Should flexible work arrangements be legislated in Singapore?

The Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) has expressed opposition to legislating provisions around flexible work arrangements (FWA), citing the potential to cause friction.

"We believe that the current approach of implementing a set of guidelines is a more effective approach," the SNEF said in a statement on Tuesday.

The SNEF said guidelines give employers room to build culture that will be more effective and enduring.

"Legislation creates rigidity where decisions become more binary. It may cause friction and undermine the progressive workplace culture that we are trying to build," it stated.

The SNEF issued the remarks as it fully endorsed the recently released Tripartite Guidelines on Flexible Work Arrangement Requests (TG-FWAR).

"With the guidelines, which takes a more enabling and facilitative approach, SNEF is confident that the TG-FWAR will enable our labour market to remain flexible whilst encouraging more employers to offer FWA for a more inclusive and harmonious workplace," the SNEF said.

Are employers required to implement FWAs?

Under the guidelines, employees will be able to put forward formal requests for FWAs, which employers are required to accommodate.

However, the SNEF clarified that the decision to implement FWAs will remain with organisations.

"Employers will have to consider such requests properly but will ultimately retain the final say on whether to accede to the request, taking into account possible business impact," the SNEF said.

"The TG-FWAR provides guidance on the process, and does not prescribe the outcome, which remain the prerogative of employers."

The SNEF underscored that for FWAs to be sustainable, they have to work for the business and employees.

"Even as employers are encouraged to implement FWAs, be it flexi-time, flexi-load, or flexi-place, we need to recognise that employers will also want to ensure that it does not ultimately lead to the disengagement of employees, or negatively impact company culture and productivity," said Edwin Ng, SNEF honorary secretary and co-chair of the Tripartite Workgroup for FWAR, in a statement.

The goal of the TG-FWAR is to unlock a bigger talent pool as Singapore's labour market remains tight, according to the SNEF.

"We hope to unlock our workforce potential by retaining and attracting more workers to stay in and to come back to the workforce respectively; these include segments of the workforce such as caregivers, young parents, as well as seniors to participate in the workforce," it said.