Singapore’s Workplace Fairness Act 2025 introduces the Republic’s first binding statutory framework against workplace discrimination. Passed in two Bills — the Workplace Fairness Bill on 8 January 2025 and the Workplace Fairness (Dispute Resolution) Bill on 4 November 2025 — the combined legislation is expected to take effect from end-2027. For employers with 25 or more staff, that deadline is closer than it sounds. Building compliant grievance systems, clean recruitment records and trained HR teams cannot be done in a week.

This guide sets out what the Workplace Fairness Act requires, who it covers, what the penalties are, and — critically — the practical compliance checklist every Singapore employer with 25 or more employees should work through now.

What the Workplace Fairness Act Covers

The Workplace Fairness Act (WFA) codifies and strengthens Singapore’s existing Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices (TGFEP), which have been in force since 2007 but were non-binding. The WFA gives these guidelines statutory teeth.

Scope: Who Must Comply

At commencement, the Act applies to employers with 25 or more employees (including local and foreign workers). Employers with fewer than 25 staff are expected to be partially exempt at commencement, with their obligations reviewed within five years. Employers with 5–24 employees are expected to be brought within the full framework in due course.

This threshold is relevant for many Singapore SMEs and multinational subsidiaries. An entity with 24 staff that hires one more person after commencement should have its compliance infrastructure ready in advance.

The 11 Protected Characteristics

The Act prohibits adverse employment decisions based on the following characteristics, per Singapore Statutes Online (WFA 2025):

  1. Nationality
  2. Age
  3. Sex
  4. Marital status
  5. Pregnancy
  6. Caregiving responsibilities
  7. Race
  8. Religion
  9. Language ability
  10. Disability
  11. Mental health condition

The nationality ground is particularly significant for Singapore employers who hire foreign professionals. This means that job advertisements, interview processes and employment decisions must be based on merit — not on whether a candidate is a Singapore Citizen, PR or Employment Pass holder. This does not override MOM’s Fair Consideration Framework (FCF) requirements, which remain in force; it is additive.

Key Employer Obligations Under the Workplace Fairness Act

1. Merit-Based Recruitment and Hiring

Employers must adopt merit-based recruitment practices. Job advertisements must not include language that directly or indirectly screens on protected grounds. For example, requiring “native English speaker” (language ability), specifying preferred nationality, or setting age limits without objective justification would all be prohibited.

Employers must retain adequate documentation of selection decisions — assessment criteria, interview notes, scoring frameworks — to demonstrate that hiring was fair. The TAFEP’s Workplace Fairness employer guide sets out the record-keeping expectations.

2. Employment Decisions During the Employment Relationship

Adverse employment decisions — including appraisals, promotions, training access, disciplinary action and dismissal — must not be based on any of the 11 protected characteristics. Employers must apply policies consistently across the workforce. Workplace policies that indirectly disadvantage a protected group (indirect discrimination) are also prohibited unless objectively justified by a legitimate and proportionate business need.

3. Internal Grievance Handling Procedure

This is the most operationally demanding obligation. From commencement, every employer with 25 or more staff must maintain a documented internal grievance handling procedure with the following elements:

  • A clear process for employees to raise discrimination complaints internally.
  • A fair internal inquiry process.
  • Communication of the outcome to the complainant.
  • Confidential record-keeping.
  • Anti-retaliation safeguards protecting complainants and witnesses.

If internal resolution fails, the WFA introduces a mandatory three-stage dispute resolution pathway: internal grievance → mandatory mediation with the Commissioner for Workplace Fairness → Employment Claims Tribunal (ECT). Claims must be raised within strict time limits at each stage.

Workplace Fairness Act Penalties for Employers

The penalties under the WFA are materially higher than those under the existing TGFEP regime, which relied on naming-and-shaming and pass curtailment rather than fines.

Under the WFA, per the legislation:

  • Administrative penalties (corporate entity): Up to SGD 5,000 for a first breach; up to SGD 10,000 for subsequent breaches.
  • Civil penalties (first court order, corporate): Up to SGD 50,000 per violation.
  • Civil penalties (subsequent court order, corporate): Up to SGD 250,000.
  • ECT claims: The Employment Claims Tribunal will hear claims up to SGD 250,000 under streamlined procedures, typically without legal representation.

