Determining ‘serious misconduct’ in an employment contract – article in People Management Asia

23 May 2017

Directors Benjamin Gaw and Elizabeth Tong commented on the importance of clarifying terms in employment contracts in an article recently published in People Management Asia.

Exemplifying this with a recent case of Phosagro Asia Pte Ltd v Piattchanine, Iouri, the managing director of Phosagro Asia had his employment contract terminated immediately when he did not reimburse the company for several personal claims. The grounds for dismissal was ‘serious misconduct’.  

The authors recommended employers to “clearly and expressly set out the scope of serious misconduct”. This may include listing factual categories of serious misconduct, such as theft or fraud, dishonesty, violent behaviour, gross negligence and insubordination. Additionally, as a precaution, the employer may consider enforcing a provision where the employee acts in the best interests of the employer.

To read the full article, please click here.

Reproduced with the permission from the Associate Editor, Georgi Gyton, People Management Asia.