Unpaid Infant Care Leave

Part III of the Child Development Co-Savings Act provide unpaid infant care leave entitlements for employees.

• Eligibility
• Computation and Pro-ration of unpaid infant care leave for part-time, temporary and contract employees
• Application of Unpaid Infant Care Leave

Eligibility

An employee is entitled to six days of unpaid infant care leave per year if he/she is covered under the Child Development Co-Savings Act. The Child Development Co-Savings Act covers all parents of Singapore citizens, including managerial, executive or confidential staff if all four of the following conditions are met:

1. The child (including legally adopted children or stepchildren) is below two years of age;
2. The child is a Singapore citizen;
3. The child's parents are lawfully married (including divorced or widowed parents); and
4. The employee has worked for the employer for at least three calendar months.

Regardless of the number of children, the total unpaid infant care leave entitlement for each parent is capped at six days per year. For divorced or widowed parents, the leave entitlement will not be doubled.

Parents of Singapore citizens below the age of two can take both types of leave (six days of paid childcare leave and six days of unpaid infant care leave) until the child turns two.

Computation and Pro-ration of unpaid infant care leave for part-time, temporary and contract employees

Fixed-term contract/temporary/part-time employees are entitled to unpaid infant care leave, provided an employee has served the employer for a period of not less than three months.

If an employee has worked less than a year

The leave year for infant care leave will be any 12-month period as agreed by both employer and employee. If there is no agreement, the leave year will be the calendar year by default.

For part-time employees, the infant care leave entitlement should be adjusted for the number of working hours, such that their entitlement is equivalent to that of full-time employees.

Illustration

An existing part-time employee is required to work an average of four hours a week, and a similar existing full-time employee is required to an average of eight hours a day and 44 hours a week, the entitlement of the part-time employee to unpaid infant care leave is:

4/44 x 6 x 8 = 4.4 hours

The part time employee will be entitled to 1.1 days of infant care leave, equivalent to 4.4 hours each day.

Application of Unpaid Infant Care Leave

An employee has full flexibility to use the unpaid infant care leave to spend time with his/her child. A child medical certificate is not required. For example, the employee can use the leave to care for the child personally should the usual care arrangements fall through.

An employee should give the employer early notice of his/her intention to take infant care leave. Leave is subject to the employer's approval.

The employer should discuss with the employee and mutually agree on a suitable time to take the infant care leave. If the employee needs the leave to attend to matters that cannot be postponed (e.g. child immunisation, medical appointments), the employer is strongly encouraged to grant the leave.

Infant care leave is not transferable between spouses. Unused infant care leave by any one party will lapse at the end of each agreed 12-month period.

If the employee changes employer, he will not be able to carry over any unused infant care leave to the new company. The new company should grant the employee infant care leave according to the statutory requirement after he has worked for him/her for more than three months.

Unused infant care leave at the end of the yearly entitlement period will lapse and cannot be encashed.

The unpaid infant care leave entitlement is six days per year if the employee has worked for at least three months with the employer. The six days of infant care leave cannot be pro-rated.

Infant care leave cannot be used to offset the notice period for termination of employment. However, if an employee applies for infant care leave during the notice period, the employer is encouraged to grant the leave. The days of infant care leave taken will not add to the notice period.