By Shukry Rashid
Union of Telecoms Employees of Singapore (UTES) President Roger Tan, 60, has been in the Labour Movement for almost 40 years. He joined Singtel – formerly known as the Telecommunication Authority Singapore (TAS) – fresh out of National Service in 1978. He tells us the pressing issues facing UTES and its members today.
NTUCtw: How did you start your union journey?
Roger Tan: When I joined TAS back then, the company was unionised under two unions – Amalgamated Union of Public Employees and the TAS Clerical Workers' Union (TASCWU). I was a part of TASCWU. UTES was formed in 1982 and TASCWU merged with it in 1985. I was a branch official from then till 2004 when I became UTES General Treasurer for one term before. Thereafter, I became president up till today.
The telco industry often faces disruption with the advent of technology. How does UTES prepare its workers for future changes?
Singtel started as a telco, but it is now more of an ICT (information and communications technology) company after it acquired NCS Pte Ltd – formerly known as National Computer Systems. Because the evolution of telecommunication and IT is moving so fast, workers needed to be reskilled and upskilled to enable them to remain relevant with the latest technology. UTES emphasised a lot with the management on retraining for workers. For the younger workers, I think they would have no problem keeping up with technology. But for the older workers, this could be their first job. They may not be familiar or have the qualification to face these changes. So UTES encourages our workers to always upgrade themselves, especially with Singtel’s in-house learning centre.
What other concerns does the union have?
Our other concern is workplace safety and health (WSH), and we encourage our workers to always look out for this when at work. We often organise WSH awareness workshops and courses, and we distribute leaflets, in collaboration with the management, informing the do’s and don’ts of WSH. We also encourage our workers to report unsafe working habits or workplace conditions to the union to prevent other workers from getting injured.
Why is WSH so important for you and your industry?
We have workers who work in outdoor environments. Many of them work underground maintaining cables that are close to gas pipes. These places are dark and sometimes may flood with too much water during the rainy season. Thankfully there are not many cases of injuries, but we are always reminding them of safety. As for workers in the office, we remind them of safety hazards such as unnecessary wiring that may trip someone.
The number of professionals, managers and executives (PME) are also rising in Singapore. How is UTES coping with this trend?
We have about 8,000 UTES members now comprising both Ordinary Branch (OB) and General Branch (GB) members, and most of the PMEs are GB members. UTES has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Singtel management to represent PMEs with limited representation even before the Industrial Relations Act was amended. We are also currently working with SingPost to represent PMEs of up to a certain employment level. We encourage our committee members to embrace PMEs and their representation, to work alongside them. As these PMEs may be managers supervising our members at work, we have to have an understanding on a same level in the union. PME union members should not see their fellow union members as subordinates.
Source: NTUC This Week
