Mr Coconut debunks woman's claim she was fired due to pregnancy

It wasn't her pregnancy that led to Charissa Tan being fired, Mr Coconut has revealed in a Facebook post on Wednesday (Feb 7).

Tan, 29, had posted on Facebook on Jan 18, alleging that Mr Coconut had terminated her employment because she had reported her pregnancy to them.

"Is it wrong to be pregnant? Is it a crime to be a woman?" The former customer service officer had questioned in her post then.

She wrote that she had informed her superiors of her pregnancy on Jan 16 before she was served a letter of termination on Jan 17.

However, Mr Coconut, a popular retail chain selling coconut drinks here, has shed light on the matter.

They shared in the Facebook post that the decision to terminate her was already made on Jan 15, and that they'd even put out a job advertisement that day to fill her role.

At that point in time, no one had known she was pregnant and they couldn't tell either, because from CCTV footages, she smoked three to four times a day despite pregnancy, the chain wrote.

They added that Tan was also on probation at the time, wherein only 24 hours were needed to notify her of her termination.

"In fact, Mr Coconut had initially offered Tan a longer one week notice period," the post read. "It was Tan herself who insisted on the shorter 24-hours' notice instead."

Work ethic in question

Tan had also allegedly taken days off during her probationary period - she would have been entitled to 14 days of annual leave, but that was only after she completed probation.

"In Tan's particular case, however, even prior to completing her probation, she had already taken 12.5 days of leave," Mr Coconut shared.

Mr Coconut also addressed claims that Tan made about her resting her head on her desk when she was "feeling unwell".

According to their investigations, Tan wasn't simply resting - she had "propped her handphone up against her laptop screen and was watching a movie on her handphone openly in office during office hours", Mr Coconut stated.

They further clarified that this wasn't during lunch hours or nearing the end of the day, as was alleged in Tan's Facebook post.

'I'm going to make a big hooha': Tan

Now, Tan is allegedly seeking over $53,000 in compensation from Mr Coconut, which is purportedly almost 18 times her monthly salary with the company.

In a screenshot of messages with her superior, it was also revealed that Tan had said she was going to make "a big hooha" of her termination.

Concluding their post, Mr Coconut firmly stated that they "find no basis whatsoever" to Tan's allegations against them.

"Our invitation for Tan to come forth to provide us with her further clarifications remains open," they added.

They also stated: "We would like to emphasise that… we take a firm stance against any form of discriminatory employment practices and will not shy away from dealing with any such allegations fairly and openly."

On Wednesday, Tan also responded to Mr Coconut's Facebook post, saying that she's "not allowed to share" her discussions with the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM).

She previously shared with AsiaOne that she approached TADM for assistance and is still trying to resolve the issue through them.

"Unfortunately, we are unable to come to a conclusion today and the matter has been further escalated," Tan said on Facebook.

Responding to queries from Today, TADM and the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices shared that they arranged a mediation session between Tan and Mr Coconut to "resolve the matter fairly" based on its relevant guidelines and legislations.

ALSO READ: 'I realised I did not matter': Police officer resigns over alleged pregnancy discrimination, police responds

khooyihang@asiaone.com