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SINGAPORE – Work-related events that take place in the office, such as seminars, corporate retreats and annual general meetings, have been given the green light to move forward as long as safe management measures are in place.
However, large-scale social gatherings, including team bonding and dinner and dance events, remain banned both inside and outside the workplace, Education Minister Lawrence said on Wednesday (September 23). Wong, during a press conference of the multi-ministerial task force that addressed the problem. COVID-19 pandemic.
“The only thing that will be resumed is work-related events,” emphasized Mr. Wong, who is co-chairing the working group with Health Minister Gan Kim Yong.
In its updated set of requirements for safe management measures in the workplace, the Labor Ministry said that a maximum of 50 people will be allowed to attend such workplace events to limit the risk of exposure to infections.
This number may be less, depending on the capacity of the venue, since the participants must be separated by at least 1 meter from each other.
No food or drink should be served. If it is deemed necessary to serve meals, participants should be seated and served individually.
Although more people will be allowed to return to the office, working from home is still the default option, Wong said.
Employers must ensure that staff who can work from home but return to the office spend at least half of their working hours at home and that no more than half of those employees are on the job site at any one time dice.
They should also work to minimize crowding and potential crowding in common spaces by implementing flexible work hours or more staggering reporting times, so that half of all employees start work at 10 a.m. or later. .
“We would like employers to make arrangements so that their employees can work partly at home and partly at the workplace, so it doesn’t have to be such a binary arrangement,” Wong added.
For example, staff might be required to be in the office between 1:00 PM and 5:00 PM, or to only return to the office for meetings.
Shift arrangements or split teams should be followed, with a clear separation between different groups of employees.
These plans were drawn up after tripartite discussions involving employers, unions and workers, as well as the government, Mr. Wong said.
The Health Ministry added in a statement that the changes aim to “balance employers’ concerns regarding the impact of long periods of work from home on productivity and labor relations, while creating safe workplaces for the employees”.
They will also help support workers facing difficulties working from home, he said.
Mr. Wong added that the public sector will take the same approach.
“With these new guidelines, agencies will look at their own needs, and to the extent that some agencies have a requirement that more officers return, they will,” he said. “But they will strictly follow the new guidelines that we have outlined.”
Authorities emphasized that safe management measures should be implemented in all workplaces, with employees separated by at least 1 meter apart at work stations or meeting rooms.
Common spaces must be cleaned regularly, and employers must ensure that their staff adhere to current guidelines on the group size allowed for social gatherings. This applies to areas such as staff dining rooms, pantries, and smoking nooks.
Businesses that fail to comply with safe management measures run the risk of being fined, suspending their operations on the site, or not receiving payments for government support and grants. The most serious infractions can result in prosecution.
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