AsiaPhos ex-staff take severance pay claim to labour arbitration

A GROUP of former staff from phosphate miner AsiaPhos have withdrawn all their court claims for severance pay, but are taking their fight to arbitration instead, the board disclosed on Friday.

Sichuan Mianzhu Norwest Phosphate Chemical, a subsidiary of Catalist-listed AsiaPhos, has been locked since March in a legal tussle with 20 former employees, who left in 2018, claiming some 1.84 million yuan (S$356,600) in the Chinese courts.

All of their claims, including a later claim for 870,000 yuan in October, have since been either dismissed or voluntarily withdrawn, the board said, after an update from its lawyers on Dec 18.

But Mianzhu Norwest was hit the very next day by a notice of claim for 290,000 yuan from the same 20 employees in the Mianzhu Labour Dispute Arbitration Committee, the directors added.

According to AsiaPhos, its counsel in China "opined that if the applicant has no new evidence, the case may be rejected by the arbitration commission, but noted that it is in Mianzhu Norwest's interest to remain actively involved in any formal hearing regarding this matter".

The company will make more announcements "as and when there are any material developments" in the legal proceedings, the board has now told shareholders.

AsiaPhos shares closed flat at S$0.01 on Friday before the announcement.