Employment Obligations In Light of COVID – 19

You may face penalties under Section 21A of the Infectious Diseases Act. The penalty for an offence under the Regulations and Obligations, including any SHN breach, would be a fine of up to $10,000 or imprisonment of up to six months or both.  

• If you are a Singapore permanent resident, long-term-visit pass holder, dependant’s pass holder, or student’s pass holder, your re-entry permits or passes may be revoked or the validity shortened.
• If you are a foreign employee issued with a work pass, your work pass may be revoked.
• If you fail to comply with the SHN, you may face the following penalties, as you have put the well-being of the wider community at risk.
• If your child/ward is a full-time student attending a pre-school, school or other educational institution in Singapore, your child/ward might be subjected to disciplinary action, including suspension or dismissal.
• For foreign students, this may include the cancellation of your child’s/ward’s student’s pass or dependant’s pass.

Other enforcement obligations efforts including collection of residential address and use of combination of mobile applications, phone surveillance and house visit to tighten enforcement efforts.

Employees on SHN must however remain in their residences at all times during the 14-day period and should not leave the residence even if it is to purchase food and essentials.

Can employer request swap test result after 14-day SHN period to allow them return to work? (From 7 April only Essential Service and business approved)

It’s not necessary if persons do not have symptoms and individual will not be offered diagnostic testing

Both LOA and SHN are precautionary measures to allow employees remain in their residences, minimize visitors and no close contact with any other people. Employers may still adopt flexible work arrangements such as telecommuting and teleconferencing to support employees daily job function at home depends on nature of business and staff’s job function. If it’s not possible to implement such arrangements, employers are encouraged to provide additional paid leave on top of employees’ annual leave entitlements. Other option including

• Treat employees’ LOA/SHN as paid hospitalisation leave or paid outpatient sick leave; 
• Allow employees to apply for annual leave;
• Allow employees to use advance paid leave or apply for no pay leave (if they have used up their leave entitlements); or 
• Other mutually agreed arrangements between the employers and employees / unions.