Employment Act 1968

Employment Act 1968 2020 REVISED EDITION This revised edition incorporates all amendments up to and including 1 December 2021 and comes into operation on 31 December 2021 An Act relating to employment. [15 August 1968] PART 1 PRELIMINARY Short title 1. This Act is the Employment Act 1968. Interpretation 2.—(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires — “approved medical institution” means a hospital, clinic, healthcare establishment or other medical institution which the Minister, by notification in the Gazette, declares as an approved medical institution; “authorised officer” means any public officer appointed as an authorised officer under section 3(2); “basic rate of pay” means the total amount of money (including wage adjustments and increments) to which an employee is entitled under his or her contract of service either for working for a period of time, that is, for one hour, one day, one week, one month or for such other period as may be stated or implied in his or her contract of service, or for each completed piece or task of work but does not include — (a) additional payments by way of overtime payments; (b) additional payments by way of bonus payments or annual wage supplements; (c) any sum paid to the employee to reimburse him or her for special expenses incurred by him or her in the course of his or her employment; (d) productivity incentive payments; and (e) any allowance however described; “civil contravention” means a contravention that is declared to be a civil contravention under section 126A; “collective agreement” means an agreement as defined under the Industrial Relations Act 1960; “confinement” means the delivery of a child (including a stillborn child); “constructional contractor” means any person, firm, corporation or company who or which is established for the purpose of undertaking, either exclusively or in addition to or in conjunction with any other business, any type of constructional work, and who or which is carrying out the constructional work for or on behalf of some other person under a contract entered into by that person, firm, corporation or company with such other person, and includes heirs, executors, administrators, assigns and successors of that person, firm, corporation or company; “constructional work” means any building and civil engineering work and includes repair, maintenance, alteration and demolition work; “contract of service” means any agreement, whether written or oral, express or implied, whereby one person agrees to employ another as an employee and that other agrees to serve his or her employer as an employee and includes an apprenticeship contract or agreement; “contractor” means any person who contracts with a principal to supply labour or to carry out the whole or any part of any work undertaken by the principal in the course of or for the purposes of the principal’s trade or business; “day” means a period of 24 hours beginning at midnight; “dependant” means any of the following members of an employee’s family, namely, wife, husband, father, mother, child and any adopted or illegitimate child living with or dependent on the employee; “dismiss” means to terminate the contract of service between an employer and an employee at the employer’s initiative, with or without notice and for cause or otherwise, and includes the resignation of an employee if the employee can show, on a balance of probabilities, that the employee did not resign voluntarily but was forced to do so because of any conduct or omission, or course of conduct or omissions, engaged in by the employer; “domestic worker” means any house, stable or garden servant or motor car driver, employed in or in connection with the domestic services of any private premises; “employee” means a person who has entered into or works under a contract of service with an employer and includes a workman, and any officer or employee of the Government included in a category, class or description of such officers or employees declared by the President to be employees for the purposes of this Act or any provision thereof, but does not include any of the following: (a) any seafarer; (b) any domestic worker; (c) [Deleted by Act 55 of 2018] (d) any person belonging to any other class of persons whom the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, declare not to be employees for the purposes of this Act; “employer” means any person who employs another person under a contract of service and includes — (a) the Government in respect of such categories, classes or descriptions of officers or employees of the Government as are declared by the President to be employees for the purposes of this Act; (b) any statutory authority; (c) the duly authorised agent or manager of the employer; and (d) the person who owns or is carrying on or for the time being responsible for the management of the profession, business, trade or work in which the employee is engaged; “gross rate of pay” means the total amount of money including allowances to which an employee is entitled under his or her contract of service either for working for a period of time, that is, for one hour, one day, one week, one month or for such other period as may be stated or implied in his or her contract of service, or for each completed piece or task of work but does not include — (a) additional payments by way of overtime payments; (b) additional payments by way of bonus payments or annual wage supplements; (c) any sum paid to the employee to reimburse him or her for special expenses incurred by him or her in the course of his or her employment; (d) productivity incentive payments; and (e) travelling, food or housing allowances; “hours of work” means the time during which an employee is at the employer’s disposal and is not free to dispose of his or her own time and movements exclusive of any intervals allowed for rest and meals; “industrial undertaking” means public and private undertakings and any branch thereof, and includes particularly — (a) mines, quarries and other works for the extraction of minerals from the earth; (b) undertakings in which articles are manufactured, assembled, altered, cleaned, repaired, ornamented, finished, adapted for sale, broken up or demolished, or in which materials are transformed, including undertakings engaged in shipbuilding, or in the generation, transformation or transmission of electricity or motive power of any kind; (c) undertakings engaged in constructional work; and (d) undertakings engaged in the transport of passengers or goods by road, rail, sea, inland waterway or air, including the handling of goods at docks, quays, wharves, warehouses or airports; “inspecting officer” means any person appointed as an inspecting officer under section 3(2); “machinery” includes all oil engines, gas engines, steam engines and any other machines in which mechanical movement, either linear or rotated or both, takes place, steam boilers, gas cylinders, air receivers, steam receivers, steam containers, cast iron underfired vulcanizers, refrigerating plants, pressure receivers, all appliances for the transmission of power by ropes, belts, chains, driving straps or bands or gearing, electrical generators and electrical motors; “mediation request” has the meaning given by section 2(1) of the Employment Claims Act 2016; “medical officer” means — (a) a medical practitioner employed by the Government or an approved medical institution; or (b) any other medical practitioner whom the