Employment Terms and Conditions

[nburge]

My wife has (finally) found a job here (thanks Singapore Expats Job Board!) and now she's looking at the terms and conditions of employment. I wondered whether you guys and gals can give me some advice on the standard stuff you should expect in a Singaporean job contract.

- vacation: she's been offered 10 (ten!) days annual leave. In the UK it's much more common to see 20-25 (my own contract was 20 out here, and that was too low for me!). Is it likely that she can negotiate this higher? What's the standard for a new employee here/

- Employment Pass - she's currently my dependent, but they're going to apply for an S Pass for her. Is this better than just being my dependent with a letter from MOM? (I'm thinking of switching to a PEP anyway, so she'd get longer if DP'd to that)

- are there any other terms and conditions in a Singaporean Employment Contract that we should be aware of? Anything that needs to be added or taken out? I saw a good post about tenancy agreements here (and used the info) but haven't seen any "buyer beware" posts about employment contracts.

Cheers,

[Addadude]

My wife has (finally) found a job here (thanks Singapore Expats Job Board!) and now she's looking at the terms and conditions of employment. I wondered whether you guys and gals can give me some advice on the standard stuff you should expect in a Singaporean job contract.

- vacation: she's been offered 10 (ten!) days annual leave. In the UK it's much more common to see 20-25 (my own contract was 20 out here, and that was too low for me!). Is it likely that she can negotiate this higher? What's the standard for a new employee here/

Nope. Very unlikely she can change that. 10 days leave for a junior/new employee is not unusual here. Having said that, there's nor harm asking.

- Employment Pass - she's currently my dependent, but they're going to apply for an S Pass for her. Is this better than just being my dependent with a letter from MOM? (I'm thinking of switching to a PEP anyway, so she'd get longer if DP'd to that)

SMS would be the best person to answer this I think!

- are there any other terms and conditions in a Singaporean Employment Contract that we should be aware of? Anything that needs to be added or taken out? I saw a good post about tenancy agreements here (and used the info) but haven't seen any "buyer beware" posts about employment contracts.

All I can say here is read the contract very, VERY carefully. Assuming your missus is earning over $2,500, she won't be protected from what most civilized countries would consider unfair employment practices. Watch out for things like the employee having to compensate the employer is they quit within a certain time period or even if the employer fires them (I'm not kidding!), restrictions on where she can work in the event that she leaves the company and things like "while the official working hours are 9 - 6, the employee may be required to work longer hours and/or weekends subject to workload". (This usually means working late every day and frequent weekends.) If there is anything in the contract that you are unhappy about be prepared to walk away if they refuse to change it. You can and will be held to it in the event of a dispute.

Cheers,

[nburge]

Nice one, thanks. 9-6 is the hours they've stipulated, but there's nothing in there about compensation from her to them if she leaves (2 week notice during probation, one month thereafter for either party - they pay if they terminate). There is a term saying that she won't be paid overtime if she has to work longer hours, but that doesn't explicitly indicate that she has to do so every day. Is this a big problem here? What happens if you don't work late?

The most restrictive term is a non compete clause, but this is really nothing to do with her normal background (nothing she's done elsewhere) and I doubt there are many other companies doing the same thing even in Singapore.

What's the deal with 2.5k too? She's earning more than that, but it seems quite arbitrary that you lose employment protections above that salary level...

[therat]

- vacation: she's been offered 10 (ten!) days annual leave. In the UK it's much more common to see 20-25 (my own contract was 20 out here, and that was too low for me!). Is it likely that she can negotiate this higher? What's the standard for a new employee here/

Read Employment Rights & Conditions
http://www.mom.gov.sg/employment-practi ... fault.aspx

Employment act min annual leave is 7 days

Negotiate higher. No way.
HR don't do double standard practice. How HR are going to explain to other staff why they are 10 annual leave and she is different.

[ecureilx]

- vacation: she's been offered 10 (ten!) days annual leave. In the UK it's much more common to see 20-25 (my own contract was 20 out here, and that was too low for me!). Is it likely that she can negotiate this higher? What's the standard for a new employee here/

Read Employment Rights & Conditions
http://www.mom.gov.sg/employment-practi ... fault.aspx

Employment act min annual leave is 7 days

Negotiate higher. No way.
HR don't do double standard practice. How HR are going to explain to other staff why they are 10 annual leave and she is different.

All the companies I worked for, gave a minimum of 14 days annual leave, and the current one is 18 days annual, plus one day casual.

And the medical allocation is seperate, and so is hospitalisation and compassionate

Oh, Therat: double standard ? Smaller companies do have double or even triple standards .. and the fact that you are not allowed to discuss benefits is a cause for you to be fired if you confront HR

But, yes, reputed companies dont, but the escape clause is if you are employed by an Agent, who supplies manpower to the end employer ..

You are bound by the agent's terms

Things to watch out : penalty for early resignation, notice period, and generally, read up ...

SMS can enlighten more ..

[therat]

Hi ecureilx,

I never work in smaller companies before.

I work in a USA MNC company who annual leave is 15 days across the board and across all service year.
You work for 10 yrs, still 15 day annual leave.

My first job at 1991, a USA MNC company (2011, top 10 largest firm in the U.S; 100+ yrs old company) , start with 7 annual leave and can only take leave after 1 yr service. Any leave take within first yrs will be consider unpaid leave.

[nburge]

Actually, I read through the contract again and it stipulates the more senior you are in the company, the more leave you get to begin with. She will also begin to accrue additional days leave for every year's worth of service at the firm.

I thought it seemed a bit stingy myself, as it's uncommon to have such a meagre allowance where I'm from (we value our time off). I'm also going to have to find someone else to go on holiday with as she's going to be working whilst I have 15 more days off!

[ecureilx]

therat: the companies I worked for in Singapore, all of them are local large or small companies.

Large companies: as I said, minimum 14 days, and after 5 years you get one day added till a max of x or y days are reached

No leave under probation, but once probation is completed, leave kicked in .. never had a no-pay-leave case, including the small companies ..

Oh, minor stuff like how many leave you can carry forward, compulsory block leave requirement, notice period for block leave, prioritisation of block leave, and criteria for hospitalisation, abuse of medical leave, etc, etc, is covered in the employees handbook, which you don't get to see until you started working ..

And for nburge: seems you have a 'healthy' problem ..

[therat]

Actually, I read through the contract again and it stipulates the more senior you are in the company, the more leave you get to begin with. She will also begin to accrue additional days leave for every year's worth of service at the firm.

Quite standard

[JR8]

I'm also going to have to find someone else to go on holiday with as she's going to be working whilst I have 15 more days off!

Simple, if you don't already do it, SCUBA diving. Gives you loads of options of places to go. You don't need to plan to 'go with someone' on holiday, as dive centres team you up with others as appropriate on a day by day basis. Plus your wife needn't fret unduly as you'll be hanging out with a bunch of hairy ar$ed divers and (likely) not up raving and boozing all night while away