Zhao Er Hui's purpose of calling the police on April 1 was to intimidate MOM officers to intervene into his work-related issues with his employer.

The 32-year-old was jailed for 10 weeks after he admitted to criminal trespass at the seven-storey MOM building at Havelock Road that day.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Imran Abdul Hamid said that Zhao, employed by Hong Yang Construction, complained to an MOM officer on March 30 that he had not been paid his salary for February. He also complained about his eye injury due to welding work but was told to get a doctor to certify the injury before filing a claim against his company.

The next day, he called his employer and said he had not worked for three days and would complain to the MOM. His employer told him to take a rest. He turned up at MOM and told a case officer that he had been out of job for three days and wanted to resign. He said the company should compensate him.

After consultation, he continued to remain at the building and managed to sneak through a second floor lift lobby by tailing MOM officers.

From there, he took the stairs and went to the rooftop where he sat on the ledge for two hours and called his employer and police, threatening to jump down.

After a two-hour stand-off, he stepped off the ledge after he was assured of help. Officers arranged for his employer to talk to him after the incident.

The father of two, who could have been jailed for up to three months and fined up to $1,500, apologised for the inconvenience caused to the Singapore government.

District Judge James Leong backdated his sentence to April 3, the day he was remanded.