Minister declares, by notification in the Gazette, to be a medical officer for the purposes of this Act; “medical practitioner” means a medical practitioner registered under the Medical Registration Act 1997, and includes a dentist registered under the Dental Registration Act 1999; “no-pay leave”, for an employee, means leave of absence without pay granted by the employer at the request of the employee; “overtime” means the number of hours worked in any one day or in any one week in excess of the limits specified in Part 4; “place of employment” means any place provided by the employer where work is carried on, for or on behalf of an employer, by an employee; “principal” means any person who, in the course of or for the purposes of the person’s trade or business, contracts with a contractor for the supply of labour or for the execution by the contractor of the whole or any part of any work undertaken by the principal; “productivity incentive payment” means a variable payment, whether made annually or otherwise, to an employee as a reward for — (a) an improvement to the employee’s performance; or (b) an increase in the employee’s productivity or contribution to the employer’s business, trade or undertaking, but does not include any payment which forms part of the employee’s regular remuneration; “quarters” means any building provided or intended to be provided for a workman to live in either temporarily or permanently, and includes any room or building used or intended to be used whether communally or privately for the purposes of cooking, eating, washing or bathing and any latrines and urinals; “salary” means all remuneration including allowances payable to an employee in respect of work done under his or her contract of service, but does not include — (a) the value of any house accommodation, supply of electricity, water, medical attendance, or other amenity, or of any service excluded by general or special order of the Minister published in the Gazette; (b) any contribution paid by the employer on his or her own account to any pension fund or provident fund; (c) any travelling allowance or the value of any travelling concession; (d) any sum paid to the employee to reimburse him or her for special expenses incurred by him or her in the course of his or her employment; (e) any gratuity payable on discharge or retirement; and (f) any retrenchment benefit payable on retrenchment; “seafarer” means any person, including the master, who is employed or engaged or works in any capacity on board a ship, but does not include — (a) a pilot; (b) a port worker; (c) a person temporarily employed on the ship during the period it is in port; and (d) a person who is employed or engaged or works in any capacity on board a harbour craft or pleasure craft licensed under regulations made under section 41 of the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore Act 1996, when the harbour craft or pleasure craft is used within a port declared by the Minister under section 3 of that Act; “stillborn child” has the meaning given by section 2(1) of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act 2021; [Act 19 of 2021 wef 29/05/2022] “subcontractor” means any person who contracts with a contractor for the supply of labour or for the execution by the subcontractor of the whole or any part of any work undertaken by the contractor for the contractor’s principal, and includes any person who contracts with a subcontractor to supply labour or to carry out the whole or any part of any work undertaken by the subcontractor for a contractor; “subcontractor for labour” means any person who contracts with a contractor or subcontractor to supply the labour required for the execution of the whole or any part of any work a contractor or subcontractor has contracted to carry out for a principal or contractor, as the case may be; “Tribunal” means an Employment Claims Tribunal constituted under section 4 of the State Courts Act 1970; “wages” means salary; “week” means a continuous period of 7 days; “workman” means — (a) any person, skilled or unskilled, who has entered into a contract of service with an employer pursuant to which he or she is engaged in manual labour, including any artisan or apprentice, but excluding any seafarer or domestic worker; (b) any person, other than clerical staff, employed in the operation or maintenance of mechanically‑propelled vehicles used for the transport of passengers for hire or for commercial purposes; (c) any person employed partly for manual labour and partly for the purpose of supervising in person any workman in and throughout the performance of his or her work: Provided that when any person is employed by any one employer partly as a workman and partly in some other capacity or capacities, that person is deemed to be a workman unless it can be established that the time during which that workman has been required to work as a workman in any one salary period as defined in Part 3 has on no occasion amounted to or exceeded one‑half of the total time during which that person has been required to work in such salary period; (d) any person specified in the First Schedule; or (e) any person whom the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, declare to be a workman for the purposes of this Act. [6/2014; 27/2015; 21/2016; 55/2018; 19/2021] (2) [Deleted by Act 55 of 2018] Appointment of officers 3.—(1) The Minister may appoint an officer as the Commissioner for Labour (called in this Act the Commissioner) and also one or more officers as Deputy Commissioner for Labour, Principal Assistant Commissioner for Labour or Assistant Commissioner for Labour, who, subject to such limitations as may be prescribed, may perform all duties imposed and exercise all powers conferred on the Commissioner by this Act, and every duty so performed and power so exercised is deemed to have been duly performed and exercised for the purposes of this Act. (2) The Minister may appoint such number of authorised officers, inspecting officers and other officers as the Minister may consider necessary or expedient for the purposes of this Act. [27/2015] (3) The Commissioner may in writing appoint an individual (who may or may not be a public officer) as an authorised person for the purpose of carrying out any function or duty of the Commissioner under this Act or any other written law relating to employment, employment terms or the relations between employers and employees. [21/2016] (4) The Commissioner must, in writing, issue to each authorised person an authorisation specifying — (a) the functions and duties of the Commissioner that the authorised person is authorised to carry out; (b) the powers of the Commissioner that the authorised person is authorised to exercise; (c) the conditions of the authorisation; and (d) the limitations to which the authorisation is subject. [21/2016] Rules and orders 4. The Minister may make rules and orders for the conduct of the duties of officers under this Act. Minister may restrict application 5. The Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, declare that this Act or any Part or provisions thereof does not apply to any premises or class of premises specified in the notification. Existing law not affected 6. Nothing in this Act operates to relieve any employer of any duty or liability imposed upon the employer by any other written law for the time being in force or to limit any powers given to any public officer by any other written law. 7. [Repealed by Act 32 of 2008]