Straits Times, 25.02.04
SIA needs to fix worker morale issues
Labour chief highlights need to bring workers on board, build consensus, as NTUC-affiliated unions list grievances
By Rebecca Lee
SINGAPORE Airlines' troubled labour-management relations received another public airing yesterday when the Government released feedback reflecting poor staff morale - and a roadmap on moving ahead.
The feedback showed that SIA's pilots, who have been in the news over their unhappiness with management, are not the only ones with grievances.
When the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) collected views from three of its four affiliated SIA unions last month, they complained of low morale and a changed atmosphere in recent years.
Where a family spirit once prevailed, the key word now was 'accountability' and a 'culture of fear' had spread, they said.
Workers feared making mistakes and were being threatened with the sack often, the key leaders of the SIA Staff Union, Singapore Airport Terminal Services Workers' Union and SIA Engineering Company Engineers and Executives Union told NTUC.
Yesterday, the Senior Minister's Office made public this feedback along with a note from NTUC chief Lim Boon Heng on how he saw SIA's labour issues and how NTUC unions conduct their industrial relations.
Mr Lee Kuan Yew had stepped in to take personal charge of SIA's troubles with the Air Line Pilots Association-Singapore (Alpa-S), after pilots ousted their union's leadership last November.
Seeing this as a growing confrontational stance from Alpa-S, Mr Lee had warned that he would not let the pilots hold the airline hostage.
On Monday, his office made public an exchange of letters between him and new Alpa-S president Mok Hin Choon in which the pilots pledged to cooperate and settle issues amicably.
Capt Mok had also detailed the pilots' grievances, and Mr Lee replied that he was not saying management was blameless either.
Alpa-S is not an NTUC- affiliated union. The other three NTUC-affiliated unions' feedback released yesterday suggests two things.
First, SIA has changed internally as it grapples with an industry which has been battered. Second, it needs to improve its industrial relations, a point Mr Lee has also made.
In laying out the NTUC's approach to good industrial relations, Mr Lim noted that the key was fair play and mutual trust.
'When union leaders can deliver what they promise, then they will gain the trust of their members. Employers have to bear this in mind when they negotiate this with union leaders. When employers keep their word, then trust will develop,' he said.
On the role unions play, he said 'the best help that the union can give a worker is to get him a job'.
Thus unions must aim to help members boost their company's competitiveness. How? By making sure they improve their skills, accept flexible wages pegged to business conditions, and increase productivity.
But such logic was not enough, he said. Workers bore the impact of changes and needed to understand what was happening and what needed to be done. Thus, the NTUC believed in regular dialogue with members and building consensus.
'NTUC does not seek gains for workers by confrontation.'
He also made the point that a company ultimately must exist to benefit the community, not its shareholders.
In their feedback, union leaders accused SIA management of bullying unions, using 'divide-and-rule' tactics to gain the upper hand in negotiations, and paying union leaders scant respect.
'Their gestures and tone are humiliating,' they said.
They also complained of many factions in management, a lack of information sharing or appreciation for sacrifices staff had made.
They also attacked double standards by management, favouring their own, such as agreeing to give profit-sharing bonuses for newly-employed management officers and refusing to budge with new non-management workers.
Mr Lim said he did not want to go into 'micro issues' but he did comment on SIA's medical benefits, which did not adopt the Government's co-payment guidelines. He warned that giving full medical benefits was 'unsustainable'.
SIA management said yesterday that it would make its position clear in due course.
Yesterday, SM Lee's office indicated another way forward - a vision statement from another company, Shell, on its industrial relations.
In it, both union and management pledge to do right - by the company and by workers.