Employee on S Pass leaves Singapore without notice

[inexperiencedhrgal]

Hi,

I'm a HR at a small firm here in Singapore. One of our employees who was here on a S Pass left Singapore in between her notice period. It doesn't look like she will be coming back at all to Singapore.

What should I do? What needs to be done? What will be the consequences?

Thanks!

[BillyB]

Hmmmmm........assuming you really are HR and not writing in the context of the third person, the company would withhold salary, cancel all visa's, and file a tax return for the employee. The salary would be used to clear any tax owing to IRAS as this is the employers responsibility when a person leaves a company.

Any personal debts and liabilities like rent, phone bills and credit cards would also need to be paid, but that is the responsibility of the employee.

If they do a runner and ignore everything they owe and don't complete the formalities it will simply come back to bite them on the arse in the future if they ever want to return to Singapore. Not an advisable practice!

[sundaymorningstaple]

Hi,

I'm a HR at a small firm here in Singapore. One of our employees who was here on a S Pass left Singapore in between her notice period. It doesn't look like she will be coming back at all to Singapore.

What should I do? What needs to be done? What will be the consequences?

Thanks!

Further to BillyB's assumption, if you are actually a local HR, you are also a prime reason why Foreign Talent is still required in huge numbers in Singapore.

Other than that, his answer is pretty complete.

[inexperiencedhrgal]

Not third person!

What I meant is the salary for this month is withheld already. But should I apply for missing person for canceling S Pass or should I apply for lost S Pass and other formalities on those lines.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Make a police report that the employee has gone missing and has not returned his EP. Cancel the EP and submit the police report to MOM. If the currently months salary has already been withheld, I assume that you have already filed the IR-21 Tax Clearance with IRAS. If not, do so ASAP! Also indicate reason for less than one month before final day as employee disappeared, police report filed. That "should" keep your company from having to pay a $1000 penalty for not filing tax clearance timely. (If filed timely, not a problem). Other than that, the fact that if the taxes are more than the withheld final salary, your company will STILL have to pay the taxes. Now, having said that, if your employee is not drawing overtime and you were only paying him the minimum required ($1800/mo) and assuming 30 November was his last day of notice, you would not have needed to do tax clearance unless you gave him a bonus at some point during the year. Otherwise, his salary would be less than 20K and tax clearance wouldn't be necessary.

AS an S pass holder, was he being paid the correct amount? Most of the S pass "runners" do so because they get tired of the local company owners shafting them by making them remit back a large portion of their salaries (usually in cash) in order to keep their jobs. This happens very often with small local companies. Hope I've not stepped on any toes here.

The biggest worry would be if the employer was pulling a shady one on MOM and the "runner" went to them to complain. Depending on his story, this could be the beginning of bad times to be on MOM watch list of errant employers.

Good Luck.

[ksl]

Isn't there a bond of 5K to pay for a runner, I was under this impression as employers are offereng $2000 $ rewards for some of their employees, that have run off!

[ecureilx]

Isn't there a bond of 5K to pay for a runner, I was under this impression as employers are offereng $2000 $ rewards for some of their employees, that have run off!

that is work pass, not S Pass

[sundaymorningstaple]

^^^^
Fact.

[ksl]

Isn't there a bond of 5K to pay for a runner, I was under this impression as employers are offereng $2000 $ rewards for some of their employees, that have run off!

that is work pass, not S Pass

Okay thanks for the info, that's a relief!