Challenges Faced by Employers in Implementing Enhanced Childcare Leave, Tracking Usage of the Leave and Accreditation for Work-life Friendly Workplaces

Mr Low Wu Yang Andre asked the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance (a) when the announced expanded childcare leave will commence; (b) how the Government will monitor take-up rates by (i) parent, sector and firm size and (ii) adverse employment outcomes following leave; and (c) whether the Government will publish these outcomes regularly.

Ms Poh Li San asked the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance whether the Government will evaluate the impact of the additional childcare leave policy on the wider workforce after implementation, including to evaluate employees who are not eligible for childcare leave, especially those who have caregiving duties for elderly parents.

Mr Lee Hong Chuang asked the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance (a) whether the Government has conducted studies on the challenges employers face in managing operations when employees take childcare leave; and (b) if so, how will these challenges be addressed when implementing the announced increase in childcare leave.

Ms Cassandra Lee asked the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance given that the “Made for Families” mark enables companies to identify themselves as championing family values, whether the Government will consider publishing a clear set of criteria that employers must meet to be accredited and eligible to display the mark, including expectations relating to family-friendly workplace practices and norms in the workplace.

Mr Speaker, may I have your permission to answer the Parliamentary Questions (PQs) filed by Mr Andre Low, Ms Cassandra Lee, Mr Lee Hong Chuang and Ms Poh Li San in today's Order Paper together?

Please proceed.

As announced by the Prime Minister at the National Day Rally, the Government will enhance child-related leave, financial support, caregiving and housing measures to provide greater confidence and assurance to Singaporeans in starting and raising families. These enhancements are the first set of recommendations from the Marriage and Parenthood Reset Workgroup.

Parents have asked when the Childcare Leave enhancements will take effect. This will take some time. Legislative amendments are required, and we are working with our tripartite partners on the implementation details. We also need to give employers time to manage the operational impact of the Childcare Leave enhancements. We will share more details by early next year.

We hear employers' concerns about the operational challenges of implementing the increased Childcare Leave, as well as the impact on the rest of the wider workforce. As announced, the Government will reimburse employers for the full duration of all child-related leave, up to a cap. Employers may use this increased reimbursement to support covering arrangements, including by hiring temporary staff or recognising employees who take on additional covering responsibilities. We are also studying ways to better support companies with backfilling arrangements.

The longer-term solution to this issue is for workplaces to recognise and accept that leave for caregiving needs, such as parental leave, is now part and parcel of normal human resources (HR) policy and to plan and design their workplace norms and practices around this. This would include job redesign, flexible work arrangements, short-term covering arrangements and where appropriate, artificial intelligence (AI) and automation.

All employees, not only parents with children, but also singles and married persons without children will benefit from improved workplace culture and norms that help them to better balance work and personal responsibilities, including caregiving needs.

To this end, we are working with employers, tripartite partners and other stakeholders to foster work-life friendly practices and will study Ms Cassandra Lee’s suggestion for an accreditation mark to recognise work-life friendly workplaces.

Specific to Childcare Leave, we track Childcare Leave take-up rates among parents, which are based on employer claims, and publish them annually in the Ministry of Social and Family Development's (MSF's) Family Trends Report. We will also identify barriers companies face in facilitating leave-taking to develop practical solutions that are tailored to the needs of different sectors and firms to address these.

The Workgroup will share its full set of recommendations in early 2027.

Mr Low.

I thank the Minister for providing a clearer timeline. That is very welcome. I think many parents are looking forward to further details. I have two supplementary questions.

First, as the leave is expanded, beyond monitoring take-up rates, how will the Government monitor and prevent parents of Singapore Citizen children from otherwise being disadvantaged in hiring career progression and performance assessment in the workplace, or even retention, because employers are expecting them to take more leave, especially given that the risk may be compounded because parents are generally older, more senior and command higher salaries in the workforce? So, how will the Government ensure that these factors do not make parents less attractive employees for small businesses?

And the second supplementary question is, I understand that the Minister has mentioned that they are also working on support for businesses beyond just the reimbursement of the leave cost. Perhaps the Minister could give a little bit more detail on what practical support can help smaller employers especially and especially if parents, for example, in a five-person company, make up half of the workforce? I think the impact of expanded Childcare Leave will be disproportionate on these businesses and so, how will the Government provide practical support to these companies such that operational practicalities do not then discourage parents from taking the leave?

