SINGAPORE – The manager of a beauty salon outlet, who took advantage of her boss’ absence for cancer treatment to commit various wrongdoings at the workplace, has been ordered by a district court to pay about $71,000 in damages to her employer.
Apart from being habitually late and absent, Ms Tan Mong Ngoh, who is also known as Anna, coerced other staff to perform facials and massages on her for free during working hours.
She also pocketed money meant for treatment packages after convincing customers to make payment to her own bank account by offering them perks.
The salon, De Beaute, sacked her and sued her in 2020 after hiring a lawyer to carry out an independent investigation into her misconduct.
In a judgment on Oct 8, District Judge Clement Seah awarded various sums to De Beaute, including $57,134.22 for the unauthorised facials and massages that Ms Tan received and $6,000 for customers’ monies she misappropriated.
The judge also accepted De Beaute’s claim for $2,415.65 arising from Ms Tan’s absence from work on 17 Mondays, and for $4,420.78 in relation to a shortfall of 31 working days.
Ms Tan first worked for De Beaute in 2003 as a beauty therapist but was sacked in October 2014.
According to the judgment, she “showed a propensity for insubordination”, failed to issue invoices to customers, and despite various warning letters, started to leak confidential information to third parties.
In February 2017, the company rehired her as the manager of its outlet at Singapore Shopping Centre.
De Beaute, which is run by Mr Leo Meng Foo and his wife, Ms Cori Teo, said it re-employed her out of goodwill because she pleaded for a job.
But Ms Tan claimed she was “invited” to rejoin the company because she was good in sales.
