The UFOs Have Landed!

In the Straits Times today, the stunning headline news was that for the first time since God knows when, Singapore's labour chief actually spoke up for the workers.

Yes, instead of telling the workers to accept pay cuts or that they were obsolete and should go retrain themselves properly, he actually rebuked the organisation that laid them off:

ST Nov 14, 2008
DBS slammed for layoffs
By Sue-Ann Chia

LABOUR chief Lim Swee Say on Friday slammed DBS Bank for failing to consult its staff union on retrenching its workers or exploring other cost-cutting measures first.

'We are disappointed by the sudden decision,' he told The Straits Times when asked for his views on the DBS layoffs.

'There was no prior consultation with the DBS Staff Union. There was no exploration with the union on other cost reduction alternatives,' he said in an email reply on Friday.

Mr Lim, an advisor to the DBS staff union, said this lack of communication has weakened the trust between the bank's management and union.

Not mincing his words, he added: 'It is regretable because trust takes a long time to build but a short time to destroy.'

His criticism came on day 2 of DBS' retrenchment exercise, a move that has drawn flak from the public as being pre-emptive rather than reactive.

Mr Lim laid it on, saying: 'Perception on the ground is that DBS has decided on retrenchment as the first resort. Ground reaction is critical and highly negative.'

DBS is laying off 900 workers, with slightly more than half coming from Singapore and the rest from its Hong Kong office.

DBS CEO Richard Stanley must be feeling all panicky and nervous now. After all, this is Singapore you know.

The labour chief who just rebuked Richard also happens to be a minister from the ruling party headed by the Prime Minister who is married to the woman who runs the investment holding company that is the majority shareholder in the bank where CEO Richard Stanley is, after all, just an employee.

If Lim, Lee and Ho are all on the same page on this issue, then Richard's buttocks might soon get spanked behind closed doors ....

But of course it is possible that Lim, Lee and Ho are not exactly on the same page. Lim may just be feeling a little offended, because he, despite being the Secretary-General of NTUC and an advisor to the DBS staff union, wasn't consulted at all, before DBS retrenched a few hundred of its employees.

But can you really blame Richard? I mean, everyone knows that employee trade unions in Singapore are supposed to be docile, subservient and useless. How the heck was Richard to know that before retrenching the workers, he was supposed to consult the bank union ....