SMRT cheats their train drivers of their public holidays

SMRT train drivers are not paid the 11 public holidays (PH) in a year. The rest of SMRT staff are paid either "off in lieu" or an extra day pay for each holiday of the year.

For more than 20 years, until recently from 1/4/2009, SMRT NEVER pays their train drivers the yearly 11 Public Holidays! Train drivers are exploited and short changed by the management. Train drivers are just like those slaves.

http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/01/to-my-old-master.html

The National Transport Workers' Union (NTWU) in collusion with SMRT management offers a rather lame reason to justify this obvious exploitation by saying that train drivers work shorter hours. That train drivers do not work (until 1/4/2009) the "required" 44 hrs per week is used to propagate and justify their non-payment of the government gazetted 11 public holidays in a year which every worker in Singapore is entitled to. It is a lie they perpetuate and justify with their own logic.

According to NTWU which is actually the agent and spokesman for SMRT management, train drivers have got 91 off days in a year. The labour law in Singapore says that every worker is entitled to at least 63 off days in a year. But then office hours staff have got even more off days at 115 off days in a year because they work 5 days in a week and still are entitled to the 11 public holidays like all workers.

NTUW further says that usually a worker has got 78 off days even though the law stipulates a minimum of 63 off days a year. In other words prior to 1/4/2009 (PH is paid after that), total off days for train drivers at 91 days is 13 days more than the 78 days (normal worker) and 39 days more than the legal minimum of 63 days. We must bear in mind that those workers are still entitled to the 11 days of PH compensation.

In order to cheat or exploit, you need reason - better still if it is a full proof ingenious twisted reason to justify your devious greed or dirty lie. Otherwise, it becomes daylight robbery! SMRT is the manifestation of the worst corporate avarice in Singapore. There is no broad daylight robbery but there is bottomless corporate greed here.

http://www.mom.gov.sg/employment-practices/employment-rights-conditions/leave-and-holiday/Pages/public-holidays.aspx

According to the Ministry of Manpower, every worker in Singapore including foreign workers such as those from Bangladesh or China workers are entitled to the 11 gazetted public holidays in a year. It is silent on the duration of working hours. It is never linked to the workers' working hours.

Let us not forget that those working hours were given and planned by SMRT. Train drivers did not propose those working hours in the first place. The 44 hours per week is to prevent exploitation of workers. Working beyond 44 hrs per week shall be considered as OT. It didn't mean that every worker must be pushed and squeezed to this limit of 44 hrs per week.

The union came out with a creative idea to link the two issues which are completely non related at all! Our NTWU - National Transport Workers' Union Secretary General is a scholar holding many directorships including directorship in SMRT. He lost in Aljunied GRC but is still active in the unions supposedly protecting or "suppressing" workers' basic fundamental rights on behalf of the management!

Since he left the elite Administration Branch in the Civil Service to join unions he has issued directives and gag orders not to discuss about "back pay negotiation" on train drivers' backdated public holidays. Pls refer to the memo written by him.

How brilliant of him to devise a two-pronged labour exploitation by shutting noises from some of the more vocal train drivers and simultaneously fought for our PH payment with a massive overdose of driving and working hours! With the restoration of PH payment since 1/4/2009, all train drivers will have to drive continuously for more than 5 hours! Train drivers are squeezed to the breaking point without any regards for their welfare such as toilet breaks.

Imagine solid long driving hours in confined little cabin especially on the first few early morning trains. First train runs at 5.15am but he reports at 4.30am. He wakes up at 3.30am and he will only take his meal break after 10am. It is worst than slavery.

The current work practices do not factor in the safety aspect. Is it safe for the passengers? Can the train driver concentrate and stay focus with that sort of strenuous driving hours. They claim that train drivers are not working if they do not stay inside the train. They say that if possible must clock in solid 8 hrs of driving hours to justify the public holiday payment.

All union members pay $9 monthly subscription - yet the union "fight" for the management by singing the same tune and perpetuating the big lie! Train drivers did not work the required 44 hrs per week and therefore NOT entitled to PH compensation is the big lie. Where is it stated in any rule book or enacted law of the land to say that PH hinges on working hours?

In fact, it is clearly written in the Collective Agreement (CA) between the management and union on PH compensation. All these years the 11 PHs are paid on their off days. It was never paid on their working days as off in lieu or extra day pay. They say train drivers previously had shorter working hours resulting in extra off days. The yearly 11 PH are paid on the off days thus off setting the extra off days. In other words, the extra off days offset the 11 PHs.

Let us examine this logic or lie. Let's say that in a factory, there is less order for the month and company decides to shut down or even cut down operations; hence working hours reduced. As such, workers of the factory work less than the required 44 hrs per week.

Can the said company NOT pay or compensate those workers if there is a public holiday for that month? Can the company tell the workers since you all work less than 44 hrs per week, company is NOT paying for PH of the month or rest of the year?

The company may ask the worker to take his annual leave. If his leave is exhausted, no pay leave or half pay sets in. The company must still pay PH.

The 11 Public Holidays are gazetted by the government of the day. It is clearly spelt out in MOM site. It is supposed to apply to all workers in Singapore irrespective of whether local or foreigners. If that worker has to work on a PH, then he has to be given off in lieu or another day's pay to compensate him! So simple.

Anyway, the government set a maximum of 44 working hrs per week as the standard benchmark for all workers so that they WILL NOT be exploited. Any excess hour means overtime payment. Management and union in collusion twisted it to mean that all train drivers MUST work the required 44 hrs per week otherwise they are NOT entitled to the 11 PH compensation! Now that logic or lie on first glance seems irrefutable but is actually a piece of ludicrous shit! Brilliant scholar's idea - that defeated scholar in the recent GE.

If SMRT management feel or maintain that the company is correct in NOT paying train drivers PHs all those yrs; why then WEF 1 April 2009, they suddenly decided to pay? Why did they not keep or maintain the status quo? They must have awoken to the fact - at the prick of their conscience that every worker has a right to public holiday entitlement.

That scholar claims that he has already consulted legal experts. But he didn't cite any authority or names of experts! It is an ingenious lie to hoodwink daft workers? The union in cahoots with the management unscrupulously exploits the worker - given the fact that its Sec Gen sits on the board of management. It's a shame and a sin they cover up in the big lie.

Let the labour court decide whether there is any case at all. Only the labour court will be impartial and deliver a fair judgment on whether train drivers are short-changed all those years.

But the union refused to refer to the labour court citing costs etc which are only excuses . They decided there is no case at all. They decided that it is a lost cause to deliberate in an open labour court of laws presided by legal experts.

http://www.mom.gov.sg/employment-practices/employment-rights-conditions/leave-and-holiday/Pages/public-holidays.aspx

Is this the "Swiss" standard of living promised to us? That joker has come and gone yet we are still struggling for survival to make ends meet. They reap huge profits at workers' misery.

Obviously, the system is rotting at its core. It reflects the cross section of our corporate and government avarice on all levels of society where the weak, helpless and down trodden are systematically galvanized to support more corporate profits and more reserves. The whole spectrum of helpless wage earners are screwed up to the maximum to achieve this.

We are not as daft as they want us to be. There is a need to shift the whole paradigm if we want a better life for ourselves and our children.

Have we as a people arrived at first world status when we shamelessly abused our workers by exhorting them to be cheap, cheaperer and cheaperest?