Increasing Current Minimum Annual Leave Entitlement under Employment Act

Mr K Karthikeyan asked the Minister for Manpower whether the Ministry will consider increasing the current minimum annual leave entitlement of seven days under the Employment Act.

Mr Tan Chuan-Jin: The Employment Act (EA) stipulates minimum labour standards to be complied by all employers and so ought to be kept basic. Under the EA, an employee who has served an employer for at least three months is entitled to seven days of paid annual leave in the first year of service. Subsequently, for every year of service with the same employer, he is entitled to an additional one day’s paid annual leave, up to 14 days. However, employers are encouraged to consider more generous leave benefits as a strategy to attract good workers in this tight labour market.

A 2014 survey by the Ministry of Manpower showed that many companies already provide more days of annual leave than what is legislated. About half of the establishments 2 provided more than the minimum of seven days of annual leave for their rank-and-file employees, and 35% already provide 14 days or more.

Employees, who see that their organisations are more generous than just following the minimal provisions of the law to protect the most vulnerable, are likely to be more committed. A more motivated workforce can, in turn, benefit employers in terms of lower absenteeism, higher staff retention as well as better productivity.

Note(s) to Question No(s) :

2 Data pertains to private sector establishments each with at least 25 employees and the public sector.