Amendments to the Employment Act

For information, the Employment Act covers all employees under a contract of service except for the following 4 groups:

• Managers and executives with a monthly basic salary of more then $4,500
• Seafarers
• Domestic workers
• Statutory Board employees or civil servants

In addition, part-time employees working less than 35 hours a week are also not covered under this Act as they are covered under the Employment of Part-time Employees Regulations. 

Change 1: Detailed Employment Records

Employers need to keep and maintain detailed employment records and provide proper documentation to help employees understand how their salaries are calculated.

The records to be kept are categorised as follows:

• Employee records
• Salary records

The Employee records should include personal information such as:

• Address
• NRIC number or Work Pass number and expiry dates
• Date of birth
• Gender
• Date of commencement of employment
• Dates and details of public holidays and leave taken

The salary records are similar to the items to be included in the itemised payslips (see below). 

Change 2: Itemised Payslips

Employers will be required to issue itemised payslips. A soft/hard copy itemised payslip should be provided to all employees at least once a month together with payment or at the latest, within 3 days of payment. For termination or dismissal cases, the itemised payslips should also be provided, alongside the outstanding salary. A record of the payslips issued must be kept for documentation purposes.

An itemised payslip should contain the following information:

1. Employee’s and Employer’s full name
2. Dates of Payment (usually one date but in the event of multiple payments, there will be more than one date)
3. Employee’s basic salary, allowances, bonuses, overtime hours and pay and any other additional payments for the salary period
4. Start and end date of the salary period and overtime payment period (if different)
5. Deductions – Fixed (e.g. CPFs) and Ad-hoc (e.g. no pay leave)
6. Net salary

Employers will need to maintain the latest 2 years of detailed employee records and itemised payslips for existing employees and the last 2 years for previous employees, for a period of 1 year after their departure. 

Change 3: Written Key Employment Terms (KETs) for employees covered under the Employment Act and entering a contract of service with an employer on or after 1 April 2016.

All employees who have been employed for at least 14 days should be provided with KETs in writing. The soft/hard copy of KET (inclusive of handwritten copies) should be provided to the employees within 14 days of the commencement of employment. The KETs clarify the terms and benefits in relation to the employment. Examples of common KETs are:

1. Employee and Employer’s full name
2. Job title, main duties and responsibilities
3. Start date
4. Daily working hours, days of work within a week and rest day(s) if applicable
5. Salary period
6. Basic salary with the fixed allowances/deductions
7. Overtime rate of pay and payment period
8. Leave policy e.g. annual/outpatient/hospitalisation/maternity/childcare
9. Medical benefits e.g. insurance, medical and dental
10. Probation period
11. Notice period

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