I thank Mr Low for his supplementary questions. In a sense, both supplementary questions are linked because they have to do with how the employee is regarded in the workplace. That is one. And how to deal with the fact that the employee is out of the workplace.

The Workgroup is currently working on another big piece. During the National Day Rally, we announced the financial support, but another big piece has to be the change in the workplace norms and practices, which I mentioned earlier in my PQ reply. I think one big part of that has to be a change in mindsets and we have to engage employers on that. And the signal that we are sending to all employers is that the workplace of today has changed; we cannot work on the same paradigm and model as we have for the last 10 and 20 years.

So, we need to find a new way of working and we fully understand that employers have revenue targets, they have sales targets, they have company objectives that need to be met. That is one side of the equation. Then, you have employees who need to take time out, and this is not just parents with young children. Our population is ageing. Many singles look after parents, older parents and actually, even married couples with young children have to look after older parents, and married couples without children also have to do that. So, it means that the workplace of today and tomorrow has to be a lot more flexible.

Apart from mindset change, the question is how do we get the employers, the HR managers and the middle management on board with this. So, the Workgroup is looking to see how we can build capability, how we can upskill companies and bring them on board for this.

Then, there is the question of backfilling – which is because there is a gap, so, somebody has got to do the work when someone is taking leave, whether it be parental leave or caregiving leave. Step one is that the Government now says that it will provide or it will pay for all parental related leave. So, the employer can use that to pay those who could be colleagues in the company who are covering for the ones taking leave. That is one way. Another, maybe to get people from outside to backfill, but in order to do that, you need advanced planning and working arrangements.

So, step one is really to alleviate the financial burden on the employers, but I think in the longer term, we also need to work with the tripartite partners on how you can have sustainable backfilling. In other words, companies should not do as they are doing today, where the moment somebody is taken out, you are struggling to fill the gap. Companies should be planning on the assumption that there will, at any given time, be a gap – whether it is one for which advanced notice can be given, like Shared Parental Leave because you know in advance, or things like Childcare Leave where you do not know when your child is going to be sick and you may need to take leave at very short notice. Companies should operate on the basis that either one of these two scenarios can happen. We will work with them to see how they can operationally manage the backfilling.

Ms Poh Li San.

I thank the Minister. I support the enhancements in the latest childcare support policies. However, it may cause an unintended divide between parents and non-parents at the workplace, especially for non-parents who are frontline workers or have heavy caregiving duties for senior parents who would have to step up, cover duties. Will the Government study how non-parents and workers with genuine caregiving needs be better supported, such as a more caregiving leave?

I thank Ms Poh Li San for that question. Indeed, it is correct that there will be a need for more caregiving, not just among younger parents, but as I mentioned earlier, for those who have ageing parents, because our population is ageing. I had experienced that myself personally as well.

So, I think that the key thing that the Marriage and Parenthood Reset Workgroup is looking at the parental side of the house, but I think the Government as a whole is also looking at caregiving in general, including for seniors. So, that may be a separate conversation and stream of work, but they come together in the workplace. In terms of how to deal with it in the workplace, it comes back to changing the workplace in recognition of the fact that there will always be a need for somebody to step out. That would include things like job, redesign, job sharing and most importantly, flexible work arrangements.

One of the problems we have today is that most employers and in fact, many people equate flexible work arrangements with work-from-home and they are not interchangeable. Flexible work arrangements is a much broader concept than work-from-home. It can include flexi-time. So, for example, if you need to take your parent or your child for medical appointment earlier in the morning, you could either put back the hours later or during lunchtime, or you go back at the same time, but maybe you make it up at home.

All this really needs employers to have conversations with their employees, because every sector is different. How you might do backfilling or flexible work arrangements in the retail sector or in the hospitality sector is very different from how you would do it for professional services. Also, for uniform services, it would be different. And if you are doing advance manufacturing or precision engineering, it will also be different.

So, you can see the enormity of the task that we have before us. What we intend to do is to approach it sector by sector, get the trade associations and chambers on board, and work on it using the tripartite model.

Mr Lee Hong Chuang.

