Introduction The word "harassment" appears frequently in two very different contexts in the Singapore workplace. It features as a criminal offence under the Protection from Harassment Act 2014 ("POHA"), and it appears as a defined term in countless employee handbooks and internal corporate policies. Although the same word is used, the legal threshold for harassment under Singapore statute and the threshold under a typical employee handbook are worlds apart. This article exami

Introduction Singapore has long resisted importing the concept of "unfair dismissal" as understood in the United Kingdom's statutory employment regime. For decades, a Singapore private sector employer's right to terminate an employment contract by giving contractual notice has been regarded as virtually unfettered — a court's inquiry was limited to whether the contract had been breached, not whether the dismissal was substantively fair. This existed hand-in-hand with the st

The Invisible Employees Gaming the System July 2026 Introduction: Workers Who Don’t Exist Imagine paying someone’s pension contributions every month – not because they work for you, but because their name on your books lets you hire more foreign workers. Welcome to the world of “phantom workers,” a peculiarly Singaporean form of fraud that has persisted for decades despite the city-state’s reputation for strict enforcement and regulatory efficiency. In July 2026, the Ministry

For nearly a decade since the Employment Claims Tribunals (ECT) began hearing cases in 2017, its proceedings have been conducted in private, with no publicly available written judgments. Employers and employees had no way to see how the tribunal reasoned through disputes, what standards it applied, or how similar cases had been decided before. That has now changed. Between May and July 2026, the first five first written grounds of decision ever published from the ECT were rel

During a recent episode of Channel News Asia’s CNA938 Rewind, Director Naomi See, Director at Nair, Jen and Tan LLC, a law firm in Singapore discussed recent reports of errant employers failing to compensate their employees’ overtime work and for making late contributions to their employees’ Central Provident Fund accounts. Ms See also explored relevant dispute resolution avenues for aggrieved employees, as well as precautionary measures employees should take to ensure their

For couples struggling to conceive naturally, assisted reproductive technologies (ART) can offer a path to parenthood. In Singapore, these medical procedures are available but governed by a framework that reflects the nation's social values and policies. This article explains what ART entails, how Singapore regulates it, and the challenges some couples may face when seeking such treatments. What Are Assisted Reproductive Technologies? Assisted reproductive technologies refer

The Singapore High Court's recent decision in Prashant Mudgal v SAP Asia Pte Ltd [2026] SGHC 15 marks a milestone for employment law in Singapore. The Court definitively affirmed that employment contracts in Singapore include an implied term of mutual trust and confidence, which refers to an obligation requiring employers not to conduct themselves in a manner calculated and likely to destroy or seriously damage the relationship of trust and confidence with their employees wit

Maternity leave is a protected period under Singapore law. Many employers mistakenly believe that paying out full maternity benefits allows them to terminate an employee during this time.Providing notice of termination during maternity leave is a breach of the Employment Act, even if the employee receives her full maternity benefits. The employee is not entitled to additional damages beyond her statutory benefits, but the employer will be liable for an offence under the Emplo

After the enforcement of stricter laws and regulations surrounding the use of vapes, other tobacco products, particularly smokeless tobacco, have been rising in popularity as alternatives. Smokeless tobacco refers to unburned tobacco products that deliver addictive nicotine through oral or nasal tissues. Snus, a form of smokeless tobacco that originates from Sweden, consists of a small teabag-like pouch placed under the upper lip for nicotine absorption. Other forms of smoke

Singapore has long been a favored hub for multinational employers deploying international talent into Southeast Asia. Employer of Record ( EOR ) structures—under which a third-party provider becomes the legal local employer of personnel while the provider’s client directs day-to-day work—had been widely used to test the market, accelerate hiring, and manage compliance without establishing a local entity. That landscape materially shifted in 2024. On 9 July 2024, Singapore’