More salary claims lodged against student care operator Little Professors; court cases ongoing

SINGAPORE – More employees of student care operator Little Professors Learning Centre have lodged salary claims in the month since the authorities said they were investigating the company for possible offences under the Employment Act.

In a joint statement on March 19, the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM), together with the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board and Ministry of Manpower (MOM), said 123 salary claims have been lodged against Little Professors as at March 13.

The Straits Times first reported on Feb 14 that 54 employees had lodged reports over unpaid January salaries and CPF contributions.

TADM is assisting the employees to finalise their claims, said the statement. If the student care operator is unable to pay its employees, most of the workers will qualify for financial assistance through the Short-Term Relief Fund or Migrant Workers’ Assistance Fund, it added.

The agencies also said in response to ST’s queries that they are working with the Education Services Union and NTUC’s Employment and Employability Institute to provide employment assistance and job facilitation support for the affected workers.

Little Professors ran student care centres at at least eight primary schools, including White Sands Primary and Hong Wen School.

It also provided full-day care services for children in Ministry of Education (MOE) kindergartens located at six primary schools – Kranji, Anchor Green, Waterway, Punggol Cove, Jing Shan and Westwood.

On Feb 13, the company informed its employees at the eight primary schools that their employment contracts were no longer considered valid and that they could resign without serving notice.

Meanwhile, several parents discovered that they had been double-charged via GIRO deductions for their children’s February student care fees.

In a statement on Feb 14, MOE said it had terminated Little Professors’ services for the eight schools due to “contractual breaches” and filed a police report over the anomalies in GIRO deductions reported by parents.

Since then, staff from the affected schools have taken over operations of their student care centres to ensure continued care for the 1,800 children enrolled in these services, until a new operator is appointed.

Parents will not be charged during this period.

ST has asked MOE about the status of appointing a new permanent student care operator.

During a media visit to Jing Shan Primary School on Feb 20, MOE deputy director-general of education (schools) Tan Chen Kee had said that student care operators are chosen through GeBIZ, the Government’s e-procurement portal.

Checks by ST have not turned up any tenders for an operator to replace Little Professors.

Four parents from two of the affected primary schools told ST that to date, they have not been informed of any new student care operator.

They added that school staff are still running student care services, with some former Little Professors staff returning to work in the schools’ student care centres.

At Jing Shan Primary, the student care programme during the term break from March 16 to 20 is being managed by former Little Professors staff on temporary employment contracts, along with other relief staff engaged by the school.

In the joint statement on March 19, the authorities said police and MOM are investigating Little Professors.

“The CPF Board has taken prosecution action against the company for the outstanding CPF contributions and the case is currently before the courts,” the statement added.

Checks by ST found that there are seven lawsuits involving the company that are currently before the courts.

There was no company representative present when a pending criminal case was mentioned in court on March 12. As a result, no charges were read, and the case has been postponed to April 8.

Earlier on March 6, representatives from the company failed to attend a mediation session with employees that was organised by TADM.