Compulsory mediation could soon be required for non-salary workplace disputes: Lim Swee Say

SINGAPORE — Employers and their staff involved in disputes that are unrelated to salary matters could soon be required to undergo mediation, as part of plans to expand support for workplace conflict resolution, Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say said on Friday (Oct 20).

Such non-salary related disputes range from unfair dismissals to disagreements over performance appraisals.

Speaking to reporters at an event for fair and responsive management of workplace disputes, Mr Lim said the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM) is in talks with the Manpower Ministry and other partners on this front, and hopes to update the Employment Claims Act by next year.

Currently, mediation is compulsory only for salary-related matters, such as disputes over overtime pay, paid leave and medical benefits. In a majority of these cases, mediation is mandated by law.

Since it began operations in April, the TADM has conducted voluntary mediation for about 100 cases which are not covered by law, but could be guided by contract or industry norms. About 70 of them were successfully resolved.

“That gave us a lot of confidence … Maybe the next step is for us to explore whether we can extend the scope of mandatory mediation to cover non-salary related disputes as well,” said Mr Lim.

In expanding the scope of mandatory mediation, TADM hopes to prioritise cases of alleged unfair termination of professionals, managers and executives (PMEs), which are among the most common non-salary disputes flagged, said Mr Lim.

If mediation is unsuccessful, TADM could help by referring such cases to the Employment Claims Tribunals, as is the practice with salary disputes.

In his speech at the event, Mr Lim cited the example of a manager at a financial institution who felt “unfairly targeted” when she was placed on a Performance Improvement Programme just two months before she reached the retirement age.

She questioned if her employer was attempting to deny her re-employment.

The employer said during voluntary mediation that she had been underperforming for some time. The employee, however, said she had appealed the company’s assessment of her performance but did not get a satisfactory reply from the management.

Both parties eventually reached a compromise, with the employer offering the staff a “goodwill payment” for her years of service, as well as a certificate indicating that she had retired from the company and was not terminated.

“To discourage employers from adopting unfair HR practices, the tripartite partners will continue to review and strengthen our employment laws and to step up education and enforcement,” said Mr Lim.