Additionally, MOM can continue to curtail work pass privileges for employers found to be non-compliant with fair employment obligations — a mechanism that already exists under the Fair Consideration Framework and that will be reinforced by the WFA.

Workplace Fairness Act 2025: Employer Compliance Checklist

The following checklist applies to all employers with 25 or more employees in Singapore. Even with the end-2027 commencement date, starting now means your procedures are tested and embedded before the law applies — rather than scrambled into place at the last moment.

Recruitment and Job Advertisements

  • Audit all job advertisements: remove references to nationality, age, sex, religion, marital status, or any other protected characteristic unless a genuine occupational requirement exception applies.
  • Remove “minimum X years’ experience” requirements that are not genuinely necessary (age-related proxy).
  • Ensure candidate screening templates do not include fields for protected characteristics.
  • Align all job postings with the MOM Fair Employment Practices guidelines.

Interview and Selection Documentation

  • Build a standardised interview scorecard based on objective, job-relevant criteria.
  • Train all interviewers on the prohibited characteristics and what constitutes merit-based assessment.
  • Retain interview notes, scoring sheets and shortlisting rationale for at least 12 months (WFA record-keeping requirements have not yet been published; 12 months is a minimum starting position).

Internal Grievance Procedure

  • Draft a written discrimination and harassment grievance policy, published in your employee handbook or HR portal.
  • Define a clear internal inquiry process: who receives complaints, timelines, escalation path, written outcome communication.
  • Build anti-retaliation language into the policy and into your employment contracts or annexes.
  • Designate a trained HR manager or an independent panel for handling complaints.
  • Create a secure, confidential log for discrimination complaints and their outcomes.

Employment Decisions During the Relationship

  • Implement an appraisal framework based on measurable, documented KPIs rather than subjective manager assessment.
  • Review promotion and training access policies: ensure all employees are eligible on merit, with no informal exclusions tied to protected characteristics.
  • Review redundancy selection criteria: ensure they are objective (skills, performance, role elimination) and not correlated with protected groups.

Training

  • Conduct unconscious bias training for all managers and HR personnel.
  • Brief senior leadership on the WFA’s requirements and the reputational and financial risks of non-compliance.
  • Document all training completed: dates, participants, content — this demonstrates a culture of compliance.

How the WFA Interacts With Existing MOM Requirements

The WFA does not replace existing MOM fair employment obligations. The Fair Consideration Framework (FCF) — which requires employers to advertise jobs on the MyCareersFuture.sg portal for at least 14 days before hiring a foreign professional — remains in force. FCF scrutiny will, if anything, intensify as the WFA establishes higher evidentiary standards for employment decisions. Employers found on MOM’s Fair Consideration Framework Watch List face heightened scrutiny of their EP applications.

For employers managing EP holders, S Pass holders and work permit employees, maintaining a clean MOM compliance record is essential. Read the Singapore HR and MOM Compliance Calendar 2026 for the full schedule of employer obligations throughout the year.

For an overview of all Singapore employment passes and the salary obligations they carry, see the Complete Singapore Employment Pass Guide 2026.

Prepare Now, Comply Confidently at Commencement

The Workplace Fairness Act 2025 takes Singapore’s employment law into new territory — from voluntary guidelines to statutory obligations with real financial penalties. The end-2027 commencement date means the compliance window is open, not closed.

Employers with 25 or more staff in Singapore should treat the next 12–18 months as the preparation period: audit your recruitment materials, build your grievance procedure, and train your HR teams before the law requires it. The employers who struggle at commencement will be those who waited.

For employment pass applications, work pass renewals, and navigating MOM compliance in Singapore, Singapore Employment Agency — operated by Little Big Employment Agency Pte Ltd (MOM Licence No. 19C9790) — provides licensed agency services. For corporate secretarial, compliance and HR advisory support for your Singapore entity, visit Raffles Corporate Services.

— The Editorial Team, Little Big Employment Agency

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