What to Do If You are Regularly Paid Late

Finally it’s payment day! You happily check your bank account balance to check if the salary has been added. Alas, the digit has not changed at all since the last time you log into the account. In fact, this is not the first time you receive late payment. What should you do in such situation? Can you sue the employer or company for regularly paying you late?

Under employment contract, employees deserve to know when he gets paid, the amount details, and how he will get the payment. However, owing to one and other reasons, there are times when companies announce late payment without telling the employees earlier. As a result, many workers have to deal with the consequences themselves.

There is no doubt that financial-related matter is sensitive yet crucial issue at the workplace. As an employee, you need to know everything about how and when you will get the compensation you have earnt.

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How salary should be paid

Ministry of Manpower cited that employer must pay your salary at least once a month if you are covered by the Employment Act. Before signing in a job contract, you should ask the employer whether your employment has been secured by Employment Act or not. Your salary should be paid: a) on a working day, during working hours; and b) at your place of work, or any other place you and your employer have agreed on. Generally, your payment can be made directly into your bank account (if any) or by cheque. The cheque should be cleared by your bank before you are considered paid.

When you are regularly paid late

Ministry of Manpower (MOM) stated that it is employer’s obligation to pay employees’ salary on time. However, if the salary is being paid late, employer should give reasons regarding the lateness and whether payment schedule can be resumed.

If employees still do not receive their payment after the notification, they can file employment-related claim. MOM suggested employees to file claim early and do not wait for the amount to accumulate because there are limit to claim amount and timeline for filling.  

How to make complaint of late payment

Trade Union or your Local Citizens Information Centre can give you support and advice for your grievance. However, support alone is not enough. You can use these two ways to enforce your legal right to be paid on time.

1)   Resolving dispute with employer

Before stating your grievance, you should flash back to your employment contract. When is the company supposed to pay you? In this case, you should always keep in mind the time and amount of your wages. Also, you should remember if in the contract there is additional information regarding the late payment regulation or not. If there isn’t any, you can make straight complaint to employer. If employer give acceptable reason, you can go with it. Besides, if you cannot resolve the complaint internally or if your employer does not gave grievance procedure, you can make formal complaint.

2)   Making formal complaint

Formal complaint can be made and submitted in each region’s workplace commission for dispute management. For Singaporean employees, they can give their grievance to TADM. TADM team can give solution for payment-related dispute either for employee or employer.

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