FAQs on staggered rest days for migrant workers

Staggered rest days are used to help stagger the rest days of Work Permit and S Pass holders in construction, marine and process sectors across an entire week.

Staggering rest days will spread out the number of workers exiting their dormitories for leisure across the week.

It is an important measure to help your workers enjoy their rest days safely while mitigating the risks of COVID-19 transmissions.

More info:

• MOM’s press release on 30 May
• BCA-MOM joint circular for construction sector
• ASMI-EDB-ESG-MOM joint advisory for marine shipyard sector

Under the Employment Act, employers must provide at least 1 rest day per week. Employers are to verify or choose 1 designated rest day for your employees in Safe@Work.

This does not necessarily mean that your workers can only rest 1 day a week. It is up to the company’s arrangement with your employees on the number of rest days allowed per week.

For example, if the company’s agreement with workers is a 5-day work week where the employees rest on both Saturday and Sunday, you can designate Saturday as their rest day in Safe@Work.

For dormitory residents, this would be the day when they can apply to leave their dormitories for leisure. They can continue to rest in their dormitories on Sunday (their other rest day as agreed with their employees) but within their dormitories. Workers who are not staying in dormitories are also encouraged to remain in their residences on their other rest day.

Staggered rest days apply to all Work Permit holders and S Pass holders in the construction (hired under construction accounts), marine and process sectors.

This is regardless of where they work (i.e. construction site or non-construction site) and where they stay (i.e. dormitory or non-dormitory).

No. Staggered rest days don’t apply to Singapore citizens, PRs, EP holders and Dependant’s Pass holders.

However, your work schedules may change as a result of implementing staggered rest days for your Work Permit holders and S Pass holders.

For example, some construction sites may start working on Sundays if their assigned rest day is on another day of the week. This could affect other employees such as supervisory staff.

Employers should communicate the implementation of staggered rest days to all your employees and to explore options to minimise the impact of staggered rest days to other employees.

No. Staggered rest days only apply to Work Permit holders and S Pass holders hired under construction, marine and process sectors.

To minimise the risk of COVID-19 infections and potential work stoppages, all Work Permit and S Pass Holders hired under construction, marine and process sectors must have staggered rest days. This include those who are not deployed to sites or are not residing in dormitories.

For non-site workers (such as those deployed to corporate offices or HQs), they don’t need to follow the same official rest days assigned to their employer’s construction project worksites.

You can choose a rest day for these workers between Monday to Saturday that best meets your working schedule in Safe@Work. The rest days can be different for each worker.

If you request for Sunday as the designated rest day for your non-site and non-dormitory workers, you can submit an appeal at www.mom.gov.sg/appeal-restday. You need to provide proof, such as contractual agreement showing employment terms and details including company name, workers’ names, workers’ FIN, job roles or job titles, their working hours and their work address.

You will receive an email from BCA or MOM titled “Staggered rest day for your workers”.

For workers deployed to construction sites, BCA or MOM will assign a rest day to the project, and the rest day for the project will be stated in the email. After you received the email, you can verify or update the rest day for each of your workers in Safe@Work.

For workers deployed for renovation works, you can:

• Choose a rest day between Monday to Saturday in Safe@Work.
  OR
• Appeal for workers to rest on Sunday at www.mom.gov.sg/appeal-restday.

For workers not deployed to construction sites, you can choose a rest day between Monday to Saturday in Safe@Work. If you want to appeal for these workers to rest on Sunday, submit appeal at www.mom.gov.sg/appeal-restday. You need to provide supporting proof to show why these workers can only rest on Sundays.

No.

As an employer, you are responsible for informing your workers about their assigned rest days, and if there are any changes.

However, your work pass holders can check their assigned rest day using SGWorkPass.

Workers deployed to projects and works that can’t take place on Sunday will be assigned Sunday as a rest day. These include projects that are affected by NEA’s No-Work-Rule on Sundays and public holidays, and renovation work.

To cater for these workers who can’t rest on other days, we are unable to accede to requests for other workers to rest on Sundays.

However, if you have legitimate reasons, you can appeal at www.mom.gov.sg/appeal-restday. For example, your worker was re-deployed to a project affected by NEA’s No-Work-Rule on Sundays and public holidays, or other works that can’t take place on Sunday.