I thank the Minister for the answer. I also want to thank the Government for the financial support that will be given to not only the parents, but also the employer. However, I have two supplementary questions.

Before I start my supplementary questions, I also want to qualify that Childcare Leave may not be equal to annual leave. Many a times annual leave, you can plan for it. But for Childcare Leave, the moment that you need it, maybe tomorrow or instantly, if you have to go, you will have to go. But to a lot of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), especially those who have 10 and fewer people, sometimes due to operational constraints, these parents are not able to go. So, they cannot use up their Childcare Leave.

Are there any other ways or means we can help these parents as well? For example, allowing them to encash the Childcare Leave so that they can pass this money to their parents, their grandparents, or to bring their kids to alternative care, and so on and so forth. So, there will be some thought that we need to put into it. That is my first supplementary question.

My second supplementary question is that there are a lot of young parents now starting on their own businesses and SMEs. We see, for instance, a young couple setting up store in a hawker centre or in some of these small little shops. So, when the wife gets pregnant one day and after giving birth, the couple is entitled to Childcare Leave. So, my question right now is, I heard the Minister mention just now that we allow companies to hire some part-time workers to support. But are we going to build up this part-time worker pool as like those fractional assignment kind of workers? Those are professionals, but these are on the ground where we may wish to bring down the age of the youths or the students to allow them to support some of these businesses, especially for SMEs with less than 10 employees.

The Member raises important issues, which other people have also asked about. On the question of Childcare Leave and annual leave, the Member is correct. Annual leave, you can plan for. Childcare Leave, some of it you can plan for, but some of it obviously you cannot, because you do not know when you might suddenly need it.

So, it goes back to what I said earlier about having workplace norms and practices which actually factor this in advance, to see how you can backfill if somebody needs to take time-off. The Member had suggested maybe having them encash the leave. Encashing the leave does not take care of the need for time. If it is something which you just need someone to look after the child, then, we are already ramping up for infant care and childcare, and that was also part of the National Day Rally announcements. We are trying to see how we can increase childcare and infant care, and also student care. So, that is one part of it. And that is when the child is not ill.

But if the child is suddenly taken ill, the child is not going to be going to infant care, childcare or student care. And no amount of money given to the parent to encash the leave is going to help the child who is at home without somebody to look after them. In that scenario, the answer is that the parent does have to go out from work at short notice and look after the child, which leaves a gap, which means that the workplace must be one that caters for such gaps at short notice. And that is reason why we need to work with the tripartite partners on this.

On the second question, yes, we are also looking at parents who have their own business. That is an additional reason why we need some time to work through the operational details. So, the short answer is, we will look at that, but this is something where we are having ongoing discussions.

Ms Cassandra Lee.

I thank the Minister for raising this. I am heartened by the Government's recognition that workplace culture needs to change for this to work. In fact, today, CNA has published a report reflecting Singaporeans' sentiments that Singapore's hustle culture makes it difficult to feel confident about starting a family while building their careers. It is a monumental task indeed, but one that is much needed.

Aside from voluntary cultural changes, I will make reference to schemes, such as the Progressive Wage Mark, which require employers to meet clear criteria before they can be accredited and display the mark. Would we consider similarly requiring employers to display "Made For Family" marks and in order to do so, they need to meet minimum standards on family-friendly workplace practices? This is so that the mark becomes a meaningful signal to employees and jobseekers of what they can actually expect in that workplace.

My second supplementary question, the Minister mentioned earlier about how if a child is sick, it is necessary, therefore, to allow the parent to take Childcare Leave away from workplaces. I make reference to my suggestion previously in Parliament about sick bays in childcare centres. That will allow, at least, the parent some time so that there is some flexibility between leaving work immediately and making arrangements to leave work in a few hours' time. For consideration.

I thank Ms Cassandra Lee. For the first one, on the accreditation, we will study that, so we are actively looking at that. It is a question of how onerous it is you make it for the employer. We will already be asking them to change workplace norms and practices; I do not want them to treat accreditation as though it was the Primary School Leaving Examination, that you would have to hit a number of points and so on, and that would put additional stress on them. We will find the right way to do this.

On the second one, the suggestion for sick bays in childcare centres, I will certainly ask Senior Minister of State Goh Pei Ming, who is at the Ministry of Social and Family Development, to look into this.