By Goh Chin Lian

DBS Bank's bombshell announcement that it was shedding 900 jobs so spooked employees at United Overseas Bank (UOB) that the union contacted management last week to fix a meeting - pronto.

Says UOB's union branch chairman Michael Lim: 'We want to find out about the direction of our bank. They may not have news, but sometimes no news is good news.'

Unions like the one Mr Lim heads trust the management to consult them first ahead of any bad news that may have an impact on members.

But recent revelations regarding the retrenchment exercise at DBS, the largest local bank and still seen by many as a government-linked entity, have cast a shadow on management-union relations here.

Last Friday, labour chief Lim Swee Say rapped DBS for its sudden decision to retrench staff.

The move caught union leaders off-guard.

'There was no prior consultation with the DBS Staff Union. There was no exploration with the union on other cost-reduction alternatives,' Mr Lim, who is secretary-general of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), said in an e-mailed statement.

'Perception on the ground is that DBS has decided on retrenchment as the first resort. It has weakened the trust between the management and the union.

'Ground reaction is critical and highly negative. It is regrettable...'

Which explains why unionists and employers from the banking and other sectors tell The Sunday Times that they favour a more cooperative approach towards handling layoffs.

It is one based on open communication and trust. In some industries, the protocol is also agreed to beforehand in collective agreements.

The level of openness between management and union varies from company to company. But unionists say such a relationship thrives when there is regular dialogue and personal contact established over the years.

UOB's Mr Lim says he and his union leaders have monthly meetings with representatives from the human resource department to discuss issues affecting employees.

The human resource manager is just a phone call away.

'He'll respond to my call. We've a long working relationship of more than 10 years,' says Mr Lim.

While most companies use human resource managers as the point man when dealing with unions - although some may be out of the loop on management decisions until it is too late for discussions - there are also chief executives who take the time to meet union leaders.

Singapore Airlines Staff Union president Alan Tan, for instance, has business lunches every quarter with SIA chief executive Chew Choon Seng and chairman Stephen Lee.

He had lunch with Mr Lee just a week ago at one of their informal get-togethers.

'I know what he's going through. We'll definitely do our part to help the company,' he says.

Soaring fuel costs dragged SIA's second-quarter net profit down 36 per cent to $324 million. This meant a 26 per cent slide in profits for the half-year from April to September to $682 million. But SIA says it is not contemplating cuts in staff or manhours.

But not all company bosses are open or proactive.

In such cases, some unions, like the Singapore Industrial and Services Employees' Union which has more than 80 branches, make the first move.

The union's leaders and industrial relations officers visit companies - about four to eight a month - to talk to management and workers.

Others, like the United Workers of Electronic and Electrical Industries (UWEEI), also monitor the company's performance and approach management first if they think the company could be in trouble.

While management may keep channels open, and unions take the initiative to get feedback from management, the key ingredient in the relationship between the two is trust.

And as Mr Lim, the NTUC chief, noted last Friday, 'trust takes a long time to build but a short time to destroy'.

The best opportunity to develop this arises when leaders from both sides endeavour to get in the trenches together - whether to resolve employees' complaints, negotiate collective agreements every few years, or brainstorm measures to ride out the tough times that come inevitably with business cycles.