If your worker is deployed full-time to a specific construction site, you should follow the rest day for the project while your worker is deployed to the construction site.

If your worker subsequently moves to another construction site, you need to update their rest day based on the assigned project rest day for their new construction worksite in Safe@Work.

If your worker serves multiple projects at the same time, or is only deployed to a site part-time, you can choose a rest day between Monday to Saturday that best meets their working schedule. You can update their rest day in Safe@Work after you have received the email titled “Staggered rest day for your workers”.

You should not choose a rest day in Safe@Work until your workers are approved to work by BCA.

You will receive a separate email on your workers’ rest day arrangements from BCA or MOM, titled “Staggered rest day for your workers” after they’ve been approved for restart.

If your worker is deployed full time to a single construction project site and the project has been assigned a rest day by BCA or MOM, you should use Safe@Work to verify or update the rest day for each of your workers.

If your worker isn’t deployed to a construction site or is deployed part-time to multiple sites, you can choose a rest day between Monday to Saturday that best meets their working schedule. Part time means work on a project site for less than 6 weeks at the project site within a 3-month window. You can update the rest day in Safe@Work after you received email on your workers’ assigned rest day.

If your worker is required to rest on a new day, you need to inform them on their new rest day.

We understand that you need time to adjust your business practices and manpower deployment to implement your new staggered rest days.

Hence, you are given a 1-month grace period from the date you receive the email titled “Staggered rest day for your workers” to implement your new rest day.

You should communicate the importance of new rest day arrangement and the implementation details to your workers.

You should implement your new staggered rest days within a month.

You don’t need to follow up until you received your appeal outcome notification. No enforcement action will be taken while you are awaiting your appeal outcome.

You will be given an additional 3 weeks from the date of appeal outcome notification to implement your rest day arrangement.

Workers deployed to projects and works that can’t take place on Sunday will be assigned Sunday as their rest day. These include projects that are affected by NEA’s No-Work-Rule on Sundays and public holidays, and renovation work.

For these workers, Sunday will be used as their official rest day in Safe@Work. You don’t need to manually set their rest day as Sunday.

You should use Safe@Work to verify that your workers’ rest day is correct. If the rest day is not correctly shown as Sunday for some workers, you need to submit an appeal at www.mom.gov.sg/appeal-restday to change their rest days to Sunday.

If you didn’t receive the email “Staggered rest day for your workers”, you need to:

1. Contact MOM to check your rest day assignment if you have received “Approval for restart” from BCA but haven’t receive email on your assigned rest day.
2. If you can resume work without applying to BCA for approval, use Safe@Work to choose a rest day for your workers between Monday to Saturday.
   Note: From 10 August 2020, all companies with foreign workers under construction sector are allowed to resume work without applying to BCA for approval, unless workers are deployed to perform work at construction sites or supply work premises.

For renovation companies who can’t work on Sundays, you can appeal at www.mom.gov.sg/appeal-restday for your workers to have their rest day on Sunday. You need to provide proof that your workers are deployed for renovation works that are not allowed on Sundays.

Yes, workers can work on their assigned rest days if they are willing to do so, so long as the overtime pay and limits under Part IV of the Employment Act are met.

Yes. If your worker has approval to start work and their AccessCode is green, they can leave their dormitory for work purposes on any day of the week.

No. Under the Employment Act, you have to provide at least 1 rest day per week. If their rest day is not on Sunday, you don’t need to pay them overtime for working on Sunday.

However, if you deploy them to work on their new rest day, the same overtime rules would apply.

Currently, MOM is carrying out exit trials for cleared dormitories where workers can leave their dormitories to visit specified Recreation Centres on their assigned rest day after successfully applying for an Exit Pass.

For workers in dormitories that are currently not in the exit trials, they are allowed to exit their dormitories for work purposes only.

They can also apply to leave their dormitories for essential errands. Read the advisory on essential errands for more info.

The first phase of dorm exits for non-work purposes began in mid-August.

In anticipation of the upcoming situation when workers staying in all cleared dormitories are allowed to leave their dormitories for non-work purposes, staggering rest days will spread out the number of workers exiting their dormitories for non-work purposes evenly across the week.

It is an important measure to help workers enjoy their rest days safely while mitigating the risks of COVID-19 transmissions.

