In Singapore, the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM) provides employees and employers with services to resolve salary-related claims and employment disputes.

The Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM) is jointly set up by the tripartite partners: the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF).

TADM provides advisory and mediation services before claims can be heard at the Employment Claims Tribunals (ECT).

On 9 July 2021, MOM and the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM), released the Employment Standards Report 2020, that showed that more local workers sought help from the authorities for disputes with employers over owed salaries and wrongful dismissals last year amid the pandemic.

The proportion of claims relating to end-of-employment issues such as salary- in-lieu of notice and encashment of unconsumed annual leave increased in 2020. Such claims arose due to disagreements on whether leave had been taken during the Circuit Breaker for the purpose of encashment and what were the salaries payable during the period of business disruption. Taking reference from the Advisory on Salary and Leave Arrangements issued by the tripartite partners, TADM guided employees and employers towards fair settlement given that both parties were experiencing hardships brought about by COVID-19.

Commenting the Report, Senior Minister of State for Health and Manpower, Koh Poh Koon announced that The Manpower Ministry (MOM) is converting the mediation process to an online one so that disputes can be resolved remotely.

In February 2020, TADM piloted an Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) process, which provided a platform for parties involved in a dispute to resolve their issues remotely, in lieu of attending physical mediation sessions. Employees and employers no longer have to juggle their schedules to attend physical mediation sessions. Instead, parties are offered a range of digital communication tools such as emails, WhatsApp Business messages, and online conferencing platforms to discuss and settle their disputes.

This initiative was especially useful during the Circuit Breaker when physical mediation sessions could not be held.

The Online Dispute Resolution also allowed TADM mediators to review the documents ahead of the mediation to ensure that mediation sessions were conducted more expeditiously.

In 2020, TADM mediated an average of about 600 cases per month via the ODR process.

TADM further enhanced its Online Dispute Resolution capabilities in March 2021 to support the exchange of views between the employee and their employer, and for parties to present documents and evidence to support their claims.

In the next phases of development, TADM will focus on enhancing the usability of the system to cater to different users’ profile, and also improving the users’ access to relevant case information and tools to enable both the employee and employer to make informed decisions on the claim.

TADM will also explore the use of artificial intelligence and scenario-based conversations to guide parties in the decision-making.

The Online Dispute Resolution will be the first end-to-end online platform for employment dispute resolution and will be seamlessly integrated with the Employment Claims Tribunal’s claims filing system when fully developed in 2023.

Singapore Business Federation Chief Executive, Lam Yi Young, commented that last year was challenging for many businesses, with some having to implement measures like retrenchments, pay cuts, pay freezes and no-pay leave periods. This could have contributed to the slight increase in the incidence of employment claims for local employees. Mr Lam added that "[a]lthough the incidence of claims remains low, we urge all employers to continue to treat their employees fairly and prioritise prompt payment of salaries to their employees."

The Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) said that generally, employers were "responsible in managing excess manpower during the pandemic".

Ms Chew Lee Ching, Vice-President of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises’ (ASME) Awards and Special Projects Department, said that small and medium enterprises, in particular, have been hard-hit, and some of the claims from local workers could be from such enterprises.  She stated that "[t]his is a constant issue brought up by SME owners - that business is severely impacted." She also noted that skills upgrading and training will play a big role in companies' journeys towards recovery. "When the business situation improves, the workers will be in a better position to apply the skills they have learnt and help companies grow... We need to look at what new skills we can help our... employees pick up so they can stay relevant."

National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) Assistant Secretary-General, Patrick Tay posted on Facebook that "[w]e 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".