Advisory on COVID-19 for businesses

Workforce Vaccination Measures to Keep the Workplace Safe

From 1 January 2022, only employees who are fully vaccinated*, or have recovered from COVID-19 within the past 270 days, can return to the workplace. Unvaccinated employees will not be allowed to return to the workplace unless they have tested negative for COVID-19 before returning to the workplace, and they will need to pay for the costs of these tests. The test should be a Pre-Event Test at an MOH-approved COVID-19 test provider, and must be valid^# for the duration that the employees are required to be present at the workplace. Please refer to the Updated Advisory on COVID-19 Vaccination at the Workplace for more details on work arrangements for unvaccinated employees.

* An individual is considered vaccinated if he/she a) has been fully vaccinated, i.e. received the appropriate regimen of World Health Organisation Emergency Use Listing (WHO EUL) vaccines including their respective duration post-vaccination for the vaccine to be fully effective and b) had their vaccination records ingested in MOH’s IT systems.

# Negative ART results are valid for 24 hours.

Companies should also adhere to the mandatory Safe Management Measures at the workplace as required by the MOM.

In addition, we have also released Safe Management Measures for the following sectors. If your business is among the following, please refer to the respective links for the relevant guidelines:

• Food & beverage (F&B) establishments
• Retail establishments and lifestyle-related services
• F&B and online retail delivery

For management of potential contacts of positive COVID-19 cases at the workplace, please refer to MOM’s Safe Management Measures at the workplace.

For protocol on disinfection for premises visited by positive COVID-19 cases, refer to NEA’s guidelines for disinfection.

Refer to www.gobusiness.gov.sg/covid-faqs for other frequently asked questions.

From 13 September 2021, the frequency of Fast and Easy Test (FET) Rostered Routine Testing (RRT) regime will be increased from once every fortnight to once a week.

The mandatory FET RRT will also be extended to those working in more settings with frequent community interactions. These include retail mall workers, supermarket staff, last-mile delivery personnel (including parcel and food delivery personnel), and public and private transport workers (taxi drivers, private hire car drivers and all public transport frontline staff). The Government will subsidise the costs of all tests under this enhanced surveillance regime, for both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, until the end of 2021. More details will be provided by the respective Government agencies.

From 1 October 2021, the “vaccinate or regular test” regime will also apply to the following groups:

• Individuals working in the healthcare sector, eldercare sector and settings with children 12 years and below;
• Individuals who interact with customers in higher-risk mask-off settings (e.g. F&B establishments, gyms and fitness studios, and personal care services), work at our borders or perform COVID-19 frontline work;
• Retail mall workers, workers in supermarket outlets, taxi and private hire care drivers, last mile delivery personnel, driving school instructors/private driving instructors, and public transport frontline staff;
• All individuals working in the Public Service.

For the full list of sectors subject to the “vaccinate or regular test” regime, please click here.

Any unvaccinated persons under the “vaccinate or regular test” regime will have to be tested with an Antigen Rapid Test (ART) kit twice a week. For those who are medically ineligible for vaccines, the Government will subsidise their tests.

More details on the mandatory testing for the F&B, retail and lifestyle-related sectors can be found here.

All workplaces should update their business continuity plans (BCP), and stay prepared for any increase in community transmission. As the situation is evolving rapidly around the world, we encourage all companies to have their BCP in place.

We, supported by the Singapore Business Federation, have also enhanced the Business Continuity Guide for Enterprises to support you in developing your plans to deal with COVID-19.

Details on relevant travel advisories/restrictions on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) website.

All travellers arriving in Singapore, including residents (Singapore Citizens, Permanent Residents) and Long-Term Pass holders (Student’s Pass, Dependent’s Pass, Work Pass and Long-Term Visit Pass Holders) must ensure they fulfil the relevant requirements by the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA). More details on this can be found here.

All travellers departing Singapore are advised to check the MFA website for the latest travel advisories to other countries/regions, and check with the immigration authority or embassy of the destination country/region on the relevant health requirements imposed on travellers from Singapore.

The Government has introduced various support measures across different Budgets in response to COVID-19 to help companies and workers weather near-term uncertainties. The latest measures are outlined as follows:

• Jobs Support Scheme
• Rental Support Scheme
• E-Commerce Booster Package

ESG, together with other Government agencies, has launched initiatives and enhanced existing programmes to provide more support more businesses. For more information, please click here.

The Ministry of Law has introduced the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act 2020 to offer relief to businesses and individuals who have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. For more information, please click here.

As businesses seek to adjust to the changing operating environment, we strongly encourage employers to take a long-term view of their manpower needs. When managing excess manpower, retrenchment should always be the last resort, after other options have been considered and found to be unworkable.

If you have 10 or more employees and have implemented any cost-saving measures that affects your employees’ monthly salaries (including bonuses and increments) during this period, you are required to notify MOM through this online form – within 1 week after implementation. This temporary requirement is in place to encourage responsible implementation of such measures, prevent downstream salary disputes, and allow MOM to monitor the scope and scale of such measures. For more details, please refer to the MOM website.