Don’t question our loyalty: NTUC Income FCs

In March last year, NTUC Income announced that the relationship between the 660 financial consultants in its stable and the organisation would no longer be employer-employees but principal-agents. In other words, the FCs would be considered self-employed, but contracted to NTUC Income as agents, and not as employees of the cooperative as they had been all these years.

NTUC Income said that the change in status was necessary in order “to align it more closely with industry practice.” NTUC Income also explained that the “contractual relationship between [the FCs] and the organisation has not always been clear”, and this has “caused confusion over the consultants’ income tax liabilities and had resulted in incomplete declarations” to the relevant authorities.

These “incomplete declarations”, the FCs say, include NTUC Income under-declaring their income and over-deducting their CPF contributions over several years.

NTUC Income’s explanations, however, cut no ice with some of the FCs, three of whom have now lodged a case with the courts to compel the Singapore Insurance Employees Union (SIEU) to direct the matter to the Industrial Arbitration Court (IAC).

Why is there a tax problem?

“Why is there a tax problem when every year there is an audit, an accountant, how come there are such problems? I don’t understand,” said Mrs Tan, one of seven FCs whom we spoke to. They have all been with NTUC Income for more than 10 years.

In any case, the FCs say, the tax and CPF problems have nothing to do with them.

“All this while, we have been the employee,” says Mr Lim, another of the FCs. “This tax problem is not an oversight on our part. The employer-employee relationship cannot just be broken because one of them forgot to declare the tax. That has nothing to do with our employer-employee relationship.”

It is very unfair, the FCs say, for the company to terminate their employee status after so many years of service – some have served for as long as 35 years with NTUC Income – without so much as a proper dialogue or discussion with them.

High-handedness

“If you have tax issues, and you want us to sign out, you got to sit down and talk to us nicely,” Mrs Ang says of how NTUC Income dealt with the FCs. “You don’t give us a deadline [and threaten us].”

“We were pressured to sign, under duress. It’s as simple as that,” says Mr Chee. “The threat was [made] to us: ‘If you don’t sign, you will be terminated. And you will lose your client base.’ You may have a couple of thousands [of clients], all gone overnight! All gone, evaporated into thin air.”

“The manager came to us to tell us there’s a deadline to sign,” Mr Leong said.

“We had messages coming from our general manager: if you don’t sign, you’re not going to get your cheque, and you’re going to be out of a job,” says Mrs Lee who has been with the company for more than 10 years. “Most of us signed because we had to answer to our customers, we have customers to serve, we have to be loyal to the customers, we have their interests at heart. That’s why we didn’t have a choice, our hands were tied.”

The FCs say it was either they signed on to the new arrangements, or lose everything they have worked for all this while.

“You don’t sign you will be locked out of the office, you don’t come and work,” Mrs Lee says they were told. “It was a high-handed method,” she says. The other FCs agreed, adding that they were not briefed about the terms of the new contract or had any lawyer explain the new agreement to them.

Loss of benefits, membership and employment status

The termination of their employee status means that they also lose many of the benefits which they had been entitled to. For example, they now no longer have any paid sick leave or hospitalisation benefits, unlike previously when they were entitled to 14 days and 60 days respectively each year. They are now also not entitled to retrenchment benefits and NTUC Income is no longer required to give one month’s notice of retrenchment.

“Another thing is the CPF over-deduction,” says Mr Ng. NTUC Income had over-deducted CPF monies from their commission earnings over several years and paid back only two years' worth of deductions, say the FCs. “After so many years, then they decide to return you but only two years only,” Mr Ng continued. “And then they say that is final. It’s not right because it is still our money that they deducted.”

The new agreement also means that their status as SIEU Ordinary Members is cancelled and they are now only Associate Members, or what the FCs also call “General Branch (GB) Members”. This means they would not be represented by the SIEU, even though they are insurance agents.

“Now that you are no more in the SIEU, can you imagine how embarrassing it is, that you’re from NTUC Income but you’re not represented by SIEU?” Mrs Ang says. “It’s the laughing stock of the century. It’s an irony: SIEU is still representing other insurers – AIA, Great Eastern, Prudential – but NTUC, a unionised organisation, we cannot even have a union to represent us. We are all in general branch. It’s so ridiculous.”

On top of the losses of benefits and entitlements, they now also assume more legal liabilities personally, given that they are now considered self-employed.

“In the past, when you deal with the principal, the company is liable first,” Mr Chee says. It is now no longer so. “You’re a lone ranger now,” Mr Lim chipped in, repeating the point that they were not briefed on their legal responsibilities with the change in their employment status.

Still loyal to NTUC Income

“For many of us, we sacrificed a lot of years to work for Income,” Mr Ng says. And the reason they have done so is because they believe in the social mission of the NTUC cooperative.

“Income is a social enterprise,” Mr Lim says. “It is not a commercial enterprise… With a stroke of the pen, they have nearly destroyed the near-41 years of cooperative enterprise character, our heritage, our mission.”

Still, the FCs say they remain loyal to NTUC Income. “Don’t question our loyalty,” says Mrs Ang. “We have proven to you, we’ve been here for years – 20, 30 years. We actually wanted to protect the image of NTUC… What we want is just fairness. Fairness.”

However, their effort to resolve this within the organisation the last one year has been ignored, they say. “When they announced the dissolution of our employee status,” Mr Lim says, “there was a team of FCs who went to see them.” The response they received from the management, they say, was dismissive. “You people are greedy, are selfish. You’re fighting for yourself, fighting for personal gain,” the management allegedly told them.

Unfairness, unhappiness

When asked what kind of resolution to the matter they would like to see, the FCs say they hope that the wrongs done to them can be made right.

“Like union membership,” Mr Chee explains. “I am a union member, you know? Why should I become an [associate] member? I paid my union fee, you know? I placed my total trust on the union. I put a high premium on that card membership. And yet, I am not being represented well. So, I feel that something has to be put right. We’ve been treated unfairly.”

Out of the 660 FCs at NTUC Income, almost 400 have signed a document expressing their unhappiness with the changes to their employment status.

The changes have made them feel insecure and uncertain about their future. “You don’t feel secure because you will not know when they still want us,” Mr Ng says. “If one day they say they do not need you, that’s it already. We’ve no one to go to for help anymore.”

*All the names of the FCs have been changed for privacy reasons.