An engineer in Singapore was sued by his former employers for keeping his bonus after he resigned, and eventually ordered to pay back the full sum of money to the company.
Sia Chien Kian, who had previously worked as an engineer for Quantum Technologies Global Pte Ltd, submitted his notice of resignation back on 25 March 2022.
However, he later received a bonus of $8,424 in his bank account, as part of a variable incentive one day after his resignation.
Quantum Technologies Global then asked Sia to return the bonus, saying that he was not eligible for it, but Sia refused to pay it back and the company then took him to court.
The company wanted to claim back the $8,424 that was paid out to Sia, with about $7,200 of the money being paid in cash and the remaining $1,224 being paid to his CPF account.
The company said in court that he was not eligible for the bonus because of a clause in their company’s employee handbook, saying that Sia was not eligible for the bonus because he served his notice period in the same month the bonus was paid.
But Sia still received the bonus because the company had already processed the payment before they received his resignation notice.
Sia argued that he was not aware of the clause, and said that the employee handbook was not part of the employment letter that he signed when he joined the company back on 18 November 2020.
The court eventually ruled in favour of Quantum Technologies Global, with District Judge Vince Gui saying that Sia had been fully aware of the employee handbook.
The company had sent him an email on 9 March 2021, telling him about the latest version of the handbook that was available on a public drive.
The company’s human resources (HR) department also informed Sia of “clause 9” in his employment letter, which stated that staff members are subjected to “such further terms as laid down in the prevailing employee handbook”.
Sia was ultimately ordered to pay back the full amount of the bonus to Quantum Technologies Global.