Singapore’s Ministry of Health said that form 1 January 2022, 50 per cent of employees who can work from home will be allowed to return to the office. This is because previously-announced workforce vaccination measures will kick in on that date, meaning Singapore will be “in a better position to ease the current default work-from-home posture”, said MOH. Such measures include only allowing employees who are fully vaccinated or who have recently recovered from COVID-19 to return to the workplace. Working from home has been the default since September, when Singapore began seeing another rise in COVID-19 cases. COVID-19 multi-ministry task force co-chair Gan Kim Yong said authorities recognise that such an arrangement is “not ideal and not sustainable in the long run, as face-to-face interaction is important for team dynamics, as well as other operational considerations”.
At the same time, co-chair of the task force Lawrence Wong said the task force is “considering” removing the concession for unvaccinated persons to return to the workplace with a negative test – which was initially said to be allowed under the workforce vaccination measures. “It does have implications for employers and workers. And that’s why we are consulting and discussing with our tripartite partners on this particular move. We will provide more details when the arrangements are finalised.”
CNA
