Wrongful Dismissal From Your Job: What to Do

Last updated on December 1, 2024

In 2023, a total of 9,397 employment claims and appeals were lodged with the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM) amid economic headwind. While about 86 per cent of the cases were salary-related claims, most of the rest were claims for wrongful dismissals.

If you are an employee who is covered under the Employment Act and feel that you have been wrongfully dismissed, this article covers the various options and avenues for legal recourse that you might have in such a situation.

What is a Dismissal?

Dismissal means that an employer has terminated an employee’s contract of service. It may be with or without notice, and on grounds of misconduct or not.

It also includes situations where an employee resigns involuntarily.

For termination with notice, a dated, written notice of termination can be given by your employer from 1 day to 4 weeks in advance based on the duration of your employment (if you and your employer have not previously agreed on a notice period). For example, if you have been employed for 26 weeks or less, your employer should give you at least 1 day’s notice.

Termination may also occur either without any advance notice or during the notice period where your employer would you salary in lieu of serving the notice of the period.

Is Your Dismissal Valid?

Your dismissal is considered valid if it is made on the following grounds:

Misconduct, for example, due to disorderly conduct at work;
Poor performance, shown in the inability to meet required standards of work; and
Redundancy, i.e. the employee’s job scope has changed and the old job scope no longer exists.

Misconduct is the only ground for dismissal that does not require notice. However, a due inquiry must be conducted by your employer, on the alleged act of misconduct, prior to making a decision on dismissing you.

Similarly, in the case of dismissal for reasons of poor performance, the employer must substantiate the reason (e.g. provide documented proof of the employee’s poor performance), failing which, the dismissal would be considered wrongful (more below).

When is Your Dismissal Considered Wrongful?

Wrongful dismissal occurs when an employee is dismissed without just or sufficient cause.

The Tripartite Guidelines on Wrongful Dismissal provides some examples, which include:

Wrongful dismissals include:

Dismissal on discriminatory grounds based on age, race, gender, religion, marital status and family responsibilities or disability.
Dismissal to deprive an employee of benefits or entitlements, e.g. to deprive an employee of her maternity benefits.
Dismissal to punish an employee for exercising an employment right, e.g. dismissing employee after the employee submitted a mediation request over a salary-related dispute.

While the Tripartite Guidelines on Wrongful Dismissal are not legally-binding, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has stated that it can take action against organisations that fail to comply with these guidelines.

What You Can Do If You Think You have been Wrongfully Dismissed

If you believe that you have been wrongfully dismissed and wish to file a claim, there are several things that you will need to take note of beforehand.

Have a meeting with your HR department

As a first step, as soon as you are informed that you have been dismissed, you should arrange for a meeting with your organisation’s HR representatives to better understand their grounds for dismissal.

You should this meeting as an opportunity to seek clarification for your dismissal. Be open to having a transparent and honest discussion with your HR representatives.

There may be a possibility that your employment in the company could be reinstated if the dismissal arose out of a misunderstanding or miscommunication.

However, if your employer insists on the dismissal, you can then consider pursuing a claim.

Filing a claim for wrongful dismissal

Note that you must file a wrongful dismissal claim at TADM within one month from the last day of your employment, if you feel that your dismissal was wrongful.

For dismissals without notice, your employer must show proof that the dismissal was not wrongful. For example, suppose you are employed a warehouse assistant. You have been involved in multiple incidents that resulted in poor quality services provided by the warehouse. Your supervisor has documented these shortcomings in the performance reviews and provided additional resources and support to help improve your performance. Despite this, your performance did not improve and you are dismissed without notice because of your poor work performance. Your employer in this instance has documented proof of your poor performance.

For dismissals with notice or salary in lieu of notice, you must show proof that your dismissal was wrongful. Take the case of an employee who is dismissed and no reason is given for the dismissal. However, the employee had reported that his employer had made a number of discriminatory remarks about the employee’s race, with the employer even stating that he preferred to hire someone of another race. Even though the employer had dismissed the employee with notice, the employer’s conduct would support the employee’s claim that he was wrongfully dismissed because of racial discrimination.

File a claim with the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM)

TADM is jointly set up by the tripartite partners – MOM, theNational Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF). They provide employees with mediation, advisory services, support services and free basic legal advice to help resolve employment-related issues.

