Singapore passed its first comprehensive anti-discrimination employment statute in January 2025. The Workplace Fairness Act 2025 Singapore (WFA) is expected to commence for employers with 25 or more employees by end-2027, with smaller businesses (5 to 24 employees) following from 2030. That gives larger employers roughly 18 months to prepare — but preparation needs to start now, because the internal documentation and process changes the WFA requires take time to build correctly.

This guide is written specifically for Singapore SME business owners, HR managers, and directors of companies approaching or above the 25-employee threshold. It covers what the WFA requires, what changed from the previous voluntary framework, and the concrete steps to take before the commencement date.

What the Workplace Fairness Act 2025 Singapore Is — and Why It Matters Now

Before the WFA, Singapore’s approach to workplace discrimination was primarily voluntary — guided by the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices (TGFEP), monitored by TAFEP, and enforced indirectly through the Fair Consideration Framework (FCF) for employers of EP holders. Those frameworks had teeth, but they were not statutory anti-discrimination law.

The Workplace Fairness Act 2025 changes that. It codifies anti-discrimination obligations for the first time in Singapore statute. Employers cannot make adverse employment decisions on the basis of any of the 11 protected characteristics — and the Act creates enforceable rights for employees to challenge those decisions.

The commencement date is expected by end-2027 for employers with 25 or more employees. This is not a soft deadline — it is the date from which civil liability and enforcement begin. Companies that have not built compliant processes by then face both tribunal exposure and reputational risk.

The 11 Protected Characteristics Under the Workplace Fairness Act 2025 Singapore

The WFA protects employees and job applicants against adverse decisions based on any of the following:

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

The protection applies at every stage of the employment relationship: job advertisements and screening, interviews, hiring decisions, performance reviews, promotions, training access, and dismissal. An employer that, for example, screens out candidates based on nationality during hiring, or excludes an employee from a promotion opportunity because of a mental health condition, may be in breach of the WFA once it commences.

What is prohibited — and what is permitted

The WFA prohibits direct discrimination (treating a person less favourably because of a protected characteristic) and indirect discrimination (applying a policy or practice that disproportionately disadvantages a group with a protected characteristic, without justification). It does not ban all differentiation — merit-based, role-requirement-based, and legally sanctioned distinctions remain permitted. For example, requiring a specific language proficiency for a role where that proficiency is genuinely necessary for job performance is permitted.

The Mandatory Written Grievance Procedure

Section 27 of the Workplace Fairness Act requires every employer to establish a written grievance process. The process must commit the employer to:

  • Inquiring into and reviewing each grievance raised by an employee about treatment linked to a protected characteristic.
  • Informing the employee of the outcome of the grievance process in writing.
  • Maintaining written records of each inquiry and review for a specified period.
  • Protecting the confidentiality of the grievance, including the identity of the employee raising it (except where disclosure is reasonably necessary).

This is not a bureaucratic formality. The written grievance process is a substantive compliance obligation. An employer that lacks a documented grievance procedure when the Act commences will be in breach of Section 27 from day one — before any individual complaint is even raised.

Documentation Obligations: Why Record-Keeping Matters

The WFA creates documentation obligations that go beyond what most Singapore SMEs currently maintain. Specifically, employers should retain:

  • Recruitment records: Job descriptions, screening criteria, interview notes, scoring frameworks, and hiring decisions — with the objective basis for each decision recorded.
  • Performance review records: Documented criteria for performance ratings, promotion decisions, and training nominations.
  • Disciplinary and termination records: The documented basis for any adverse employment decision, particularly dismissals.

If an employee brings a claim before the Tripartite Fair Employment Practices Tribunal, the employer will need to demonstrate that the adverse decision was based on objective, non-discriminatory factors. Employers with poor documentation will struggle to mount that defence, even if their actual decision-making was entirely merit-based.

Penalties for Non-Compliance

The WFA provides for penalties of up to SGD 50,000 per violation for companies. Employees who suffer discrimination may seek redress through the Tripartite Fair Employment Practices Tribunal, which has the power to award compensation and reinstatement.

It is worth noting that the penalties apply per violation — a pattern of discriminatory hiring decisions across multiple candidates could therefore result in aggregate penalties substantially exceeding SGD 50,000.

