Annual Leave in Singapore

[CurlyUK]

Hi All,

I hope to be coming to Singapore to work in the very near future and I have read/heard that in addition to standard Bank holidays the norm for your own annual leave is only 12.5 days per year is that correct?

I currently work in the UK and in addition to standard Bank holidays I get 25 days annual leave, which is an awful lot more than Singapore (providing what I have heard is correct)

Can anybody shed any light, as I may have to factor this in when considering the move?

All advice/help greatly received

Thanks

[Strong Eagle]

It's all in the contract you sign. Unlike other countries where underlying law governs what you get, it's all what you can put into your contract for employment.

[CurlyUK]

Cheers for the quick response!

I will keep a look out in my contract!

Thanks again

[nutnut]

I have heard of people with only 7 days, but also, over here people tend to use their sick leave as additional days leave and no one bats an eye lid (except me, I think it's wrong!)

[sundaymorningstaple]

As SE says, you negotiate your leave. The only people who are covered under "The Employment Act" Cap 50 are those earning less than 2000/mo. There it is stipulated that they "must" be given a minimum of 7 days annual leave/year with an additional day per year for each year employed up to a maximum of 14 days/year. However, an employer is free to give the employee as much as they want as long as it at least meets the minimums. The average starting annual leave for most Singaporean is 10 day/year to start with the Financial/Banking sectors have upwards of 21-30/year.

[CurlyUK]

Thanks for your responses you have put ny mind at ease!

[JR8]

One reason SG is as 'thrusting' as it is, whilst Europe wilts is because they don't spend all their lives on bleeding holiday. Put another way I think you come to SG to work, and hard.

That said if you tfr from a UK company to their SG branch, you should expect to carry over your UK leave entitlement. So when my local colleagues had 2 weeks, I had 4 (and by the time I later hit Wall Street my colleagues had a baseline 10 days, and I had six weeks - not that I got to use it).

I reckon a transfer to SG is an opportunity to gear-up on the opportunity, title/rank, and maybe pay, and make a 'big boomz' of say three years in order to seriously ratchet up. Put another way if you coast through a SG posting I think you're missing the point of the opportunity. If you can't make a major impact as the latest FT golden-boy in a small fish-bowl... maybe think about doing something different.



p.s. Apologies these are random musings well beyond the OPs original question....

[x9200]

Hi All,

I hope to be coming to Singapore to work in the very near future and I have read/heard that in addition to standard Bank holidays the norm for your own annual leave is only 12.5 days per year is that correct?

I currently work in the UK and in addition to standard Bank holidays I get 25 days annual leave, which is an awful lot more than Singapore (providing what I have heard is correct)

Can anybody shed any light, as I may have to factor this in when considering the move?

As said by others it is the thing to negotiate within your contract but there are some non-flexible corporate habits you may see around. Very often the amount of leave depends whether you are considered to be on a local contract, an expat one or somewhere in between. For a typical local contract within a reasonable MNC it is 12-14 days. I was once approached by such MNC and had really hard time to explain to them that this is not acceptable for me (they considered me to be on a local contract). It ended up that I still was offered these 14 days only but had what requested (over 20days) included to the salary as an equivalent (so I could take its as a non-paid leave if I want to).

[Hidy Ho]

I work for a US based MNC on a "local contract" and transferred here from US. My annual leave is same as it was in US which is partially tied to a position level. Not sure if it's any different if I was "hired" here but I don't think so .. at least for the company I work for.

We called it PTO in USA and total days included "sick days" whereas here I get another allotment of sick-days (something like 15 days I think).

What I like here is that everyone is mandated 5 straight days off per year .. I think that's good for anyone's mental health!!!

[zzm9980]

I work for a US based MNC on a "local contract" and transferred here from US. My annual leave is same as it was in US which is partially tied to a position level. Not sure if it's any different if I was "hired" here but I don't think so .. at least for the company I work for.

We called it PTO in USA and total days included "sick days" whereas here I get another allotment of sick-days (something like 15 days I think).

What I like here is that everyone is mandated 5 straight days off per year .. I think that's good for anyone's mental health!!!

At the MNC I work for, it is also based on employment grade for local hires. I get 21 days PTO, and I think some lower grades "only" get 17. That does not include 15 "sick" days, and various other allotted leave for funeral, marriage, etc.

I also get 6 additional days leave for having a child. I assumed this was a Singapore law thing, but as I make over the $2k/month, apparently not.

I'm fairly certain this is a lot more PTO+Sick time than my colleagues in the US get.

[sundaymorningstaple]

The big difference with the PTO and the Sick or Medical Leave here (actually 14 days a year) is that unused annual leave is usually able to be carried over at least one year or encashed if not used, while Sick Leave is a use it or lose it type of thing (it cannot be accumulated or carried forward to the next year. Of course, you need to have gone to an approved doctor to claim a day of sick leave and you need to turn in the medical sick leave chit given by the doctor/clinic to your HR department in order to utilize the sick leave. Hospitalization leave on the other hand can be up to 60 days (inclusive of the 14 days Sick leave).

[JR8]

'Sick leave'.... I thought you were kidding. Or does this explain why my SGn relatives seems to spend so much time on 'MC' as they call it?

[therat]

During my first company, the production operator has a say " No leave, clear MC"

At first, I don't understand. Then they explain to me.
Their annual leave is only 7 days for 1 yr.
When they run out of annual leave, they start to use MC.

[sundaymorningstaple]

'Sick leave'.... I thought you were kidding. Or does this explain why my SGn relatives seems to spend so much time on 'MC' as they call it?

Yep, exactly right! MC stands for Medical Cert. And yeah, certain segments of the population tend to milk it down to the last day. Same with the 6 days of Child Care leave (cannot be accumulated or encashed).

[JR8]

Can I have a 'Proud of my wife' moment then

Don't recall her taking more than maybe 2 days MC (total) over the last 6 odd years. Meanwhile all the rest of the family seem to drop like flies. 'Man-flu'... you thought it a Western phenomenon jeez do a study on my family!? lol