Workers staying in dormitories that are currently onboard exit trials can apply for Exit Pass using SGWorkPass to leave their dormitories on their assigned rest day to visit a specified Recreation Centre.

In addition, workers whose dormitory is declared COVID-cleared and are not serving a Quarantine Order or Stay-Home Notice can leave their dormitory to run essential errands. You or dormitory operator need to notify MOM, and they can then leave for their specified errand. The list of essential errands include medical appointments, court appointments and work pass related errands. This is regardless of AccessCode status. They don’t need Exit Pass.

To minimise the risk of COVID-19 infections and potential work stoppages, all Work Permit and S Pass holders hired under construction, marine and process sectors must have staggered rest days. This includes workers who are not deployed to sites or those not staying in dormitories.

Workers who are not deployed to construction sites and are not staying in dormitories are should only leave their residences for non-work purposes on their assigned rest days.

For workers deployed to single construction sites, you should adhere to the assigned rest days of the construction sites. If you have legitimate reasons to change their rest day (e.g. your worker is no longer deployed to a project), you can change their rest day between Monday to Saturday using Safe@Work.

If your workers are not deployed to construction sites or deployed part-time to multiple sites, and you have chosen a rest day for them earlier, you can change their rest day between Monday to Saturday with Safe@Work if their work schedules have changed. Part-time means working on a project site for less than 6 weeks at the project site within a 3-month window.

If your worker is required to rest on a new day, you should inform them of their new rest day.

You should abide by your assigned rest day as far as possible.

If there are legitimate reasons to change your workers’ rest days, you can appeal at www.mom.gov.sg/appeal-restday. You must provide supporting proof in your appeal.

Safe@Work doesn’t restrict the number of changes you can make.

However, you should only make changes for legitimate reasons.

If you have legitimate reasons, you can update rest days in Safe@Work once you received the email titled “Staggered rest day for your workers”.

It is not automatically updated. Once there is a rest day recorded in Safe@Work, you need to update any subsequent changes.

Check with the main contractor on the assigned rest day if you didn’t receive any email on your workers’ rest day.

You can update your workers’ rest day according to your main contractor’s rest days using Safe@Work.

However, if your main contractor’s rest day is on Sunday, you need to submit an appeal at www.mom.gov.sg/appeal-restday with necessary documents to show that your workers are deployed to the project. If approved, you will receive a notification, and your workers’ rest days will be automatically updated in Safe@Work.

If your main contractor’s rest day is between Monday to Saturday, you don’t need to change the rest days for your workers.

If your workers work at multiple project sites or are deployed part-time to multiple sites, you should use Safe@Work to choose a rest day between Monday to Saturday that best fits their work schedule. Part time means working on a project site for less than 6 weeks at the project site within a 3-month window.

You don’t need to choose the same day for all your workers. You can also change the rest days subsequently on Safe@Work for legitimate reasons, e.g. you are rostering your workers differently.

If your worker is required to rest on a new day, please inform them of their new rest day.

No.

If your workers currently rest on both Saturdays and Sundays, they should continue to do so.

However, they can leave their dorm for leisure on Saturday.

Hence, in Safe@Work, you should choose Saturday as their rest day. They can continue to rest on Sunday without leaving their dormitory.

Yes. You can choose another rest day between Monday to Saturday for your worker at Safe@Work.

However, after you chose a new rest day, you won’t be able to change back to Sunday. If you’re only temporarily deploying your worker on Sundays, you should get your worker’s consent for overtime work instead.

You must also comply strictly with the permitted time stipulated by HDB or MCST.

To ensure all workers’ rest day are spread out evenly across the week and reduce the potential of COVID-19 virus transmission, we encourage you to avoid choosing weekends.

However, if you have legitimate reasons, you can submit an appeal for your workers’ to rest on Sunday at www.mom.gov.sg/appeal-restday. You must provide supporting proof.

Yes, if you employ workers that need to have staggered rest days, you must choose a rest day in Safe@Work for your workers.

If you’re a renovation company, you can request for Sunday as the rest day for your workers at www.mom.gov.sg/appeal-restday.

If you have workers on rotating shift, you can submit an appeal at www.mom.gov.sg/appeal-restday for your workers to be on rotated rest days. This allows your workers to rest between Monday to Saturday, including different days each week.