In the negotiations following the recent Lazada retrenchment exercise, NTUC championed workers' interests "in a fair manner", but also aimed to "preserve a good labour-management relationship", said NTUC Secretary-General Ng Chee Meng on Apr. 25.

He was speaking at a media session prior to Labour Day, May 1 on NTUC's efforts to represent the interests of Professionals, Managers, and Executives (PMEs) over the years.

One example Ng raised was NTUC's negotiations with e-commerce firm Lazada after it laid off a number of Singaporean staff in January.

This ultimately resulted in "an amicable settlement" with "an improved overall retrenchment package" for affected employees, according to Minister for Manpower Tan See Leng.

In response to a question from Mothership about the key takeaways from the negotiation process, Ng cited two main takeaways:

The first was the importance of building trust with workers.

And the second was the need to negotiate with the management in a fair manner.

Build trust with workers

Ng noted that in order to fairly negotiate for workers, NTUC had to know them well.

"You must really hit the ground, especially in [such a] fast changing realm. [It's important] to be with the working people, regardless of their rank and file and know what they need, what they're going through," he said.

Ng added that only by "having the trust with the workers", would NTUC be able to "fairly champion their interests".

This was a lesson that he would continue to remind his staff and leaders about, he added.

Negotiate fairly and sustainably

Ng also stressed the need to negotiate fairly and sustainably, without jeopardising the union's relationship with the company management.

"If you look at the Lazada incident, after the initial disagreements, to-ing and fro-ing, we did it still with the day after in mind. We want to preserve a good labour-management relationship with Lazada, if Lazada comes to the table and deal with union workers [fairly]," he said.

And when Lazada accepted NTUC's position following negotiations, Ng said he was "glad" with the outcome.

Lazada is unionised under the Food Drinks and Allied Workers Union (FDAWU), and had also apologised to the union, which has accepted the apology.

Ng pointed out that negotiating in such a manner would be beneficial for workers in the long-term.

"While we champion workers' interests, we do it in a fair manner with just cause. When this is achieved, we always come back into a win-win philosophy with our businesses, so that we sustain a business environment [where] our workers can be taken care of sustainably."

Ng contrasted this approach to other countries with more "combative" unions.

He opined that in such cases, the unions might "maximise the workers' interests to the detriment of the business", resulting in them "either failing or relocating to different places".

Background

On Jan. 3, e-commerce company Lazada, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group Holding, reportedly laid off a number of its staff from the Singapore office.

Lazada was unionised under the FDAWU, an affiliate of NTUC, but had not informed the union before the layoffs.

NTUC and FDAWU said they were "deeply disappointed" with Lazada's retrenchment exercise in a joint statement to media.

The union also did not find Lazada's initial arrangement — for workers to receive two weeks' salary for every year of service — satisfactory, and negotiated for additional benefits.

Following weeks of negotiations, an amicable settlement was reached and Lazada agreed that an enhanced support package would be disbursed to eligible staff.

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Top image by Mothership / Wikipedia