Workplace Fairness Act 2025: What Every Singapore Employer Must Do Before It Takes Effect

Singapore’s Workplace Fairness Act represents the most significant shift in the country’s employment discrimination law in a generation. Passed in January 2025 and expected to commence at the end of 2027, the Act moves Singapore from a guidelines-based regime under the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) to a legally enforceable framework with explicit protected characteristics, mandatory grievance processes, and penalties for non-compliance. The window between now and commencement is not a reason to wait — it is a runway for preparation. Employers who begin auditing their hiring practices, drafting grievance procedures, and training HR managers now will be far better positioned than those who treat the WFA as a 2027 problem.

Background: Two Bills, One Framework

The Workplace Fairness Act came into force in two stages. The Workplace Fairness Bill was passed in Parliament on 8 January 2025, establishing the substantive framework: protected characteristics, prohibited conduct, employer obligations, and penalties. The Workplace Fairness (Dispute Resolution) Bill followed on 4 November 2025, establishing the procedural framework: mandatory internal grievance processes, mediation, and the pathway to the Employment Claims Tribunals (ECT) or the High Court. Together, the two pieces of legislation comprise the complete Act, which you can access on Singapore Statutes Online.

The government has indicated that commencement will occur at the end of 2027, later than the initial estimate of 2026–2027. The additional lead time reflects the scale of employer preparation required, particularly for large organisations with complex hiring pipelines and for SMEs that currently lack formal HR documentation. TAFEP’s guidance and the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices remain the applicable framework until commencement and can be found at tal.sg/tafep/workplace-fairness.

The 11 Protected Characteristics Under the Workplace Fairness Act

The WFA prohibits employers from making adverse employment decisions on the basis of any of the following 11 protected characteristics:

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

The prohibition applies at every stage of the employment lifecycle: job advertisement, screening and shortlisting, interviewing, selection, terms and conditions of employment, performance assessment, promotion, and dismissal. Employers must be able to demonstrate that each decision at these stages was made on merit, not on the basis of any protected characteristic.

Two characteristics merit particular attention in the Singapore context. Nationality is listed because MOM has long been concerned about discrimination against Singapore citizens and PRs in hiring — the Fair Consideration Framework addresses this for EP-level roles, and the WFA extends protection further. Mental health condition is a new addition to Singapore employment law and will require employers to think carefully about how they handle disclosures, reasonable accommodation requests, and performance management for employees with mental health conditions.

Employer Obligations Across the Employment Lifecycle

Job Advertisements

Employers must not include requirements that reference protected characteristics unless a legally permitted exception applies. Common problematic phrases include age ranges (“fresh graduate”, “young and dynamic team”), language requirements not justified by the job (“native Mandarin speaker”), and marital or family status queries (“no family commitments”). Review every job advertisement template your organisation uses before WFA commencement — and ideally before that, given that TAFEP guidelines already flag these issues. The Employment Contract Clauses and Their Implications in Singapore guide provides a useful reference point for understanding what can and cannot appear in employment documentation.

Recruitment and Selection

Employers are expected to retain adequate documentation of their selection process: assessment criteria, interview questions, scoring frameworks, and the reasons for each hiring decision. Under the WFA, a rejected candidate may challenge a hiring decision on grounds of discrimination; the employer must be able to demonstrate merit-based selection. This documentation requirement will be new to many SMEs, which currently make hiring decisions without structured records.

Grievance Handling (Section 27)

Section 27 of the Workplace Fairness Act introduces a mandatory written grievance process. Every employer must establish a procedure under which they commit to: (a) inquire into and review each grievance raised by an employee; (b) inform the employee of the outcome in writing; (c) maintain written records of each inquiry and review for a specified retention period; and (d) ensure that grievance-related information is not disclosed except where reasonably necessary. Mediation is required before a claim can proceed to the Employment Claims Tribunals or the High Court. This means informal resolution is the first line of defence against formal claims — and a well-designed internal grievance process is both a legal obligation and a risk management tool. For advice on structuring employment terms to reduce dispute risk, see our Employee Benefits Singapore guide.

