ISSUES OF COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN SINGAPORE : AN ANALYSIS OF THE BANKING AND FINANCIAL SECTOR 1972-89

Abstract

Industrial relations is of great importance to the economic future of Singapore. Healthy labour-management relations was one of the main factors that led to a successful industrialisation programme. Analogously, healthy labour-management relations will also be a main determinant of a successful continuous restructuring of the Singapore economy towards a higher value-added, more service oriented economy. This exercise examines various issues of collective bargaining of Singapore's Banking and Financial sector for the period 1972 to 1989. It is hoped that by so doing, the reader would be able to observe: - the increasing importance of certain collective bargaining issues, - the frequency of the issues being negotiated, and, - the removal of certain issues. The climate of industrial relations in the sector will also be discussed. Specifically, Chapter I discusses the objective and rationale of this study. This is followed by a presentation of Singapore's Industrial Relations system. A literature review will be conducted in Chapter II. Chapter III is concerned with a comparative study of the issues of collective bargaining in the Banking and Financial sector. This is preceded by a discussion on the general aspects of the sector. It is observed that there has been a variation of annual wage increments granted in the collective agreements. As such, Chapter IV attempts to identify the factors that determine wage increments in the Banking and Financial sector. A regression is then performed to explain the relationship between wage increments and the factors identified. A new concept that the writer has termed the ‘Generosity Index’ whose computation is based on the provision of fringe benefits will be introduced in Chapter V. This index is a representation of the firms' generosity in each particular year. It was observed that the Generosity Index varies significantly over the years. What are the determinants of the variation? As such, this chapter attempts to shed light on whether the generosity of firms in this sector can be explained by structural variables such as trade union density, growth of the sector and time trend. Chapter VI will present the conclusion of the study as well as future trends and developments in collective bargaining.