More ways to settle job disputes

From The Straits Times
By Sue-Ann Chia & Rachel Chang
Published 27 Jan 2010

MORE white-collar workers will have access to cheaper and speedier mediation and legal processes to settle employment disputes with their employers.

These will come into effect early next year, to give greater protection to the growing pool of executives in the workforce.

The move by the Government was announced by Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong yesterday.

As Singaporeans become more educated, the group of professionals, managers, executives and technicians, known as PMETs, has swelled to slightly more than half of the resident workforce. It was 40 per cent a decade ago.

'We need to pay greater attention to this group of employees... More may face employment-related issues,' said Mr Gan at a tripartite conference on managing manpower issues this year.

The number of executives who turn to his ministry for help has grown from 220 in 2007 to 358 last year, with the rise due partly to the economic downturn leading to more disputes such as those over salary arrears.

No figures are available on how many unresolved cases are taken to court.

But the minister noted that without avenues for mediation, many will have to resort to more costly and protracted civil suits to resolve employment disputes, such as those over breach of contract, salary arrears and retrenchment payouts.

'We recognise that there is a need to facilitate speedy and low-cost settlement of such employment issues for them and their employers,' Mr Gan said at the Singapore Tripartism Forum, attended by more than 500 government officials, unionists and employers.

The new avenues are the result of two key changes.

One, the raising of the salary cap to let more executives qualify for the Government's dispute resolution mechanism, which includes mediation and a legal process called adjudication for salary claims.

Those who earn $4,500 or less a month will be eligible, up from the current ceiling of $2,500. This new ceiling covers 70 per cent of Singapore's two million resident workforce.

Two, a new mediation panel will be introduced, which will make it mandatory for both parties in a dispute - employee and employer - to turn up for negotiations.

Currently, attendance is not compulsory, which explains the 'non-satisfactory' turnout from employers, thus delaying the resolution process, officials noted.

But executives who wish to use this new mediation panel - made up of tripartite partners from the labour movement, employer groups and the Government - must be union members.

Asked why this was open only to union members, labour chief Lim Swee Say said it was not meant to drive up membership.

'Let me emphasise that this whole move is worker-centric,' he told reporters after the forum.

'The PMETs of today will become rank-and-file workers of tomorrow. Therefore, the tripartite partners have come to a conclusion that we do need to create a greater scope of resolving employment issues.'

The new mediation process involving the tripartite partners 'can work only if the union is there', he added, which is why executives have to be members.

The process is targeted at executives who are general branch members, which means there are no unions recognised by their company.

On the other hand, executives who are ordinary branch members with full or limited union representation have their own form of dispute settlement.

During the dialogue, half of the six questions raised focused on the new dispute resolution process for PMETs and whether it benefits all parties involved.

Mr Stephen Lee, president of the Singapore National Employers Federation, noted that it helps both employees and employers speed up the process to resolve disputes, rather than dragging it out.

But employers like Mr He Jia Wei, a manager in the transport sector, have some reservations, noting that employees usually get more sympathy during such processes.

'Dismissal due to disciplinary issues, for example, can come across as a very subjective thing. Nobody will side with the big corporation. In many instances, it is not a level playing field,' he said.

Unionist Rathakrishnan Sinnappan, general secretary of the Singapore Airlines Staff Union, however, believes it is better to set up a sophisticated dispute resolution process within the organisation, so that employees can settle everything as amicably as possible.

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