Published March 20, 2009

Parkway settles suit with ex-employee

By JAMIE LEE

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PARKWAY Holdings has settled a lawsuit with an ex-employee, who was suing the firm for about $2.1 million.

Qwek Koo, a former senior marketing manager, had alleged that the company owed him incentive payments for referring patients from the Middle East to its hospitals.

He claimed that under the terms of his contract, he was entitled to 3 per cent of the bills of in-patient and day-surgery patients referred by him.

He alleged that he was paid four times from October 2005 to May 2006 - which totalled $26,700 - but was not paid for the months leading up to March 2007 when Parkway halted the scheme.

Mr Qwek also claimed that part of his marketing work was to identify and promote the company's stem-cell transport services to United Arab Emirates (UAE) residents with a blood disease known as thalassemia major.

This was in addition to health exhibitions and presentations to UAE health authorities, he alleged.

These warranted the incentive payment that formed a clause in his contract, he said.

Parkway - the biggest private hospital operator in Singapore - made a counter claim, alleging that Mr Qwek was not entitled to the payments and that the patients listed were not referred to Parkway by him.

Parkway also alleged that it had not seen significant increase in the number of patients from UAE seeking treatment in the four months after sending Mr Qwek to the Middle East to promote the hospital in April 2004.

Instead, a consultant who hired later was responsible for extensive marketing, Parkway claimed.

Parkway said yesterday that both parties 'reached an amicable settlement' on terms that were not disclosed.

A company spokesperson declined comment on the terms, citing confidentiality of the settlement.