Racial issues at workplace..or Was it?

I was reading online articles on PM's Lee National Day Rally speech and his focus race and religion. Deep in my heart, I believed it's a timely reflection. This brought me back to this incident not too long ago which involved a promotion exercise.

A total of 5 guys were promoted to a supervisory level , which was a new post. Formerly all of them were rank and file workers. Although promotions are stipulated clearly in Industrial Relation Act as Management Prerogatives,us unionist never see it as a hindrance to highlight to the management if a worker is due or deserve a promotion. Back to the 5 guys, naturally the union was happy that all of them were promoted after a year long negotiation to create that new supervisory post. Out of these 5 guys who were promoted, 4 were Chinese and one was a Malay. This was when the problem started.

Some of my Malay colleagues were'nt happy with the result of the promotion exercise. In total, there were another 4 Malay guys (with additional certification and experience in covering supervisory duties) who also applied for the post. Two of the Chinese guys who got promoted has got no additional certification while the rest possessed one. Moreover, both the Chinese guys were reluctant parties when in comes cover 'acting duties' as supervisor when they were still rank and file workers. I heard some accusation of racial bias although the union did'nt received any formal grievance letter (a standard procedure) on this issue.The union was in a dilemma.

As a unionist, irregardless of colour or nationality, if he is our member, we do not challenge the promotion. I felt that I neededed to be very tactful in addressing this sensitive issue. As with all promotion exercise, each candidate goes thru a vigorous interview session and selection procedure. Coincidentally, the interviewers comprised of a multi-racial panel. I reasoned with some of the unhappy workers that although the two guys may not have the qualification, probably they did better than then rest in the interview. I downplayed any racial overtones or racial bias in the issue.

I encouraged them to keep upgrading themselves and to look at the bright side.End of the day, if you believe in the meritocracy system, your hard work will get noticed and paid off. There'll be no reason for the management not to promote you, I told them.

I eventually managed to convince them and after a few weeks, the issue was a thing of the past. I was glad that the issue doesn't escalate into something serious and the workers accepted it in a sensible and matured manner. But I told myself, we must never be complacent. What happen if we faced a similar issue in the future?Are we prepared? Even if there is racial bias, how do we prove it? Or are we in denial that it doesn't exist in workplace?

From the way I looked at the issue above, its probably a case of over-reacting on part of the workers , thinking race was the issue here. It's normal to be emotional when you have very high hope on achieving something but failing in the end

It's quite similar with the recent no-Malay-NMP issue when it started appearing in Malay newspaper sometime back. The statistics had proven that there were years when we had no Malay NMP. Nobody lifted a finger then. I know we do have leaders or capable people in the Malay society but if they refused to be nominated as an NMP, can we blame the system?

Back to the title of my post . 'Racial issues at workplace..or Was it?' Have you had such an experience?

Upage Bursary Awards 2009

My union had our Bursary Award on 13th August 2009. It was held at NTUC Building Grand Auditorium.Parking was a hassle..and expensive with a capital 'E'. Hence some of us arrived by carpooling due to the limited number of special car coupons. It's my first time being invited into a bursary organising committee . It's a couple of other first time too in fact! It's the first time I see a large number of youth involved in the committee , the first time no applicants were rejected ( those who were unsuccessful we given a token amount of $50 as an Encouragement Award) and first time at the above venue. For the past few years, the award was held at the old SP Auditorium till it made way for some revamping and upgrading last year. Our Guest of Honour for this year's award was Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry , Mr Iswaran.

We see a record of 372 applicants for this year's award.Bursary Awards is one of the ways the union reached out to help and give our support to member's who have children excelling in their studies. With the recent economy downturn, we believed the awards will come in handy for the members. We also hoped that the awards will inject a new energy and drive in recipients to strive better in their studies.

It was very heart-warming to see 'gotong royong' spirit in the committee members. From labelling the chairs for awardees, to guest list, arranging cheques on the table, rehearsing the lines...you name it, they do it. The camaraderie was very strong!!

Our GOH , Mr Isawarn gave a very inspiring speech for both the recipients and also the union/management. He mentioned about how the union has evolved thru years...especially after 1969 Modernisation of Labour Movement lead by the late Devan Nair. The union has moved beyond addressing worker's grievance at work to providing member's family needs, social needs ( Fairprice, NTUC Club), health (NTUC Health Care) and also training (Learning Hub etc) . To the management, he highlighted about the importance tripartism and also good industrial relation.

The event came to an end at 4pm. The guests and recipients were treated with a sumptuous reception with beautiful scenery of Esplanade and Marina Bay skyline in the background. Kudos to the organising committee for a job well-done!!!!

It's been a while....

Finally I got time to updated my blog. The datelines for my assignment are really eating up into my daily schedule. Hopefully I'll get use to this by my 2nd Semester. Having a strong faith in religion and the spiritual strength it's bring me has helped me a great deal.

So, let's see what have I missed. Let's start with Upage Futsal 2009 on 1st August. The 'roller-coaster ride' we went thru during budgeting, promotion, email blasting and invitation was worth it!!! A total of 16 teams from various gencos and branch participated ....even though some cried foul over the high number teams from Powergrid branch. Hey, C'mon!!! These teams are giving us their support, ok. Everything went very smoothly from the beginning till the end of the tournament. Our Exco officials turn up in full support for the kicking off...our Advisor MP Sin Boon Ann graced the opening ceremony. It's really encouraging seeing our officials at events organised by the youth wing. When we had our Bowling and Movie Screening, we git the same stellar support from them. The champion team was SPPG RNS, Runners-up SP Services REM Rangers and coming in third, Gas Team 1 and fourth Pasir Panjang Depot. Congratulations to all teams!!! Thank U Thank U Thank U For your Support!!!!!!

Our First Futsal Tournament

It's been days since I last posted. Quite busy with the preparation and also my studies.

In a few hours time, our first Futsal Tournament will commenced. Everything is ready to go!!!
Need to type out the itinerary of the event due to some minor changes.
Our IRO Aeron will be doing the MC duties . I don't think we'll need any script for MC The opening speech will be done by our GS and our Advisor will be kicking off the game.

It's good to see that all the preparations have gone and right on schedule. Got a call from one of the team managers. He's having problem with attendance of his team due to shortage of manpower at work. That's the nature of working in a powerplant. If your colleague in the next Shift Team don't turn up, you got to do overtime to cover the shortage.
I asked him to come even if his team is not in full numbers. Futsal needs a minimum of 5 players per team. We can just rope in a few of my guys who are on duty to play for his team. It's all in the name of fun. Nothing too serious.
What's upmost important is the spirit of camaraderie between the union and our members.

That's what I want to see in our First Futsal Tournament...a picture of Happiness.