Recently the SMRT made the headlines for the wrong reasons.....again. How many things can go wrong in a company? Apparently many by the standards set by this one.
The recent fiasco was when 102 foreign SMRT bus drivers refused to turn up for work on 26 November 2012. These foreign workers were PRC workers. They were unhappy about their salaries and living conditions. Apparently they were unhappy about the increments they were given in comparison to their fellow foreign workers from Malaysia. There were also complains about cramp living conditions provided by SMRT. Bed bugs was also another example of poor living conditions given to journalists.
At the end of the day, the strike was illegal and 5 PRC workers were charged in court. Another 29 were repatriated. This is Singapore....where you have to give 2 weeks' notice if you want to organize a strike. I guess none of these PRC workers were given this information during their orientation.
I wonder if SMRT has a hot line for employees to call if they have grievances. I wonder if they practise an open door policy. I also wonder if any of the PRC workers actually submitted a formal complain to voice their unhappiness.
Apparently the strike affected the bus service provided by SMRT. They had to call in relief drivers from other public and private bus operators as well as deploy their trainers. It is amazing how many things can go wrong for a company. First it was the train delays and now employee relations. I wonder if it will truly be third time lucky for SMRT.
It is never easy to manage employee relations. But that should not stop employers from continuing to try. Employers can never take employee relations for granted. That being said, managing employee relations involve more than just having an open door policy, having a grievance hot line. Employers must always be proactive. Talk to your employees, not just listen, for they sometimes don't speak.
Many Asians are non-confrontational. Voicing unhappiness may be deemed as being confrontational, not giving face, being disrespectful, etc. Many just choose to leave the company if they decide they cannot continue to accept the company culture which they do not approve of. They would not go up to their boss to tell them that they are unhappy and demand a change. They would choose a more subtle manner to express their displeasure or to avoid confrontation. Obviously this does not apply to some Chinese.
If you want to know what's truly going on in the minds of your employees, you need to do more than just wait for feedback. Ask questions. Make observations. Walk the floor (or in the case of SMRT the buses, trains, terminals and stations). More importantly you have to make your employee feel that they belong to the company. Granted that the company is huge and it is very difficult to organize any sort of event where all the employees can be together (who will drive the buses and operate the trains?)......I'm sure that there can be things the company can do. Corporations have to stop thinking about how every dollar spent on employees will contribute to the bottom line directly. There are many intangible benefits of spending money to improve employee relations. Of course that does not mean that every whim and fancy of every employee can be met. Balance is the key.
The funny thing is that I saw 2 more incidents being reported after the SMRT strike. 2 PRC workers alleged climbed construction cranes to protest over a wage dispute with their employer on 6 December. On 7 December, a China worker arrived at a construction work site and refused to leave until the police were called because he was unhappy about a site re-assignment. What do the reports of these incidents mean? Are PRC workers causing more trouble in Singapore? Or is the media trying to subtly lessen the impact of the SMRT strike on SMRT's reputation?
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