Chinese bus drivers decide to claim trial in Singapore

Four Chinese bus drivers charged for their roles in a rare strike in Singapore decided to claim trial, their lawyers said after a pre-trial conference on Friday.

The lawyers said the trial will start on March 4, when the prosecution are expected to call more than 30 witnesses to the stand in the first stage of the trial, including SMRT drivers, police and some SMRT officials. This stage of the trial is expected to last for five days until March 8.

Each of the four defendants was charged with conspiracy to instigate an illegal strike, which carries a maximum penalty of 2, 000 Singapore dollars (1,616 U.S. dollars) in fines and/or a year in jail. He Junling, one of the drivers, faced an additional charge of inciting an illegal strike with online posts.

The prosecution made an offer earlier in January to reduce the charges against the drivers from instigating an illegal strike to participation if they agree to plead guilty. All of the four drivers turned down the offer.

Some 171 Chinese bus drivers stayed away from work on Nov. 26 last year in protest against unequitable pay rises and allegedly discriminative policies of local public transport operator SMRT. A total of 88 stayed away from work on the following day. Acting Manpower Minister Tan declared it an illegal strike soon afterwards.

Apart from the four drivers, a fifth driver, Bao Fengshan, was charged with participating in the illegal strike and sentenced to six weeks in jail after pleading guilty. Bao was not represented by a lawyer. He has served his jail term after a reduction due to his good behavior in jail and gone back to China.

Twenty-nine other drivers had their employment contracts terminated and were repatriated to China.

The strike was the first in decades in Singapore, which has in place laws that make it very difficult to have a legal strike, especially in the industries offering essential services.

It has a tripartite consultation mechanism over the past decades involving the workers, the employers and the government to manage labor disputes. The strike by the Chinese bus drivers led to discussions in the city state about protection of the rights of the workers, including the foreigners.

Acting Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin has said that the government has zero tolerance for illegal strikes, especially in the essential services such as public transport.

However, some of the bus drivers said they decided to voice their concerns by taking medical leaves collectively for a reason. They said that they found it almost impossible for them to join the National Transport Workers' Union (NTWU) in quite a long period of time leading up to the rare protest in November 2012. Such concerns were also mentioned in online posts.

Lim Swee Say, the labor chief, said in the parliament recently that with efforts made by the related parties, more than 75 percent of the 400 Chinese bus drivers at SMRT were now union members, compared with less than 5 percent before the rare protest in November last year.

On this Monday, Acting Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin also confirmed that in 2010, the Ministry of Manpower received complaints from the SMRT drivers.