Awareness of Workers' Rights under Singapore Employment Laws

Mr Saktiandi Supaat asked the Minister for Manpower with reference to the study conducted by the NUS Social Service Research Centre that found a generally low awareness of workers' rights under Singapore employment laws (a) whether the Government has conducted a similar study; and (b) if so, what are the Government’s findings; and (c) whether the Government is considering other more effective ways, in addition to awareness campaigns, to ensure that workers' rights under Singapore employment laws are adequately safeguarded.

MOM’s programmes to safeguard and uplift employment standards are targeted at both employers and employees and comprise education and enforcement to ensure compliance with employment laws. Our key programme in this area is the Workright initiative launched in 2012 by MOM and the CPF Board.

To ensure employees’ awareness of their rights, the Workright initiative engages both employers and employees through numerous media channels, roadshows in the heartlands and published resources, such as the Guide on Employment Laws and Employer’s Toolkit in different languages.

MOM has been regularly tracking the effectiveness of employee education through post-Workright campaign surveys. In recent years, we have found that awareness of basic employment rights, such as monthly salary payment, monthly overtime limit, overtime pay rate and rest day, has been high, at over 70% among lower-wage workers aged 18 and above. Since the beginning of this year, we have also started collaborations with ITEs and Polytechnics to reach new workforce entrants.

To complement the broad-based education of employers and employees, MOM also conducts around 5,000 Workright inspections yearly to check on compliance with the employment laws. These inspections of workplaces not only helped employees receive their due entitlements but also raised their awareness of employment rights. Employers found to have lapses will be referred to Employment Act training courses while stronger enforcement actions are taken against errant employers to deter future breaches.

While findings from the dipstick survey conducted by the NUS team may not be indicative of a larger problem at the workplaces, we would, nonetheless, take those findings into account in augmenting our own survey of employees’ awareness of their employment rights as well as the relevant outreach programmes. We will do this in collaboration with our tripartite partners, NTUC and SNEF, as well as other organisations with similar goals.