All employees, except for a domestic worker, seafarer or public officer, can file a claim for mediation with the TADM. However, the following persons must have first served their employers for the minimum duration of at least:

For managers and executives: If you were dismissed with notice or salary in lieu of notice, you can only file a wrongful dismissal claim if you have served your employer for at least 6 months.
If you were dismissed while pregnant: 3 months.

If you are a manager or executive and have been dismissed without notice, no minimum duration of employment is required.

Additionally, for all employees whose employer still owes you your salary, your salary-related claim must be filed in addition to the unfair dismissal claim (i.e. 2 separate claims must be filed).

The following are options to file your claims, depending on whether you are a non-union member, a union member or an NTUC member:

Option 1: If you are a non-union member, file a claim for mediation with TADM.

You must file your claim either within:

1 month after your last day of employment; or
2 months of child birth if you were wrongfully dismissed during pregnancy.

To file your claim, you can either fill in TADM’s e-claim form using SingPass or make an appointment if you do not have a SingPass, along with the following supporting documents:

Employment contract;
Salary payment records and CPF statements;
Termination or resignation letter; and
Any other written documents to support your claim.

The registration fees for filing a claim are as follows:

Claim Amount	Registration Fee
Up to $10,000	$10
More than $10,000	$20

Payment can be made with your credit or debit card, or via internet banking.

Option 2: If you are a union member, you may approach your union to assist in filing your claim for mediation. To do so, ensure that you have:

Left your company within 1 month of the last day of employment.
(For NTUC members) Been a member of NTUC for at least 6 months.

The same documents and registration fee as mentioned in Option 1 apply.

NTUC members employed in non-unionised companies and are members of a registered trade union (without representation rights), can also choose to engage in Tripartite Mediation (TM) by submitting an online query to NTUC.

What happens after I’ve filed a mediation claim with the TADM?

After filing a mediation claim, TADM will first assess if your wrongful dismissal claim can be substantiated prior to arranging a mediation session. Mediation will be conducted by one of TADM’s professional mediators between you and your employer in a 2 to 3 hours session.

No lawyers will be allowed to attend the session.

If the mediation is successful, the mediator will issue a settlement agreement. You can register this settlement agreement as a binding order under the Community Justice and Tribunals System (CJTS) for a registration fee of $10, within 4 weeks.

The employer must, given 2 weeks of the settlement agreement (or by a mutually agreed date) pay the agreed amount to you. Following which you are to inform TADM of receiving the amount by returning to them an Updating Payment Status of Settlement Agreement form or the ECT Order form.

If your employer fails to pay you, TADM will take action on your behalf by reporting to MOM.

File a claim with the Employment Claims Tribunals (ECT)

If the TADM is unable to help resolve the matter, the matter will be brought to the ECT for further mediation. The ECT provides employers and employees with an efficient and low-cost forum to resolve salary and wrongful dismissal-related issues.

Do note that mediation at the TADM is compulsory before claims can be filed at the ECT. You may only file a claim at the ECT if both of the following applies:

Your dispute is unresolved after mediation at TADM.
You have been issued a claim referral certificate by an approved TADM mediator.

You will receive a Claim Referral Certificate from a TADM mediator to file your ECT claim within 4 weeks of receiving the certificate online via the CJTS.

The fees for filing are as follows:

Claim Amount	Filing Fee
Below $10,000	$30
More than $10,000	$60

If the ECT judges that a dismissal is wrongful, your employer may be ordered to do one of the following:

Reinstate you to your former job and pay you for any income loss due to the wrongful dismissal.
Pay you a sum of money as compensation.

File a civil claim in court

If your claim is unsuccessful at the ECT, you may consider engaging an employment lawyer to pursue and file a civil claim in the courts.

Do note that pursuing litigation via a civil claim can be a costly and time-consuming process, and should only be considered after you have exhausted all other avenues for legal recourse. It is also highly recommended that you consult an employment lawyer for further advice on the merits of your case.

If you are looking for an employment lawyer to consult, here is our guide on how to choose a good employment lawyer in Singapore. Alternatively, you may kickstart your search using our Find a Lawyer service.