Penalties for Non-Compliance

The WFA introduces explicit financial penalties where TAFEP’s current regime relies primarily on advisory intervention and public naming:

• Corporate penalties: SGD 5,000 for a first breach; SGD 10,000 for each subsequent breach.
• Individual penalties (for officers responsible): A fine not exceeding SGD 2,500, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or both.

The government has indicated it will adopt an education-first approach at commencement, prioritising rectification over immediate prosecution for good-faith non-compliance. However, egregious or repeated violations — particularly those involving systematic discrimination in hiring — will attract enforcement action. The penalties for individuals are notable: senior HR managers and directors who authorise discriminatory practices cannot hide behind corporate liability.

Small Employer Exemption

Employers with fewer than 25 employees will be partially exempt from WFA obligations at commencement. The government has committed to reviewing this exemption within five years after the Act commences. Small employers should not treat this exemption as a reason to defer preparation: the transition from exempted to fully compliant is smoother if HR documentation practices are built before the threshold is crossed, and the TAFEP guidelines — which are not legally enforceable but are strongly expected to be followed — apply to all employers now.

Interaction with the Fair Consideration Framework and COMPASS

The WFA sits alongside — and reinforces — Singapore’s existing Fair Consideration Framework (FCF), which requires employers hiring Employment Pass holders to advertise roles on MyCareersFuture and give fair consideration to local candidates. The FCF targets nationality discrimination specifically, while the WFA covers all 11 protected characteristics. Both frameworks apply to employers sponsoring EPs. A company that is already FCF-compliant in its EP hiring practices will have a head start on WFA compliance for nationality-related obligations. The Singapore Employment Pass Guide 2026 covers FCF requirements in detail alongside the COMPASS scoring framework that applies to new EP applications.

What HR Managers Should Do Right Now

• Audit all job advertisement templates. Remove or justify any requirement that references a protected characteristic. Flag age ranges, language requirements, and family-status queries for legal review.
• Implement structured selection documentation. For every hire, retain: the criteria used, the interview questions asked, the scores or assessments applied, and the reason the selected candidate was chosen. This protects the employer if a rejected candidate raises a WFA claim.
• Draft a written internal grievance procedure. It need not be lengthy, but it must meet Section 27’s requirements: a commitment to investigate, a written outcome, record retention, and confidentiality. Get it reviewed by employment counsel or your MOM employment agency before commencement.
• Train hiring managers and line managers. Many discrimination claims arise from well-intentioned but legally problematic interview questions (“are you planning to have children?”, “what religion are you?”). Training should cover what may and may not be asked at each stage of hiring.
• Review employment contract templates. Ensure contracts do not include clauses that could be read as conditioning employment on any protected characteristic. Probation period terms and performance management clauses warrant particular scrutiny.
• Map your current HR practices against the 11 protected characteristics. Walk through each stage of your employment lifecycle — advertisement, shortlisting, interviewing, onboarding, performance review, promotion, termination — and identify where protected characteristics could inadvertently influence decisions.

Prepare Your Business for the Workplace Fairness Act

The end-2027 commencement date gives Singapore employers approximately 18 months to build compliant HR structures. That is enough time to do the work properly — but not enough to treat it as a distant obligation. The employers most at risk are those who currently rely on informal, undocumented hiring processes and who lack written grievance procedures. The employers best positioned are those who use the lead time to professionalise their people practices in line with what the WFA will require.

Singapore Employment Agency (Little Big Employment Agency Pte Ltd, MOM Licence 19C9790) advises employers on MOM-compliant employment practices, work pass applications, and HR compliance frameworks. For corporate governance and company secretarial support that integrates employment compliance into your board and HR calendar, Raffles Corporate Services provides end-to-end compliance management for Singapore-registered businesses.

— The Editorial Team, Little Big Employment Agency