How the WFA Relates to the Fair Consideration Framework

Employers who already sponsor Employment Pass holders are subject to the Fair Consideration Framework (FCF), which requires fair consideration of Singaporeans and PRs for job vacancies before hiring foreigners. The FCF is currently enforced through MOM’s Job Vacancy reporting obligations and the FCF watchlist. Our Complete Singapore Employment Pass Guide 2026 covers the FCF requirements for EP-sponsoring employers.

The WFA is broader than the FCF. The FCF focuses on nationality discrimination in the context of foreign hiring. The WFA covers all 11 protected characteristics and all employees — local, PR, and foreign. Companies already compliant with the FCF will have built some relevant infrastructure (job advertisement practices, JD documentation), but WFA compliance requires more: a written grievance process, fuller documentation, and manager training on all 11 characteristics.

Practical Preparation Steps for Singapore Employers with 25 or More Staff

Now (June 2026 — 18 months before expected commencement)

  1. Conduct a gap assessment. Review your current HR policies, employment contracts, job advertisement templates, and interview processes against the WFA’s requirements. Identify what is already compliant and what needs to be built.
  2. Draft the written grievance procedure. This is Section 27’s core requirement. Your procedure should specify how employees raise concerns, who handles them, timelines for response, and how outcomes are communicated. It does not need to be complex — but it must be documented, accessible, and actually followed.
  3. Update job advertisement templates. Remove references to preferences that could indicate protected-characteristic discrimination (e.g., “young and dynamic team”, “native English speaker required” where language proficiency is not genuinely job-critical).
  4. Revise interview frameworks. Structured interviews with pre-set, job-relevant questions reduce discrimination risk and generate the documentation trail needed for defence if challenged.
  5. Train hiring managers and line managers. Managers who make day-to-day employment decisions are the front line of WFA compliance. Training should cover the 11 characteristics, what constitutes a prohibited decision, and how to use the grievance process.
  6. Establish a confidential HR complaint channel. This can be as simple as a dedicated email address or a clear policy naming who employees can approach. The key is that the channel is known, accessible, and handled consistently.

12 months before commencement (late 2026)

  1. Run an internal audit of recent hiring, promotion, and termination decisions to identify any patterns that could create liability exposure when the Act commences.
  2. Test the grievance procedure with a mock scenario. Does it actually work? Do managers know what to do? Is the response timeline realistic?
  3. Ensure employment contracts are updated to remove any clauses inconsistent with the WFA — for example, clauses specifying mandatory retirement at ages below the statutory retirement age (now 64 from 1 July 2026: see our Singapore retirement age 64 employer compliance guide).

Six months before commencement

  1. Formalise the grievance procedure in your staff handbook and employment contracts.
  2. Ensure documentation retention processes are in place — particularly for recruitment decisions.
  3. Brief the board or senior leadership on potential liability and the company’s compliance posture.

Keep all of these milestones on your broader compliance calendar. Our Singapore HR MOM Compliance Calendar 2026 is a useful framework for tracking employment law milestones alongside your pass renewals and levy obligations.

The WFA and TAFEP’s Monitoring Role

TAFEP (the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices) will continue to monitor workplace fairness under the WFA framework. Under the existing TGFEP, TAFEP investigates complaints and can refer serious cases to MOM. Under the WFA, the enforcement landscape expands — employees will have a statutory right of claim through the Tripartite Fair Employment Practices Tribunal, reducing TAFEP’s role as the sole dispute channel.

Employers who already engage with TAFEP’s advisory tools and e-learning resources are building the right habits, but the WFA requires those habits to be formalised in writing. Good intentions are not a compliance defence once the Act commences.

Conclusion

The Workplace Fairness Act 2025 Singapore is the most significant shift in Singapore employment law in decades. The 18-month preparation window before expected commencement is not generous — building effective grievance processes, updating documentation practices, and training managers across an organisation takes sustained effort, not a last-minute sprint.

If you need guidance on conducting a WFA compliance gap assessment, drafting grievance procedures, or reviewing your employment contracts against the new framework, the team at Singapore Employment Agency — operated by Little Big Employment Agency Pte Ltd, a MOM-licensed employment agency (Licence No. 19C9790) — can help assess your foreign workforce obligations. For broader HR compliance support, employment contract review, and workforce management for Singapore businesses, visit Raffles Corporate Services.

— The Editorial Team, Little Big Employment Agency

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