More Employees Allowed to Return to Workplaces from 28 September

More employees who are currently working from home may return to their workplaces and offices starting from 28 September 2020.

Education Minister Lawrence Wong announced this new development at the Multi-Ministry Taskforce press conference on 23 September.

He emphasised, however, that working from home should remain the default mode of working.

The announcement is part of the Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) update on the Requirements for Safe Management Measures (SMM) at the Workplace to continue to ensure safe workplaces for all.

The updated requirements include rules for employers to ensure that:

• Employees continue to work from home for at least half their working time
• No more than half of such employees are at the workplace at any point in time

Crowding and possible congregation at common spaces, including public transport, should also be minimised. Some suggestions to do this include:

• Implementing flexible work hours to allow employees to work partly at home and partly at the workplace
• Further staggering of reporting times such that half of all employees start work at or after 10 am

Other possible measures include continued implementation of split teams or shift arrangements.

Work-Related Events to Resume

Also from 28 September, events within the workplace such as conferences, seminars, corporate retreats, annual general meetings and extraordinary general meetings will be permitted to resume.

There will be a cap of 50 persons (or lower depending on venue capacity based on safe management principles) with strict adherence to SMM requirements.

However, larger-scale social gatherings within or outside the workplace, such as parties, celebrations, team bonding activities, dinner and dance, and gala dinners, will still be disallowed.

MOM will release more details on specific guidelines at a later date.