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Written Answer by Mr Lim Swee Say, Minister for Manpower, to Parliamentary Question on issuance of employment contracts

Employment practices

NOTICE PAPER NO. 987 OF 2017 FOR THE SITTING ON 9 JANUARY 2018
QUESTION NO. 724 FOR WRITTEN ANSWER

MP: Er Dr Lee Bee Wah

To ask the Minister for Manpower (a) how many employers have been reported to the Ministry in the past five years for not issuing employment contracts to their workers; (b) what is the age group of these affected workers; (c) what action has been taken against such employers; (d) what is the redress for these workers when their employers refuse to issue proper employment contracts that stipulate their wages, work hours and duration of the contract.

Answer

  1. To help employees better understand their employment terms and to minimise employment disputes, the Employment Act requires employers to provide each employee with the key employment terms in written form. The required key employment terms include salary, hours of work and employment benefits (e.g. annual leave), as well as the duration of employment for term contracts.
  2. Employers who fail to issue key employment terms may be subjected to an administrative penalty of a fine of up to $200 for each breach.
  3. Since the requirement was implemented on 1 April 2016, 105 employers have been issued with advisory notices for failing to issue key employment terms. No fines have been imposed as all the employers were cooperative and rectified the breaches. None of them was a repeat offender. We do not track the age group of the employees affected.
  4. Employees who are not provided with written key employment terms can approach MOM for assistance.