70 yr old kitchen helper sued for liquidated damages
I am a 70-year-old kitchen helper for a major F&B group in Singapore.
1 month ago, my husband got an infection and was hospitalized for 2 weeks.
At work, I told my boss and sent him my husband’s MC.
My husband is still not recovered and has early-stage kidney failure.
I worked as a kitchen helper for 3 months on probation and needed to resign to take care of him.
I gave two days notice.
Now that the company has issued a court summons to sue me, I have failed to pay up for liquidated damages of $1400.
I have asked NTUC, as I am a member, but they cannot help as I signed a contract.
What can I do?
I have no money for a lawyer. I asked and was told that I needed to pay fees for this help.
Here are what netizens think:
Does the letter say “notice of consultation” or cite a “section 17 of the small claims tribunal act”?
If not, then I don’t think that’s a “court summons”. What you got instead might be a “letter of demand” drafted by their in house counsel (their company’s lawyer).
You can generally ignore a letter of demand asking for $3k and below as the vast majority of lawyers will tell management the bad press and optics resulting from pursuing such a claim isn’t worth it.
But if the company wants to be petty, they’ll pay $50 to file a claim at the small claims tribunal. Then you might receive a letter citing “section 17” of the small claims tribunal act asking you to either come for a consultation, or attend a telephone / video conversation . Don’t ignore *this* letter, attend the consultation. Bring your husband medical records ready to show.
Usually at this point the person doing the consultation (Registrar) will persuade the company and you to work out a smaller sum or waive. People who get to that level tend to be very sensible, and few companies don’t listen to sensible people suggesting to them *not* to squeeze $1700 from a jobless old lady with a sick husband.
If still cannot settle (and the company’s lawyer hasn’t died of shame during the consultation yet), the Registrar might ask you to go for mediation, which is roughly the same. The mediator(s) are professional dispute resolvers, and usually at this point the company will realise that attending all of these things is costing a lot more man-hours than just hiring another cleaner.
I’ve heard of contractual disputes against individuals to go mediation before but they have all been 20k and up. I think more likely than not $1700 will be written off by the company either after you ignore their letter of demand, or at the small claims consultation.
(Above is not legal advice, just sharing of knowledge)