A Singaporean media firm, TechTV Community, is beneath investigation by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) for allegedly delaying the salaries of its employees.
In keeping with a CNA report on June 25, one worker had not acquired his month-to-month wage of S$9,000 since October final yr, together with his Central Provident Fund (CPF) contributions ceasing even earlier in June final yr.
Rather than his wage, he has solely been receiving sporadic handouts of S$1,000 at a time. The backlog of wages the corporate owes him at the moment quantities to roughly S$55,000.
A number of different workers whom the publication spoke to have described comparable experiences. One even misplaced his S Go, after TechTV stopped making CPF contributions for its native workers, which impacted the corporate’s skill to retain international employees.
Regardless of months of ongoing points, many workers selected to remain on, holding out hope based mostly on assurances from TechTV founder and CEO Debbie Lee. She attributed the delayed salaries to causes resembling banking process setbacks and pending offers with unnamed “stakeholders,” which she claimed had been essential to safe the funds wanted for payroll.
In emails to employees, Lee additionally cited the crew’s low gross sales efficiency as the explanation. “You’ll be able to play an element to assist the gross sales CF (money move) in order that each your self and the crew can profit with allocation,” she wrote.
TechTV manufacturers itself as “Asia’s largest and quickest rising 24/7 media distribution platform” in esports.
It beforehand ran an esports channel, TechStorm, on Starhub and Singtel networks. It launched in 2019 however went off air in late 2024.
On the time of writing, the corporate continues to be in operation.
A number of of TechTV’s workers have filed wage claims and acquired assist from the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Administration (TADM).
By way of TADM’s mediation, TechTV signed settlement agreements with 5 workers, setting out the salaries owed and fee schedules the corporate is meant to comply with.
Nevertheless, in line with CNA, Lee has already defaulted on funds for at the very least one worker.
MOM is at the moment investigating TechTV Community for attainable offences beneath the Employment Act. Employers who fail to pay salaries on time could face imprisonment for as much as six months or fines starting from S$3,000 to S$15,000 for the primary offence, whereas repeat offenders are topic to penalties twice as extreme.
As well as, employers failing to make CPF contributions might be fined between S$1,000 and S$5,000, or face imprisonment for as much as six months for a first-time offence.
- Learn different articles we’ve written on Singaporean startups right here.
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