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<\/div>The Court of Appeal in Singapore upheld a decision ordering a law firm to pay its former supporting officer around S$2,900 after ruling that the expiry of his probation period did not automatically bring his employment to an end.<\/p><\/div>\n
According to CNA, the court dismissed Nanyang Law\u2019s appeal against an Employment Claims Tribunal decision that awarded Ghui Meng Yang one month\u2019s salary in lieu of notice.<\/p>\n
In a judgment published on Monday, Court of Appeal Justice Sushil Nair said that whether employment automatically ends upon the expiry of a probation period depends on the wording and interpretation of the particular employment contract.<\/p>\n
Ghui was hired by Nanyang Law in April 2023 as a supporting officer, with a three-month probation period ending on July 9.<\/p>\n
Under his employment terms, either party could terminate the contract during the probation period by giving one month\u2019s written notice without having to give a reason.<\/p>\n
Two days before his probation ended, Nanyang Law issued Ghui a letter titled \u201cExpiry of Your Probation Period\u201d, informing him that it would not continue his employment beyond the probation period, with his last physical day set for July 7, 2023.<\/p>\n
The law firm offered him a goodwill payment equivalent to seven days\u2019 salary, which would have paid him until July 18.<\/p>\n
Ghui, however, in a July 10 email contended that the law firm\u2019s employment guidelines implied that employees in his position were entitled to one month\u2019s notice or salary in lieu of notice.<\/p>\n
Nanyang Law maintained that July 9 marked the expiry of his probation and was not a termination, meaning no notice or payment in lieu was required.<\/p>\n
The firm also cited performance and punctuality issues during Ghui\u2019s probation, alleging that he had made \u201cseveral significant errors\u201d in his work and failed to improve despite counselling. Ghui disputed the allegations.<\/p>\n
Ghui subsequently filed a claim with the Employment Claims Tribunal in September 2023 for S$3,000, representing one month\u2019s salary in lieu of notice.<\/p>\n
A magistrate partially allowed the claim in January 2024, ruling that Singapore\u2019s Employment Act did not say whether a probationary employee\u2019s contract should be treated as fixed-term or otherwise, and the matter had to be decided based on the terms agreed between the employer and employee.<\/p>\n
The magistrate awarded Ghui payment equivalent to 20 working days remaining in the one-month notice period.<\/p>\n
\u2018Notice defeats purpose of probation period\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n On appeal, Nanyang Law maintained that requiring notice despite the expiry of probation would defeat the purpose of having a probation period, as an unsuitable employee would have to remain in employment during the notice period.<\/p>\n Sushil said he could accept that it might be commercially pointless for an employee already deemed unsuitable during probation to continue working through a notice period.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, as (Nanyang Law) itself recognised, all these perceived problems can be avoided by clear drafting. Consideration would have to be given to the contractual term in question, including where appropriate the factual context in which it was entered into,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Contract terms<\/strong><\/p>\n Sushil said Nanyang Law\u2019s argument assumed that Ghui\u2019s employment terms amounted to a contract specifically for the probation period. However, that interpretation was inconsistent with other provisions of the contract.<\/p>\n He added that nothing in the contract indicated that Ghui would not continue under the same terms if he was confirmed, while provisions on escalating annual leave entitlements would also make little sense if the contract lasted only three months.<\/p>\n Sushil therefore agreed with the magistrate that the probation clause did not create a fixed-term contract that automatically expired on July 9, 2023, unless Ghui was confirmed. As a result, Ghui was entitled to one month\u2019s notice from July 7.<\/p>\n The court awarded him S$2,857.14 for the remaining 20 working days of the notice period, plus S$30 in disbursements, with Nanyang Law also being ordered to pay costs to be determined.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Singapore Court of Appeal dismissed Nanyang Law\u2019s appeal against an Employment Claims Tribunal decision that awarded Ghui Meng Yang one month\u2019s salary in lieu…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":79458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=79457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/79458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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