Vaccinations will be made available to migrant workers as well as part of the COVID-19 national vaccination strategy.
MOM will work with the Ministry of Health (MOH) on the vaccination plan, which will also depend on the delivery schedule of the vaccines, and announce the details at a later date.
“Vaccination of the migrant workers helps to reduce the viral load, which in turn lowers the overall risk and helps protect our wider community from an outbreak.
“This will also reduce the potential load on our healthcare workers and facilities,” explained Second Minister for Manpower Tan See Leng.
Employers are responsible for their foreign domestic worker’s (FDW) medical care, as long as the worker remains in Singapore, reiterated Manpower Minister Josephine Teo.
She said that employers are required to purchase medical insurance to provide coverage of at least $15,000 for their FDWs to cover hospitalisation costs.
MOM and its tripartite partners will continue to advocate for the implementation of Flexible Work Arrangements (FWA).
Mrs Teo said: “During public consultations on caregiving support, the feedback gathered from workers indicated that FWAs were more sustainable than leave provisions to help them meet their work and caregiving commitments.”
On supporting nursing mothers who work, Mrs Teo said the Government recognises its importance and elaborated that FWAs such as flexi-time and work-from-home arrangements have enabled nursing mothers to meet both their personal and professional goals.
Working-from-home will remain the default working arrangement, given the recent trends of COVID-19 cases in the community, workplaces, and the higher risk of potentially more transmissible strains of the virus.
The tripartite partners will also postpone any further adjustments to Safe Management Measures for the workplace for the time being.
Employers must ensure that no more than 50 per cent of employees who can work from home are at the workplace at any point in time and that these employees work from home for at least half their working time.
To date, the Government has provided $4.6 million of reimbursement directly to dormitory operators, who have managed some 160,000 migrant workers.
Mrs Teo said that there are still further claims that are pending assessment and clarifications.
In the assessment of the claims, MOM checks that dormitory operators have exercised financial prudence in their purchases, and the fairness of the claim amounts.
The ministry has also imposed a cap on the amount claimable based on its assessment of a reasonable claim.
As at end of December 2020, more than 5,200 companies submitted applications to the Singapore Business Federation (SBF) to host traineeships or attachments.
Mrs Teo noted that around one in ten of the applications were rejected, due to poor developmental plans as well as companies proposing roles that were deemed unsuitable.
She explained: “Although traineeships and attachments are not employment contracts, SBF requires participating host organisations to enter into an agreement with SBF, which sets out the conditions that the host organisation will need to abide by.
“These conditions include adhering to the approved development plan and the prompt submission of monthly traineeship progress reports that are signed off by both the host organisation and the trainee.”
In the agreement, SBF also reserves the right to arbitrate in any dispute between the host organisation and trainee, with SBF having the final say in the outcome.
