Woman fired over 'lazy work' wins Rs 22 lakh after company fails to prove it

A Singapore woman was awarded S$30,000 as compensation after her company fired her over "poor performance" but couldn't justify it.Woman fired over ‘lazy work' wins Rs 22 lakh after company fails to prove it (Photo: Representational Image from Pexels)A Singapore woman has been awarded S$30,000 (Rs 22,19,667) after a tribunal ruled that her employer had fired her in a “sudden and unjustified” manner at the end of her six-month probation.According to a report by The Straits Times, the Employment Claims Tribunals (ECT) ruled that the woman, an audit manager, had been terminated in a “sudden and unjustified” manner after her employer could not prove that her poor performance justified the decision.The woman, whose identity and employer were kept confidential in the judgment, had joined the company in April 2025 as a regional internal control audit manager. She was placed on a six-month probation period before her employment ended.She challenged the dismissal on three grounds. She argued that the company failed to provide evidence supporting claims of poor performance, that she was disadvantaged because she did not speak Korean despite English being the company’s working language, and that her termination was linked to concerns she had raised about proposed changes to the company’s internal audit structure. The tribunal agreed only with her first argument.The company had assessed her probation performance using two benchmarks, an overall score of at least 80 per cent and an average competency rating of three out of five across 10 areas. The woman received a performance score of 71 per cent and an average competency rating of 2.4. However, tribunal magistrate Joel Tan found that the company had not shown that these ratings were based on a fair or transparent process.As reported by The Straits Times, the employee’s supervisor had not explained the competency expectations clearly when she joined and had also failed to conduct the regular documented reviews required under the company’s probation system.The magistrate said the employee had been left trying to meet unclear standards without knowing what was expected of her to successfully complete probation.The tribunal also examined several complaints raised by the company, including alleged missed deadlines, failure to follow instructions and formatting issues in her work. However, it found that many of these criticisms either lacked supporting evidence or involved expectations that had not been properly communicated.The magistrate noted that the supervisor’s concerns focused largely on administrative matters rather than the actual quality of the woman’s audit work. He said the ratings appeared to reflect personal impressions rather than a structured evaluation.However, the tribunal dismissed the woman’s claims that she had been discriminated against because she did not speak Korean. While it acknowledged that Korean was sometimes used in workplace discussions, it found no evidence that her language ability influenced her performance assessment or dismissal.Her claim that she was terminated in retaliation for raising concerns about changes to the audit structure was also rejected. The tribunal found no evidence that the managers involved in the dismissal decision were aware of those discussions.In deciding compensation, Magistrate Tan said the woman would have been entitled to three months’ salary for lost income and additional compensation for distress caused by the dismissal. However, due to the ECT’s compensation limit, the award was capped at S$30,000.The woman earned S$11,500 (Rs 8,50,872) per month, meaning she could have received up to S$57,500 (Rs 42,54,362) without the statutory limit.The tribunal also ordered the employer to pay S$300 (Rs 22,196) in costs and S$60 (Rs 4,439) in disbursements.- EndsPublished By: Yashna TalwarPublished On: Jul 29, 2026 15:42 IST