What you need to know
- All Singapore workplaces remain under compulsory closure, other than those providing declared "essential services". The Singapore Government has announced that workplaces will progressively reopen, starting with some limited types of workplaces from 12 May 2020. However, where employees can work from home, employers must ensure that they do so – working from home looks to remain the status quo for some time.
- To prevent COVID-19 from further spreading in the community upon the reopening of workplaces, employers must fulfil a set of stringent workplace health and safety requirements before being allowed to reopen.
- Various government agencies will monitor compliance and take enforcement action if necessary.
What you need to do
- Continue to allow your employees to work from home where they can do so.
- Carefully review the nature of your business operations and consider whether you will be able to fulfil the Government's requirements for reopening the workplace. Such measures must be implemented prior to the reopening of the workplace.
- Employers whose workplaces are currently open will need to consider whether their existing practices comply with the Government's recommendations, and if not, to take steps to rectify this immediately.
As Singapore enters the second month of its "circuit breaker" period attention is turning towards managing the transition back to the workplace.
In that regard, on 9 May 2020 the Singapore Tripartite Partners issued an advisory on "Safe Management Measures" (the Advisory) which sets out a set of stringent workplace health and safety requirements which employers must fulfil before being allowed to reopen their workplaces.
Background
Workplaces which do not provide essential services have been shut since the "circuit breaker" commenced on 7 April 2020. The Government maintains a list of "essential services" and tightened this list on 21 April 2020, resulting in fewer businesses being permitted to operate during this time. However, businesses which were required to close as a result of the Government tightening the list of "essential services" will be allowed to reopen from 12 May 2020.
All other workplaces (i.e., those which do not provide "essential services") are currently scheduled to be allowed to reopen after 1 June 2020 when the "circuit breaker" period ends.
Working from home
The Advisory is clear that employees should be directed to work from home if the nature of their work allows them to do so. Employers are also required to adopt work processes which allow their employees to perform their duties from home and provide them with the necessary IT equipment to do so. Vulnerable employees such as older employees, pregnant employees and those with underlying medical conditions must also be allowed to work from home, and employers must, if necessary, redeploy them to roles which can allow working from home.
The requirements of the Advisory in this regard are consistent with the current position during the "circuit breaker" period: the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) (Control Order) Regulations 2020 (Regulations) already require employers, even those providing essential services, to direct their employees to work from home unless it is not reasonably practicable to do so.
Employers should be prepared for home-based working to be the "new normal" for the foreseeable future and ensure that their relevant internal processes and policies are appropriate and legally-compliant.
Required measures
The measures required by the Advisory fall into the following six broad categories:
- Implementing a workplace management system – Employers must implement a detailed monitoring plan to ensure compliance with the Advisory and to resolve any issues in a timely manner. These plans are quite detailed, covering matters such as treatment of suspect cases and potential evacuation of premises. Further, a Safety Management Officer must be appointed to assist in the implementation of the Advisory and to monitor compliance.
- Safe distancing in the workplace – A set of safe distancing measures must be implemented in the workplace for employees who are unable to work from home. These measures are similar to those currently required of workplaces providing essential services under the Regulations, and include staggered working hours, shifts or split team arrangements, avoiding cross-deployment of employees, enforcing a physical distance of at least one metre in the workplace, and cancelling activities which involve close or prolonged physical contact.
- Contact tracing – Employers must encourage their employees to download the Government's TraceTogether app (which records physical proximity data) and implement the Government's SafeEntry visitor management system.
- Wearing of masks at the workplace – Employers must ensure that all personnel in the workplace wear a mask at all times except when carrying out activities which require masks to be removed. Employers must also ensure an adequate supply of masks for employees, and generally encourage employees to observe good personal hygiene.
- Workplace cleanliness – The workplace must be regularly cleaned and disinfected, and employers must also provide the necessary cleaning and disinfecting agents for their employees' use.
- Health checks and protocols – Employers must conduct temperature screening and check for respiratory symptoms for employees twice a day. Employees (and visitors) will also need to submit various travel and movement declarations daily, which must be retained by employers for at least 28 days. Employers must also implement protocols to ensure employees adhere to Government travel advisories, prevent "clinic-hopping" and monitoring of employees on medical leave, managing suspected cases or incidents of unwell employees in the workplace, and managing and responding to any confirmed cases.
The Advisory has additional requirements that apply for employers in the specific sectors of manufacturing, transport and food and beverage.
Timing
The Government expects employers to implement the Advisory prior to reopening the workplace after 1 June 2020. As part of such implementation, the measures taken by employers will also need to be communicated and explained to employees beforehand.
For workplaces providing essential services which are currently open (or will be opened from 12 May 2020), they will likewise need to implement the advisory prior to 1 June 2020 if they have not already done so.
Enforcement
During the "circuit breaker" period, significant penalties set out in the Regulations may be imposed on employers who fail to comply with their safe distancing obligations.
Unlike the current Regulations, the Advisory is not, strictly speaking, legally binding. However, the Ministry of Manpower, Ministry of Health and other government agencies will monitor and carry out inspections for compliance. Non-compliance may result in consequences such as the issuance of a "stop work" order" and possibly other penalties under applicable legislation. The Advisory includes a checklist of workplace measures, including a list of information that employers must be able to show upon inspection – this suggests that enforcement will be stringent.
The measures required by the Advisory are quite onerous (particularly with respect to inspection and record keeping) and may be challenging to implement, particularly for employers with large workforces. However, given that the Advisory has been released well in advance of the end of the "circuit breaker" period, delayed implementation as a result of operational difficulties is unlikely to be accepted as a justification for non-compliance. Employers should be ready to comply with their obligations under the Advisory from the day they recommence operations in the workplace.
Conclusion
The measures required by the Advisory will likely require employers to fundamentally revaluate the way they carry on business. They also engage other areas of law such as data privacy. Implementing the Advisory is likely to be a significant undertaking and employers must be prepared for these measures (particularly work from home) to be in place for the foreseeable future. We recommend that employers continue to monitor this space for future developments as additional advisories, guidelines and/or regulations may well be issued in the future given the fluid nature of the COVID-19 situation.
Please contact us if you would more information on any of the issues raised.
