Employment 'At A Glance' Guide – Singapore

The employment landscape in Singapore used to be pretty static. However, the last two years have seen an enhancement of employee protection in Singapore. The Employment Act (Cap. 91) of Singapore generally covers employees (regardless of nationality) who are under a contract of service with an employer, other than seamen, domestic workers, government employees or any person employed in a managerial or an executive position earning more than SGD 4,500 per month (EA Employees). Those employees who do not fall within the scope of the Act (Non-EA Employees) enjoy certain limited protections under other legislation. However, their employment terms and conditions are principally governed by their employment contracts.

Issues arising on hiring individuals

Immigration

All non-residents have to possess a valid work pass before they can work in Singapore. Ordinarily, the holder of the work pass is only permitted to work for a specified employer and in a specified occupation. There are various types of work passes such as Work Permit, Employment Pass, S Pass and Personalised Employment Pass, Miscellaneous Work Pass, Training Work Permit and Training Employment Pass.

Considering Singaporeans first

Employers submitting Employment Pass applications are required to advertise their job vacancies on the Job Bank (a public platform to facilitate job matching between local individuals and employers) for at least 14 calendar days before being allowed to proceed with their application. The advertisement must be open to Singaporeans and must comply with the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices, such as being non-discriminatory.

Certain jobs are exempted from the advertising requirement, such as, jobs in firms with fewer than 25 employees, jobs that pay a fixed salary of SGD 12,000 and above, jobs filled by Intra-Corporate Transferees (a manager, executive or specialist who has worked for the firm outside Singapore for one year or more before being posted to the branch, affiliate or subsidiary in Singapore) and short-term jobs for not more than one month.

Employment structuring and documentation

The standard type of employment contract in Singapore is an "open-ended" contract terminable on notice (subject to the protection which the law provides on unfair dismissal). A contract of employment need not be in writing and may be partly written and partly oral.

An employment contract should as a minimum include the following: (1) commencement of employment; (2) appointment (job title and job scope); (3) hours of work; (4) probation period, if any; (5) remuneration; (6) employee benefits (e.g. sick leave, annual leave, maternity leave); (7) termination of contract (notice period); and (8) code of...