Surbana ‘did not 
follow due process’ in sacking unionised staff

SINGAPORE — Unionists have spoken out against the sacking of 54 employees by Surbana Jurong, with one calling the move “heartless in the extreme”, while the Building Construction and Timber Industries Employees’ Union (Batu) has charged that due process was not observed for the affected employees who are union members.

In a post on its Facebook page on Friday (Jan 20), Batu president Nasordin Mohd Hashim said the union was taken by surprise by the infrastructure consultancy’s actions, which were first reported last week by The Straits Times.

“Usually, before a union member is terminated, the details of the case would be officially given to the union to ensure our members will be given fair treatment and that due process is followed. This was not observed,” said Mr Nasordin, whose post was shared by National Trades Union Congress assistant secretary-general and Member of Parliament Zainal Sapari.

Surbana employs about 3,000 workers in Singapore. Eighteen of the 54 affected staff are union members, 14 of whom are Batu members.

Mr Philip Lee, general secretary of Singapore Industrial & Services Employees’ Union, asked on his Facebook page whether the affected workers were given a chance to appeal.

“To sack them just before CNY (Chinese New Year) is heartless to the extreme. Union wants to see fairness at MOM (Ministry of Manpower),” he said.

Batu’s comments come a day after it was reported that Surbana Jurong group chief executive Wong Heang Fine told staff in an email sent on Tuesday that the 54 axed workers were poor performers who could not be allowed to affect the rest of the organisation negatively.

In his post, Mr Nasordin noted that eight of the affected workers were staff who were offered re-employment, or contract renewal. “Why did the company offer them re-employment or renew their contract if their performance was not satisfactory to begin with? Why did the company not allow these long-serving staff to see out their contracts?” he said.

“Some even cleared their performance review in July.”

Adding that the “timing of the termination leaves much to be desired”, Mr Nasordin also said: “It is not surprising for the public to have the perception that SJ (Surbana Jurong) is avoiding compensating the workers.”

The NTUC and the Ministry of Manpower have previously said it was looking into the termination of the unionised workers.

HR experts TODAY spoke to said that termination based on poor performance should include communication on the employee’s performance first.

Mr Erman Tan, president of the Singapore Human Resources Institute, said that it is “good HR practice” to give an employee a warning beforehand, along with necessary remedial action — such as counselling or training — before the actual termination.

Only when an employee is still not performing well should the company terminate his or her services, he added, with “appropriate termination procedures”.

Mr David Ang, capability and business development director of Human Capital Singapore, agreed, but added that smaller companies may not have the time or resources to remedy an employee’s poor performance.

Surbana Jurong was unable to respond to queries as of press time.