SINGAPORE – A software company here is being investigated by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), following claims from employees about unpaid salaries.
Former employees of Napier Healthcare Solutions told The Straits Times that they have not been paid a full month’s salary from as far back as November 2023.
In a joint media reply, MOM and the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM) said they are assisting 12 employees from the Singapore-headquartered company on their claims for unpaid salaries.
The company is being investigated for possible offences under the Employment Act, said MOM and TADM, adding that they will continue to extend help to the affected employees.
Napier Healthcare Solutions was incorporated in 2008. According to its LinkedIn page, most of its employees are based in Hyderabad, India, where the company’s Global Development Centre is located.
According to its website, it offers technology products, such as information systems which display patient data, and artificial intelligence tools to healthcare institutions such as hospitals and nursing homes.
A spokesperson for Napier Healthcare Solutions told ST on Jan 24 that the company does not have any salary-related disputes with former or existing employees.
But he added that salary payments have been delayed due to a “cash flow challenge the organisation has been facing”.
“We are expecting to clear all outstanding salary dues to ex-employees and existing employees by next week,” the spokesperson had said on Jan 24.
The small and medium-sized enterprise has nine employees working in Singapore, added the spokesperson.
On Feb 4, the spokesperson said the company would be settling the dues in the next few days.
On Feb 17, the spokesperson noted that while the dues had not been paid, “the funds are expected”.
Three former employees of the firm spoke to ST on condition of anonymity. All three claimed they are owed salaries by the company.
One of them, who joined the company in October 2023 and left in July 2024, said his monthly salary was paid on time only for his first month of work.
When he asked the company about the delayed payments, “they just kept saying they would pay the next week”, he said. Whenever he pressed them, they would sometimes pay him lump sum amounts ranging from $2,500 to $15,000, he said.
When he left the company – after securing another job – on July 1, 2024, he was owed about $90,000, he said.
To get back his unpaid salary, he hired lawyers, who then sent a letter – seen by ST – dated Sept 19, 2024, to Napier Healthcare Solutions to make a claim for about $90,000 for salary arrears and expenses.
In a reply dated Sept 25, 2024, also seen by ST, Napier said it would remit the full amount by Oct 15, 2024 – 14 working days from the day the letter reached the company by registered post.
The former employee told ST that as at Feb 19, he has yet to receive the dues.
“This is really bad as it has almost been a year, and I’m now worried about the upcoming income tax (filing season),” he said.
Another former employee, who declined to disclose how much he was owed, said he was last paid his full month’s salary in October 2023. He was paid a sum of money in February 2024, but he noted that the amount did not cover the salary he was owed for the months prior.
He said he chose to resign as he felt the company was not being transparent about when it would pay the salaries.
“They kept saying they would raise the money and honour the commitment, ‘We would pay next week, or next Tuesday, or Friday or end of the month.’ And this promise would always be broken.”
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