In 1986, when he was posted overseas as a young engineer, ST Aerospace President Lim Serh Ghee experienced his first picket line where hundreds of workers went on strike for days.
“It was disruptive and unproductive. I remember thinking to myself that back in Singapore, the Government, management and unions value our strong relationship through tripartism. Things could have been different if they had the same type of relationship as we did.
“This made me treasure the good relationship that management has with the unions in Singapore. Therefore I do all I can to preserve this relationship and not let it deteriorate,” said Mr Lim Serh Ghee, who became ST Aerospace’s president in 2014.
ST Aerospace is a leading maintenance, repair and overhaul company in the aerospace industry and has eight subsidiaries unionised under the Singapore Industrial & Services Employees’ Union (SISEU); a relationship that dates back to 1976. Collectively, the subsidiaries employ more than 5,000 workers.
Forging Strong Relationships
It is because of the hard work of not only the management but also the union leaders that a strong relationship is possible, said Mr Lim Serh Ghee. And to him, good labour-management relations is something that cannot be built overnight.
“It takes years of hard work and people empathising with one another and willing to work hand-in-hand to forge a better future and workplace for everyone. We must all care for one another like we are a family and treat everyone equitably and fairly. That was my predecessors’ philosophy and it is what I try to sustain today,” he said.
Trust and transparency between management and union leaders are other important ingredients in forging a strong labour-management relationship, according to SISEU’s former-General Secretary and veteran ST Aerospace Engineering branch official Lim Kuang Beng.
Mr Lim Kuang Beng added that all levels, from management to workers, must understand the importance of having a good labour-management relationship.
“We cannot depend on only the top boss or the branch chair or any one individual to sustain the relationship. It has to be the effort of all levels from the bosses to the human resource to the supervisors and workers. So when new people come in no matter from which level or job, they will understand the kind of industrial environment and culture the company has,” he said.
Working Together
Being a progressive company, ST Aerospace worked with SISEU to pioneer a flexitime initiative for workers in the 1990s. More recently, the company has supported the SkillsFuture initiative by giving eligible employees a $100 incentive to encourage them to take up courses.
Back in 2015, ST Aerospace formed a taskforce with the help of union leaders to look into redesigning jobs and reskill mature workers.
Working with NTUC U Live @ Work, the taskforce implemented 15 projects to help make work for over 300 mature workers easier and more productive. These included procuring cranes, electric pallet trucks and automatic cleaning equipment.
ST Aerospace also worked with SISEU to organise briefings for mature employees to prepare them for re-employment and retirement.
Formalising this good relationship, SISEU and ST Aerospace renewed the collective agreements (CAs) last month for six subsidiaries under the company. They included ST Aerospace Engineering, ST Aerospace Engines, ST Aerospace Services Co., ST Aerospace Supplies, ST Aerospace Systems and Singapore Precision Repair & Overhaul.
In a span of a mere six months, SISEU and ST Aerospace came to an agreement with the clauses within the CAs, impacting over 4,000 workers.
Mr Lim Serh Ghee said that ST Aerospace is committed to working hand-in-hand with union leaders to prepare the company and its employees for the future aerospace industry.
“We must start now. We can’t wait for the 11th hour to start preparing for the future,” he said.
