It promised to keep the staff for a year, then demanded to see their contracts
Staff contracts are not a precondition to choosing stores to take over, Singapore's commercial court held on 23 July 2026, per James Allsop IJ.
The dispute grew out of an arbitration award made in Pittsburgh in August 2024, which a three-member panel handed down in a dispute over 54 former franchise stores in Singapore. Enforcement of that award has already run through the Singapore International Commercial Court and the Court of Appeal, and by May 2026 the whole award stood enforced against the two defendant companies.
One part of the enforced orders reshaped what happens to the people who staff the shops. The defendants had to hand over the lease documents for the 54 former franchise stores, and the franchisor then had to decide which stores to reopen. For each store it chose, the franchisor had to warrant that it would run the store under its own brand for at least 12 months and offer employment for those 12 months to "all store-level and non-executive employees" on substantially similar terms to those in place when the award was made.
That warranty came from the franchisor itself. The tribunal had picked up an offer made in evidence by the franchisor's vice chairman, who said the company was prepared to employ the existing shop staff if it was handed the leases. The court noted the protective purpose behind the arrangement: "As a way of protecting the employees as innocent third parties to...
A journalist who spread false information about the family of then-presidential candidate Lee Jae Myung ahead of the 21st presidential election was fined. The Dae-gu District Court Andong Branch C...