SINGAPORE — Four former SMRT bus drivers have been sentenced to between six and seven weeks imprisonment this afternoon, after they pleaded guilty to their charges of instigating and inciting an illegal strike in November last year.

He Jun Ling, 32, Gao Yue Qiang, 32, Liu Xiangying, 33, and Wang Xian Jie, 39, who are all China nationals, had participated in the strike from Nov 26 to Nov 27 during which 171 SMRT bus drivers staged a sit-in over pay raises and living conditions in their dormitories.

Gao, Liu and Wang were sentenced to six weeks imprisonment on one charge of instigating an illegal strike each, while He, who had made an online post inciting fellow drivers to strike, was sentenced to seven weeks imprisonment on two charges, with both sentences to run concurrently. He’s sentence “reflects the larger extent of his culpability”, Senior District Judge See Kee Oon said.

Noting the sentence he had earlier meted out to another SMRT bus driver, Bao Feng Shan, 38, also from China — who was sentenced to six weeks jail in December for taking part in the illegal strike — Judge See agreed with the Prosecution’s call for a deterrent sentence, given the “clear premeditation and planning” on the part of the four drivers.

Said the Judge: “Their conduct may have been motivated by a sense of grievance. Irrespective of whether their grievances were valid or otherwise, their pleas of guilt signify their awareness that they could not justify taking the law into their own hands.”

A particular aggregating factor, Judge See added, was that the four drivers had planned the large-scale strike “ostensibly with the purpose of putting pressure on SMRT to accommodate their demands, but with the clear consciousness that it would cause disruption and inconvenience in the provision of transport services. This had the potential to severely affect the daily lives of all commuters who rely on public transport”.

Apart from making online forum and chat group postings, the four drivers also personally visited dormitory units to garner support from other drivers. But the Judge noted the drivers’ remorse in pleading guilty at the pre-trial stage.

Saying that there are lawful channels for grievances to be addressed, Judge See added that a deterrent sentence is warranted “to ensure that others are not emboldened towards attempting similar displays of disaffection over employment terms or conditions”.

In their mitigation pleas, Goh and Liu’s lawyer Mr Mark Goh said the issue at the heart of his clients’ charges is their failure to provide the mandatory 14 days notice to strike, as essential service workers; and not their participation in a strike per se, which is not in itself illegal.

Mr Goh also argued that the law “was legislated to target ‘hotheads’ and ‘irresponsible leaders’, who would make no bones to disregard proper dispute resolution channels even if that existed.” But his clients were uninformed and aggrieved workers who had exhausted all avenues to negotiate, while SMRT had failed to take their grievances seriously, Mr Goh contended.

He’s lawyer Mr Choo Zheng Xi meanwhile said his client is “deeply remorseful for the inconvenience he caused on the 26th and 27th of November.” Mr Choo asked that the court “emphatise with the situation (He) was in”, adding that it was not his client’s intention to alarm the public, nor to unsettle labour relations.

“His actions came from a place of deep desperation and despair at his living conditions, discriminatory pay, and a lack of an outlet to express his grievances,” Mr Choo added.

Meanwhile, He and Liu’s claims of being assaulted by police investigators while they were in custody is being investigated by the Police’s Internal Affairs Office.

For participating in an illegal strike, the bus drivers could have been jailed up to 12 months, or fined up to S$2,000, or both, for each charge.

Twenty-nine other “active participants” in the strike were repatriated to China in December.