public transport operator SMRT took medical leave at the same time on Nov. 26 and Nov. 27.

The Ministry of Manpower said the action was illegal and five workers were charged, while 29 others had their work permits cancelled before being deported to China.

It is known that Singapore puts in place requirements that make it very difficult to have a strike legally, and imposes severe punishments for those participating in an illegal strike, especially in essential services sectors like transport, water and electricity.

So even if the drivers were not aware of the details of the law, they must have expected their actions to be illegal. Others trying to persuade them after they started the action may be aware of the consequences, too.
Then why did they go on strike anyway?

Some of the drivers working with the company told Xinhua on condition of anonymity that it all started with a change from five work days to six work days for all the workers earlier this year, which meant that the workers will get less in wages for overtime work.

One of the drivers said he could earn only around 1,700 Singapore dollars (1,393 U.S. dollars) a month now, compared with close to 2,000 U.S. dollars earlier.

Singaporean and Malaysian drivers in the city state were not happy with the change and sought help from the union. So the company agreed to raise the salaries for the drivers.

However, the Chinese workers received a pay rise of only 75 Singapore dollars, while the company's Malaysian drivers received pay rises of 275 Singapore dollars, in addition to a difference in bonus.

Even after the pay rise, the Chinese drivers did not earn as much as they did before the change to six workdays.

The drivers said they were also not happy with the poor conditions of the dormitory and the way a written notice was phrased. The notice used the words "excluding Chinese service leaders" in brackets in several places.

The drivers said eight to ten drivers typically live in the same room even though they work on different shifts, including those starting in the early morning and those starting in the afternoon. The first drivers often go to work as early as around 4: 00 a.m, while others come back as late as 1:00 a.m. They have to accept whatever shifts they are assigned to.

Only about ten percent of the Chinese drivers at the company were not represented by labor unions. Few dare to stand for their rights in the event of a labor dispute as they fear that the leaders may be punished.

The drivers are obviously aware of the severe consequences of their action, with no detailed knowledge of Singapore law.

SMRT has explained that the Chinese drivers are on two-year contracts while the Malaysian drivers were given permanent contracts.

The firm insisted that it is giving equitable pay to all the foreign drivers as they had to provide dormitory and transport for the Chinese drivers, but it did not explain why the pay rises are different.

Authorities and SMRT have said that they would encourage the Chinese workers to join labor organizations.

The Chinese drivers said they did not expect their fellow drivers to be jailed because an earlier labor dispute at another bus company was successfully resolved earlier this year.

Singapore has been proud of its labor relations in the past. It has relied on tripartite consultations involving the employers, the workers and the government in trying to settle labor disputes.

The successful labor relations have been considered one of the key factors in catapulting Singapore to a first world economy in only several decades, said Zheng Yongnian, director of the East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore.

A tripartite consultation mechanism works for local workers, whose last resort is implicitly to quit the job. However, for the foreign drivers, this is exactly what they cannot afford to do given the fees they paid the brokers.

news.xinhuanet.com


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China hopes Singapore secure rights of arrested drivers: ministry

BEIJING, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Friday that it hopes Singaporean authorities will properly handle the lawsuit concerning Chinese bus drivers and safeguard their rights.

An official from MOC told Xinhua that the ministry has asked the Chinese Embassy in Singapore to negotiate with Singaporean authorities on the lawsuit to meet Chinese drivers' reasonable demands.

The unnamed official said the dispute stemmed from Singaporean employers' discriminatory wages against Chinese and Malaysian bus drivers.

The official said MOC attaches great importance to the interests of Chinese people working overseas.

The ministry has asked domestic enterprises engaging in labor service exports to secure the interests of Chinese workers and help them protect their legal rights when involved in disputes.

A total of 171 Chinese bus drivers took medical leave on Nov. 26 in protest against inequitable pay rises by local public transport operator SMRT, and 88 of them stayed away from work the following day.

Five drivers were arrested and charged, while 29 others had their work permits revoked and deported to China.

Out of the arrested, Bao Fengshan was sentenced to six weeks in jail on Monday, and the remaining four charged with instigating an illegal strike were released on bail on Thursday.

Singaporean authorities said on Thursday that they would take into account the need to raise wages for bus drivers.

english.peopledaily.com.cn

Singapore: Be pure Be vigilant Behave

Clean , Green and Works ......................

Soul not available

Singapore bus strike: Who are the police investigating here?
Kirsten Han
Feb 07, 2013

Who knew a peaceful strike by a group of bus drivers could lead to such a fuss?

The bus strike by over 100 SMRT bus drivers from China led to 29 employees being repatriated, and five arrested and charged for their part in the strike. One, Bao Fengshan, pleaded guilty, served six weeks in jail and was repatriated. He did not have legal representation. The other four have engaged lawyers and are awaiting trial.

Two of the bus drivers, He Jun Ling and Liu Xiang Ying, granted interviews to filmmaker Lynn Lee. In their interviews, they alleged that they had been beaten and threatened by the police during their interrogations. Liu claimed that the police had told him, “Do you know I can dig a hole and bury you? No one will be able to find you.”

He Jun Ling on Vimeo

Excerpts from the interview alarmed members of civil society, who swiftly put together a statement calling for an independent inquiry into the claims. The Ministry of Home Affairs then launched an investigation, saying that the Internal Affairs Office within the Singapore Police Force would be “approaching bus drivers, the producers of the video and other related parties to seek their assistance in its investigation.”

The investigation apparently began with plainclothes policemen confiscating Lee’s hard drive containing footage of the interviews. In a Facebook status update, Lee wrote, “The IO (who seemed nice enough) couldn’t tell me which section of the CPC allowed him to seize the drive and had to make a few calls to check.”

On 6 February, Lee spent two-and-a-half hours at the police headquarters talking to the police about the case. This morning, more police showed up at her house, wanting to seize her phone, laptop and iMac. Lee wrote on Facebook: “I asked how the three devices were relevant to their investigation as they already had the hard drive containing all the footage of my interviews with the ex-SMRT drivers. Superintendent Goh said it was ‘necessary’ and ‘related’ and that while it was ‘unpleasant’ for me, he just had to take my property. Again, I asked how my phone was even relevant to the investigation. He couldn’t give me a specific answer. Neither did he seem to know the relevant provisions under which he was acting, asking us to allow him to seize the items first, then make any complaint we had to the ‘relevant authorities’ later.”

After calling her lawyer, it was agreed that the police would not seize her property, but that Lee would go to their headquarters in the afternoon and have her things examined in her presence. At the time of writing, she is still in police headquarters, and has been there for over five hours. In that time, her laptop has been taken apart and her phone temporarily seized. Her bathroom breaks have also been supervised.

Liu Xiang Ying on Vimeo

“[T]hey are looking for video files that don’t exist!” she writes in a WhatsApp message. “My laptop is too small to handle big video clips or FCP. And there is no more video of interviews with the men. Talk about a fishing expedition.”

“My computer feels raped. They can see everything including online activity and deleted documents,” she later added. The police also went through her phone records, and even asked for the password to her email account (but were refused).

Although Lee also said that the police were “not unpleasant” and were “nice to me”, this whole episode raises alarming questions. How is combing through a filmmaker’s private laptop and mobile phone relevant to the investigation? Why must they look through her online history and deleted documents, or her phone records?

Is as much rigour being put into interrogating the officers who have allegedly abused the ex-bus drivers? Or is this really just a ‘fishing expedition’ on those perceived to be on the ex-bus drivers’ ‘side’?
What – or who – are the police actually investigating here?

An ongoing Storify with latest updates can be found here.

asiancorrespondent.com