Fewer pay, dismissal disputes last year as S'pore economy recovered

As the pandemic-stricken economy started healing, more unpaid wages were fully reclaimed from employers and fewer workers lodged complaints for wrongful dismissals.

Overall, workers took fewer disputes with their employers to the authorities last year, said the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) in the release of the 2021 Employment Standards Report yesterday.

Workers clawed back $8.6 million in salary claims, down from $15 million the year before. Such claims formed the bulk of total complaints at 82 per cent.

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

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

In total, 5,882 claims and appeals were made. Local workers filed 64 per cent of them, with the remainder from foreigners.

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

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.

At the same time, the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM) resolved about 84 per cent of salary claims, and referred the remaining to the Employment Claims Tribunals for adjudication.

The TADM was set up by the MOM, National Trades Union Congress and Singapore National Employers Federation to mediate and advise workers and employers on employment disputes.

Last year was the "best performing year" since TADM was set up in 2017, said its general manager Kandhavel Periyasamy.

He said the body did well in terms of 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.

The number of claims rectified in two months jumped from 76 per cent in 2020 to 92 per cent last year, due to the drop in claims filed.

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

There were also fewer claims for wrongful dismissals - at 0.27 for every 1,000 workers last year, compared with 0.39 in 2020.

About 26 per cent of workers succeeded with their charges. In total, employers paid back $1.5 million for wrongful dismissal claims. They also had to make redress with compensation, clarifications or facilitation of the employee's job search.

Some of these claims came through a portal, which will soon be enhanced with artificial intelligence to aid settlements in future.

The Online Dispute Resolution portal, as it is called, allows the mediator to facilitate virtual conversations between the employer and worker, and guide them to reach a resolution. The portal has handled 430 claims since its launch in March last year, with 32 per cent concluded among contentious parties before 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.

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

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