SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Kelvin Tan, Benjamin Gaw and Lim Chong Kin, Drew & Napier LLC
• promoting good industrial relations between work - ers and employers; • improving the working conditions, as well as the economic and social status, of workers; and/or • increasing productivity for the benefit of workers, employers and Singapore’s economy. Trade unions are required to apply to the Registrar of Trade Unions to be registered. They are regulated under: • the Trade Unions Act 1940 and Trade Unions Regulations; • the Trade Disputes Act 1941; • the Industrial Relations Act 1960; • Part III of the Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Act 1955; and • the Singapore Labour Foundation Act 1977. Trade unions play a key role in representing their members in collective bargaining and negotiating with employers for collective agreements (see discussion in 6.3 Collective Bargaining Agreements ). Although uncommon in Singapore, trade unions may take industrial action. They may do so only if they have obtained the consent of the majority of members who would be affected, through a secret ballot. 6.2 Employee Representative Bodies Trade unions are the representative bodies for employ - ees in Singapore. Under the recently passed Platform Workers Act 2024, a new legal framework has been introduced for the representation of platform workers. Platform work associations (PWA) will be required to be registered in order to be formally recognised. Registered PWAs will have similar powers as unions to engage in collective bargaining on behalf of platform workers, to represent platform workers in disputes and to provide platform workers with support services. 6.3 Collective Bargaining Agreements Collective agreements are agreements between an employer and the trade union on the employees’ employment terms. They are valid for a minimum of two years and a maximum of three years.
Certain matters are statutorily excluded from the scope of collective bargaining, such as: • the promotion of an employee; • an internal transfer, which does not entail a det - rimental change to the transferred employee’s employment terms; • the employer’s hiring decisions; • the termination of an employee’s contract by rea - son of redundancy or the employer’s reorganisa - tion; • the dismissal and reinstatement of an employee who considers that they have been wrongfully dismissed; and • the assignment or allocation of duties to an employee that are consistent or compatible with the employee’s employment terms. A trade union must be accorded recognition by the employer under Section 17 (1) of the Industrial Rela - tions Act 1960 and the Industrial Relations (Recog - nition of a Trade Union of Employees) Regulations before it may engage in collective bargaining. Either the employer or the trade union may initiate the collective bargaining process through serving notice. If a collective agreement cannot be reached within the prescribed timeframes, any party to the negotia - tions may make a request to the MOM for conciliation assistance. If no agreement can be reached between the parties through conciliation, the trade dispute can be referred to the Industrial Arbitration Court as a last resort.
7. Termination 7.1 Grounds for Termination
An employment contract may be terminated by agree - ment, including by way of notice (see 7.2 Notice Peri- ods ), or by a fundamental breach on the part of the other party, including dismissal for cause (see 7.3 Dis- missal For (Serious) Cause ).
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