More salary claims filed in 2022 as more companies fall into financial difficulty: report
THE overall incidence of salary claims rose last year, driven by a higher proportion of group claims from companies suffering business failure or financial difficulty, the Employment Standards Report 2022 showed on Tuesday (Jul 25).
Salary claims by both local and foreign workers rose to 1.68 per 1,000 employees last year, up from 1.43 in 2021, said the report by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM). This was, however, lower than the pre-Covid figure of 2.68 in 2019.
Such claims made up the majority of employment claims last year. This pushed overall employment claims and appeals (which also include cases of wrongful dismissal) lodged with MOM and TADM to 1.97 per 1,000 employees; the figure was 1.73 per 1,000 employees in 2021, and 3.04 per 1,000 employees in 2019.
The report said 90 per cent of salary claims last year were resolved at TADM within two months. In 2021, the figure was 92 per cent; the rest were referred to the Employment Claims Tribunals (ECT) for adjudication.
TADM and ECT helped 93 per cent of employees recover their salaries in full last year. This was a slight dip from 2021, when full recoveries of salaries accounted for 95 per cent.
The authorities noted that 4 per cent recovered their salaries partially through settlement payments from security bond insurers or main contractors, or through financial assistance from the state.
The total recovered sum to employees grew to S$12 million last year, up from S$8.6 million in 2021, in line with the higher number of salary claims lodged.
The remaining 3 per cent failed to recover any part of their salaries. These were mainly “higher income earners”, said the report.
Fewer than 1 per cent of the salary claims involved “wilful employers” who refused to pay their workers despite having the means to do so. MOM said it is investigating such employers with a view to taking enforcement action against them.
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MOM also said it suspended the work-pass privileges of all employers who did not fully pay their employees.
As for wrongful dismissal claims, the overall incidence in 2022 was 0.26 claims per 1,000 employees, on par with the previous year’s 0.27 claims.
The report noted that the incidence was higher for local employees at 0.33, compared with 0.11 for foreign ones, as they are “more likely to file wrongful dismissal claims”.
On the whole, about a quarter of these claims lodged last year were assessed to be substantiated, similar to 2021, said the report.
It added: “For such cases, TADM worked with the employer to address the claim, such as by clearing up miscommunications and assisting in the employee’s job search, or facilitating reasonable compensation to the affected employee.”
Seventy per cent of such claims were resolved at TADM, and the rest were referred to ECT for adjudication.
Most of the remaining 75 per cent of claims assessed to be unsubstantiated involved “disputes over work performance or arose due to miscommunication between the employer and employee”; in those instances, the employers had fulfilled their contractual or statutory obligations of employment termination with notice.
Slightly under a third of them were resolved at TADM, with the remaining 37 per cent referred to ECT.
Similar to 2021, 84 per cent of wrongful-dismissal claims were concluded at TADM within two months.
Last year, more claims came through the interim online dispute resolution (ODR) portal, following an enhancement made to the system. The volume of claims processed on the portal more than doubled to about 1,000, up from 430 in 2021, when the system was launched.
MOM and TADM noted that the portal is enabling employer and employee to resolve the disputes amicably, which contributes to “more harmonious workplaces”.
The authorities are taking “significant steps” to create more inclusive workplaces, MOM and TADM said, noting that a legislative framework against workplace discrimination will be strengthened.
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