Alice Tan (not her real name) had been a loyal and diligent worker. She had been working in her company for several years and believed that her position was secure since she was one of the better performers among her peers.
When Alice found out that she was pregnant with her third child, she promptly informed her boss.
Everything was well at first. Alice’s boss congratulated her on the pregnancy. However, one-and-a-half months before her child was due, Alice was called into her boss’ office. He passed her a letter. It was a two-month dismissal notice.
When she asked why she was being dismissed, her boss was unable to provide a legitimate reason. One reason he gave was the number of medical leave she had been taking since her pregnancy started.
Alice found it suspicious because her productivity had not decreased. She was just about to receive her maternity benefits. Her boss was willing to give her two months’ salary, but not her maternity benefits, which she believed was unfair.
Alice went straight to her union who rendered immediate assistance after ascertaining that her employer intended to deprive her of maternity benefits.
After several rounds of negotiations with the company, her union decided to escalate the case to the Ministry of Manpower. The company finally agreed to compensate her with an additional two months’ salary in-lieu of her maternity leave.
The incident above is one of the many cases familiar to NTUC-affiliated unions. In the last three years, unions had helped some 436 workers on dismissal cases.
According to unions, the most common types of termination cases they handle are those where the employees are not given a valid reason by their employers for termination.
Like Alice, many affected employees had no prior cases of misconduct or performance issues.
“The number of cases that we’ve collated are those that already have been reported upwards to the union level. Unions have a procedure to resolve such cases at the branch level. This process helps the union and the company to work together to resolve most cases before they lead to any unnecessary disputes that may lead to termination,” said NTUC Assistant Secretary-General (ASG) Cham Hui Fong.
On the members’ behalf, unions will approach the employers to seek clarification and reasons on the termination, if they deem there was something wrong with the process or the reasons given for the termination.
And if there was a wrongful dismissal, the first option the union will look at is the reinstatement of employment.
“If the employee is genuine, and his conscience is right, that he did not do what the employer alleged, our first instance is to reinstate him to his job. Once reinstatement is given, we will talk to the employee and ask, ‘Are you prepared to come back?’ But many employees choose not to come back and instead seek compensation. Then the employee will have their status changed from dismissal to resignation,” said Ms Cham.
The Tripartite Guidelines on Wrongful Dismissal released earlier this month were meant to give clarity to both employees and employers on what is wrongful dismissal and what is not.
Even though rights to end an employment contract are given to both employers and employees, workers would naturally be aggrieved when their employment is terminated, especially if no good reason has been given, said Ms Cham.
“There’s also this fear that there is an element of victimisation. Because the employee disagreed with the management on some things or did not toe the line in some areas, they think that they have been marked by the employer. We handle a lot of those … We take issue if employers victimise our union members. Now, these guidelines will help unions weed out these cases, and help both parties be familiar with their rights and responsibilities,” said Ms Cham.
In the long term, Ms Cham hopes that unions will see a decrease in wrongful dismissal cases. She urges companies and employees to be transparent with each other, and human resource practitioners to put in place good practices and proper procedures to handle dismissal cases.
