SINGAPORE – More local and foreign employees in disputes with their employers filed salary claims in 2022 than in the year before.

A vast majority of these claims were resolved in quick time, and the total sum recovered for these employees rose by almost 40 per cent from the year before to $12 million.

Salary claims jumped 26 per cent to 6,123 from 4,848 in 2021, with more of these claims made by groups against companies that experienced business failures or financial difficulties, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM) said on Tuesday.

Sectors with an increase in salary claims by local workers include information and communications, construction, and administrative and support service activities. There were also more claims lodged by foreign workers in construction.

Amid challenging economic conditions, the overall incidence of employment claims and appeals lodged with MOM and TADM rose to 1.97 per 1,000 employees in 2022, up from 1.73 per 1,000 employees in 2021, according to the annual Employment Standards Report.

Local employees – referring to Singaporeans and permanent residents – lodged 57 per cent of all 7,140 employment claims and appeals received by MOM and TADM in 2022, with the remainder lodged by foreign staff.

The bulk of employment claims and appeals comprised salary claims, such as for basic salary, salary-in-lieu of notice or overtime pay. Dismissal claims made up most of the remainder.

The incidence of claims for salary arrears increased in 2022 for both local and foreign employees. Among locals, the rate was 1.29 per 1,000 employees in 2022, up from 1.16 in 2021.

For foreigners, the rate was 2.53 per 1,000 employees in 2022, up from 2.1 in 2021.

However, the report by MOM and TADM noted that the total incidence of claims for salary arrears and wrongful dismissal remained below pre-Covid-19 levels.

In 2022, salary claims were made by 1.68 out of every 1,000 employees, down from 2.68 per 1,000 employees in 2019. Similarly, wrongful dismissal claims were lodged in 2022 by 0.26 per 1,000 employees, down from 0.29 in 2019.

The report also found that 86 per cent of salary claims were resolved via mediation at TADM in 2022.

The remaining 14 per cent were referred to the Employment Claims Tribunals (ECT) for adjudication.

Of the salary claims concluded with mediation at TADM, 90 per cent were resolved within two months, slightly lower than the 92 per cent result in 2021.

Also, 93 per cent of all employees who lodged salary claims in 2022 fully recovered their owed salaries, either at TADM or ECT.

Another 4 per cent recovered only part of their salaries, through settlement payments from security bond insurers, or financial assistance for lower-wage workers under the Short-Term Relief Fund or Migrant Workers’ Assistance Fund.

“The remaining 3 per cent did not recover any salaries and were mainly higher-income earners,” said the report. All employers who did not fully repay their employees had their work pass privileges suspended by MOM, it added.

Less than 1 per cent of salary claims lodged in 2022 involved wilful employers who refused to make full payment for the salary arrears despite having the means to do so.

MOM is investigating such employers with a view to taking enforcement action against them, said the report.

Meanwhile, the number of wrongful dismissal claims crept up 2.6 per cent to 946 in 2022, from 922 in 2021. But the overall incidence of 0.26 claim per 1,000 employees in 2022 was a modest decline from the 0.27 claim per 1,000 employees in 2021.

The proportion of wrongful dismissal claims concluded at TADM within two months was 84 per cent in 2022, similar to 2021.

In total, employers paid out about $1.29 million for wrongful dismissal claims in 2022.

In 2022, 25 per cent of wrongful dismissal claims lodged were assessed to be substantiated, similar to the 26 per cent in 2021.

“For such cases, TADM worked with the employer to address the claim, such as clearing up any miscommunications and/or assisting in the employee’s job search, or facilitating reasonable compensation to the affected employee,” said the report.

In 2022, 70 per cent of these substantiated claims were resolved at TADM, and the remaining were referred to ECT for adjudication. The other 75 per cent of claims, which were assessed to be unsubstantiated, mainly involved disputes over work performance or arose due to miscommunication between the employers and employees.

“These employers had fulfilled their contractual or statutory obligations of employment termination with notice,” said the report.

Touching on workplace fairness standards, the report also said the number of discrimination complaints received by the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices has come down from an average of 379 between 2014 and 2021 to 264 in 2022.

A declining proportion of resident job applicants polled by MOM said they faced discrimination at work as well, it noted.

“Nonetheless, we are strengthening our legislative framework against workplace discrimination while aiming to preserve a non-litigious workplace culture that focuses on mediation as the primary dispute resolution mechanism.”

Labour MP Patrick Tay said in a Facebook post on Tuesday that the higher number of salary and wrongful dismissal claims in 2022 track with increases in layoffs and terminations in the latter half of 2022.

TADM’s general manager, Ms Ng Hwei Min, also told reporters on Tuesday that the mediation body is monitoring the rise in group salary claims, although the number of such claims remained below pre-Covid-19 levels. She advised workers who had claims in a group to bring their disputes to TADM earlier, so that the total sum claimed will be smaller.

“When the sums get really large, employers may have greater difficulty repaying or may not have the capability,” she said.