Article By: Jolene Ang
SINGAPORE - By 2023, artificial intelligence will be used to guide parties in resolving employment and salary disputes, and it will be possible to complete the full dispute resolution process online.
This includes the advisory stage, lodging a claim, mediation and post-mediation tasks such as payment monitoring.
The Manpower Ministry (MOM) is converting the mediation process to an online one so that the disputes can be resolved remotely, Senior Minister of State for Health and Manpower Koh Poh Koon said in a Facebook post on Friday (July 9).
Face to face mediation can still be offered for cases that are more complex.
Dr Koh was commenting on statistics, released on Friday by MOM and the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM), which showed that more local workers sought help from the authorities for disputes with their employers over owed salaries and wrongful dismissals last year, amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
TADM said it piloted an online dispute resolution process that allows parties to use electronic communication tools to settle their disputes, which came in handy during the circuit breaker period.
Said Dr Koh: "When disputes have to be escalated, TADM stands ready to help parties reach a fair and amicable settlement."
National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) assistant secretary-general Patrick Tay added in a Facebook post: "We will continue to work with our partners, to digitalise efforts and to further smoothen the process of dispute resolution, particularly given the continued need for safety measures and social distancing."
The Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) said that generally, employers were "responsible in managing excess manpower during the pandemic".
It noted that there were some employers whose businesses had failed and did not have the financial means to pay the salaries of their employees, adding that it had contributed $1 million to the Short-Term Relief Fund to help local lower wage workers whose employers were in such situations.
Read More at: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/jobs/employment-disputes-to-be-mediated-online-by-2023