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24 Nov 2020
3 mins
May Day Awards: Medal of Commendation – Capt Lim Swee Aun

MEDAL OF COMMENDATION

Capt Lim Swee Aun, General Manager, Wallenius Marine Singapore Pte Ltd

The May Day Awards 2020 honours exemplary union leaders, workers and tripartite partners who contribute towards better wages, welfare and prospects for our workers. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no physical May Day Award presentation event. SMOU General Secretary Mary Liew presented the award to Capt Lim during his visit to SMOU.

Capt Lim Swee Aun was nominated by SMOU to receive the Medal of Commendation which is conferred on Senior Management personnel in the Labour Movement network who continue to make significant contributions towards promoting and supporting Labour Movement’s outcomes in improving workers’ wages, welfare and work prospects.

Capt Lim is a strong believer in workers’ rights and tripartism, while balancing the competitiveness of Singaporeans in the maritime industry. In the past 10 years, wages for maritime officers in the company have increased by about 7 per cent, despite the conservative outlook as the industry is still recovering from the downturn that started in 2010.

Maritime officers from the 12 Singapore Flag vessels under Wallenius Marine Singapore Pte Ltd are organised by the Singapore Maritime Officers’ Union (SMOU). Under Capt Lim’s leadership, the company has demonstrated good labour-management relationship and was conferred the Plaque of Commendation in 2015.

As a member of the Tripartite Maritime Training Award Advisory Committee, Capt Lim has made immense contributions to the development of the Singaporean Core. Since the inception of the programme in 2009, Wallenius has offered placement to 20 Singaporean deck and engine cadets.

In 2017, Capt Lim arranged for the union to go onboard one of Wallenius’ biggest ships, MV Parsifal. The five-day shipboard learning journey was led by our very own Singaporean Captain Nordin, who is also SMOU’s Executive Committee member and Wallenius’ most senior Singaporean Captain. The voyage was an eye opener for the SMOU team who, through the journey gained insights and experienced the day to day seagoing life of our members, and how the union can better serve them.

Capt Lim’s balanced approach between trade unions and employers has earned him the position as Singapore Maritime Employers’ Federation Chairman, where he is able to further strengthen and bring together the tripartite partners in the maritime industry.

A strong advocate of training, Capt Lim sits in the Singapore Maritime Training Fund Advisory Committee, sharing insights to the tripartite partners on the relevant skillsets needed by officers to ensure they remain employable.

He has consistently pushed for the operationalisation of the Company Training Committee (CTC) initiative. On 18 June 2019, he signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on behalf of Singapore Maritime Employers Federation (SMEF), together with the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, SMOU and Singapore Organisation of Seamen to form an Industry Collaboration Training Committee. In September 2019, companies under the SMEF such as Wallenius Marine Singapore, Pacific International Lines (Pte) Ltd and Posh Fleet Services Pte Ltd formed individual company training committees to establish a proper structure towards the training of seafarers.