http://therealsingapore.com/content/ntuc-income-ceo-told-financial-consultants-your-union-membership-has-been-terminated
They wanted the Court to declare that SIEU, which is affiliated to NTUC, is in breach of the union’s constitution in failing to secure adequate representation of the interest and welfare of its members as well as failing to improve the working conditions and looking after the economic status of its members. In addition, they wanted to Court to compel SIEU to refer their dispute with their employer, NTUC Income, to the Industrial Arbitration Court for a resolution.
The Singapore Insurance Employees’ Union (SIEU) is an old union registered in 1955. According to SIEU’s Constitution, the objectives of the Union include:
a. To improve the working conditions of members to enhance their economic and social status;
b. To secure complete representation and effective organization of all persons eligible for the ordinary membership of the Union;
c. To compensate fully or partially any loss of earnings by members through victimization or trade dispute in accordance with the scale of benefits and such other conditions as the Delegates’ Council may decide upon;
d. To provide legal advice and assistance to members in relation to their employment where necessary and at the discretion of the Executive Council; and
e. To become an Institutional Member of the Singapore Labour Foundation so long as the Union is an affiliate of the NTUC and to pay the requisite entrance fee as set out in the Constitution of the NTUC.
The 3 plaintiffs said, “We have paid our dues and participated in the Union – some of us for 2 decades – and we had a reasonable expectation that we would have been provided with legal advice as we are guaranteed under the SIEU Constitution, and full disclosure in regard to the events that led to the loss of our employment status (with NTUC Income).”
“We received neither of these things from the time we were notified of our redundancy by our Union until the deadline for signing the new contract was forced upon us by the threat that we would lose our licences to practise as Financial Consultants and be made jobless if we did not give our full consent to the contract.”
Hence, the 3 members felt that without professional legal help, they are at a disadvantage to negotiate with the management of NTUC Income.
They said, “We raised our objections clearly at the time and through the Grievance Procedure established in our Employees’ Agreement (CA), that the solution being presented to us was not the only option to resolve the issues related to our employee status and that is was not in the best interest of all FCs to accept this solution.”
As it turned out, their concerns related to loss of benefits had proved to be correct. They lost a large part of the benefits they had been guaranteed under their CA.
The worst part was no voting was called by the Union in support of its handling of the termination and dissolution of all the financial consultants in NTUC Income. They were practically forced at gun point to convert themselves from employee to independent agent status.
And to add further insults, NTUC Income CEO later told them that “their Union membership” had been terminated automatically.
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