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Oral Answer by Mrs Josephine Teo, Second Minister for Manpower, to Parliamentary Question on mediation by TADM

Employment practices

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1117 OF 2018 FOR THE SITTING ON OR AFTER 20 MARCH 2018

QUESTION NO. 1880 FOR ORAL ANSWER

MP: Er Dr Lee Bee Wah

To ask the Minister for Manpower (a) in 2017, how many mediations have been handled by the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM); (b) what have been the outcomes; and (c) when either party refuses to attend the mediation session, what are the options offered under TADM.

Answer

  1. The Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM) was set up in April 2017 to help employees and employers manage and resolve employment disputes. This includes both salary and non-salary-related disputes. A large majority of the disputes received by TADM are salary-related disputes which are governed under the Employment Claims Act (ECA), where mediation is compulsory. For non-salary disputes, voluntary mediation is offered.
  2. Between April and December 2017, TADM concluded mediation for 6,000 salary-related claims under the ECA. About 95% of these claims were filed by employees, and the remaining by employers for notice pay.
  3. 79% of these 6,000 claims were settled amicably through mediation. 12% were not settled as parties were unable to work out a settlement. These cases were then referred to the Employment Claims Tribunals (ECT) for adjudication. The remaining 9% were claims involving non-attendance at mediation.
  4. One-third of the non-attendance cases were closed as the claimants themselves did not show up. For the remaining two-thirds, when respondents did not attend mediation, claimants could have their claims heard and adjudicated by the ECT, even if respondents do not turn up for the hearing. Where there are good grounds, the ECT can and will make a payment order in favour of claimants, for the full claimed amount. As a consequence of non-attendance, the ECT may also order respondents to pay costs to claimants.
  5. To date, TADM and ECT have helped about 92% of employees with valid salary claims recover their salaries in full. Most of the remaining employees received some form of partial payment.