Fewer pay and dismissal disputes last year as Singapore economy recovered

As the pandemic-stricken economy started healing, more workers recovered owed salaries and fewer lodged complaints for wrongful dismissals.

Some of these claims came through a portal, which will now be ramped up with artificial intelligence to aid settlements in the future, said the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) in the release of the 2021 Employment Standards Report on Monday (July 18).

Singapore's Online Dispute Resolution portal has handled 430 claims since its launch in March 2021, with 32 per cent concluded among contentious parties before the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM) had to step in.

Another 56 per cent were resolved in virtual mediation without parties even having to meet . Further improvements to allow remote signing of settlement agreements and a chatbot to help with claims' filing and computation are being planned by next year, the report said.

In part owing to a better economy, 2021 was the "best performing year" since TADM's set-up in 2017, said its general manager Kandhavel Periyasamy.

The body set three records: the number of disputes it mediated to resolution, the speed of resolution, and the percentage of workers who sought its help and recovered their wages in full.

With the dispute resolution portal, he added, TADM now wants to go beyond and provide the "'wow' customer experience".

Overall, workers took fewer disputes with their employers to the authorities last year. In total, 5,882 claims and appeals such as wrongful dismissals were made. Local workers filed 64 per cent of them, with the remainder from foreigners.

The tally translates into 1.73 claims per every 1,000 employees - excluding foreign maids - lodged last year, compared to 2.59 in 2020.

Salary claims, which made up 82 per cent of total complaints, declined - and workers clawed back $8.6 million.

Fewer wage claims arose with the recovery in the accommodation, food services, wholesale and retail trade sectors, said MOM.

Singapore's foreign workers also made "sharply" fewer claims, it added.

The ministry said its early interventions over the last two years have worked. It had encouraged employers to declare upfront when they could not pay wages so they could tap aid, and workers could alert the ministry of salary arrears early via an app.

That helped ensure salaries were paid to some 24,000 foreign workers last year without the need for them to make formal claims, it added.

TADM resolved about 84 per cent of salary claims, and referred the remaining to the Employment Claims Tribunals (ECT) for adjudication.

The number of claims rectified in two months rose "drastically" from 76 per cent in 2020 to 92 per cent last year, due to the drop in lodgements.

More unpaid wages were fully reclaimed from employers, from 92 per cent in 2020 to 95 per cent.

Insurers, main contractors or workers' aid programmes settled another 3 per cent of salary disputes.

The remaining 2 percent of unrecovered wages were filed mainly by workers who did not qualify for financial aid, MOM said.

Employers who wilfully refused to make good their workers' salaries accounted for less than 1 per cent of the salary claims.

These employers' work passes were suspended and they could face prospects of prosecution, said MOM.

Wrongful dismissal claims dropped to 0.27 claim for every 1,000 workers last year, compared to 0.39 in 2020.

Most were from the local workforce , which filed 0.34 claim for every 1,000 employees, compared to 0.10 for foreign staff.

About 26 per cent of workers succeeded with their charges, claiming back $1.5 million. Their employers also had to make redress with compensation, clarifications or facilitation of the employee's job search.

TADM helped resolved 62 per cent of these claims, and sent 38 per cent to the ECT for adjudication.

Unsuccessful claims, said the report, "often involved disputes over work performance or had arisen due to miscommunication between the employer and employee".

MOM is raising workers' understanding of the Employment Act through the Workright outreach, and also stepping up enforcement checks for errant employers, especially those hiring workers in "vulnerable" sectors under the Progressive Wage Model (PWM), such as cleaning and landscaping, as well as security services.

About 90 employers were found to breach progressive wage levels and about a third of security agencies deployed their officers beyond the maximum work hours allowed under the Act last year.

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The disputes that got resolved:

1. Wrongful dismissal:

"Mr Lee's" Singapore employer agreed to help him switch employment to a vendor after he decided to stay put in Malaysia - where he had returned home to during the pandemic - after border controls ceased.

But the employer botched the paperwork, and he lodged a claim with TADM for wrongful dismissal.

TADM found no conclusive evidence to back up his claim.

After TADM's mediation, Mr Lee's employer compensated him for his loss of income during that period as a gesture of goodwill.

2. Reimbursement of expenses

"Gary" was owed more than $7,000 for supplies and meals that he was regularly asked to buy for other workers when his company's cash flow dried up during the pandemic.

After several failed tries to get his boss to pay him, he filed a claim for unpaid salary.

Under TADM's mediation, his boss agreed to settle in three instalments, with progress to be tracked by TADM.

After two months, Gary got his reimbursements.

3. Unpaid salary

"Daniel" took his boss to TADM for unpaid salary after working overtime for no pay, and receiving only parts of his wages in his two years of employment.

His boss agreed to pay less than half of what he was owed.

After TADM warned that the case would be sent to the Employment Claims Tribunals for adjudication, Daniel's boss relented.