Written Answer by Minister for Manpower Dr Tan See Leng to PQ on companies offering the right to work from home

NOTICE PAPER NO. 979 OF 2022 FOR A SITTING ON 18 JANUARY 2022
QUESTION NO. 1584 FOR WRITTEN ANSWER

MP: Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang

To ask the Minister for Manpower (a) how many and what percentage of registered companies in Singapore currently offer the right to work from home, following the government's decision to allow 50 per cent of those who can work from home to be allowed to return to the office starting January 2022; and (b) if the Ministry does not have this data, does it intend to collect the data and by when.

Answer: 

Under COVID-19 Workplace Regulations, businesses are currently still required to implement work-from-home for at least 50% of their workforce who can work-from-home. For those workers that are unable to work-from-home, employers are to ensure that start times are staggered and allow flexible working hours.

MOM tracks the proportion of firms that offer flexible working arrangements, including remote work. In 2020, close to eight in 10 firms provided flexible working arrangements on a sustained basis, and close to one in two offered remote work. This information is published on the MOM website. Data for 2021 will be published in due course.

MOM will continue to work with tripartite partners to raise employees' access to flexible work arrangements, which includes but is not limited to remote working arrangements. As not all working arrangements are suitable for remote work, our approach is to be inclusive, to help more workers access appropriate workplace flexibilities, from flexi-load, to flexi-time and to flexi-place.