If you want to get disproportionate growth in your career, it is important that you learn international labour laws and HR compliance.
Most HR professionals are scared – they don’t know Indian employment laws, so how can they learn Singapore or UAE or UK or US law?
We were surprised to find out that foreign laws are much easier to learn than Indian laws.
Everything is available online and explained in very simple language under foreign laws.
Let’s take an example of Singapore employment rules for hiring and firing.
Let’s assume that a client wants assistance to hire in-office employees in Singapore.
These are going to be locals, so you don’t have to worry about immigration and visas for now.
How are you going to go about it?
Basic rules for hiring
Singapore employment law is governed by the Singapore Employment Act, 1968 (available here).
To hire an employee in Singapore, you need to execute a standard employment contract, with certain “key employment terms” that are prescribed under Singapore law.
Here is a list of the items, and you can download a personal checklist here. Let us go through it live.
These key employment terms must be issued within 15 days of starting work.
There is only one exception – anybody who qualifies as a professional, manager or executive does not have to have terms for overtime period and overtime pay. In senior positions, therefore, this does not apply.
Did you understand these terms?
Can you administer them to new employees who are hired?
Now, you can also prepare the employment contract. You do not need to draft it from scratch. Just start with a template. Here is a simple template.
Add the Key Employment Terms in a schedule at the end.
This is very similar to how some state Shops and Establishment Laws prescribe the format of an appointment letter, or how the Standing Orders Act prescribes the matters that should be written in any standing order of a factory to be certified.
What happens after you pay the salary? You need to issue a payslip.
Here is a sample payslip.
Other things to keep in mind while hiring employees:
1 – Working hours, breaks, overtime
- 44 hrs/week, can be higher for managers or in unforeseen scenarios
- Overtime pay – 1.5x of basic pay for the first 2 hrs overtime, then 2x of basic pay (records of working hours and overtime hours must be kept by employer)
- One rest day per week to be provided – can be a single day or two half day periods spread over the week
2 – Maternity leave
- 16 weeks of paid maternity leave if the employee has worked for 3 months or more (8 weeks paid by employer, remaining by government)
- Employer cannot terminate their employment during the maternity leave period or in the four weeks immediately following the end of the maternity leave, except for certain limited reasons.
- Female employees who have been employed for less than three months may still be entitled to maternity leave, but it will be unpaid.
- Female employees who have given birth to a child with a disability are entitled to an additional four weeks of paid maternity leave.
3 – Probation
The Employment Act of Singapore does not have specific provisions on probationary period. However, as a popular practice, it can range from 3-6 months.
Of course, this is not all there are a few more rules.
Do you feel that this is more doable?
Let us also examine the basic rules for termination of employment.
Basic rules for termination of employment
1 – Notice period
Notice period can be contractually specified under Singapore law by the parties. If it is not specified, then it must be as follows:
- one day’s notice if the person has been so employed for less than 26 weeks;
- one week’s notice if the person has been so employed for 26 weeks or more but less than 2 years
- 2 weeks’ notice if the person has been so employed for 2 years or more but less than 5 years; and
- 4 weeks’ notice if the person has been so employed for 5 years or more.
Now, consider that the lawyer forgot to write the notice period clause in an employment contract of an employee.
His contract needs to be terminated after 1 year, because he hasn’t been performing satisfactorily in the past 2 months.
How much notice do you need to give?
Compare that with India.
Singapore law is very clear that in the event of breach of notice period, the employer/employee, whoever is the party breaching it, is required to pay the salary due during such period as compensation in lieu of the notice.
Notice period does not need to be followed only if there is a breach of contract, or failure to pay salary or absence without cause.
For example, if an employer fails to pay your salary within 7 days of it being due, the contract is breached and notice period is not required to be followed.
An employee can immediately leave the organisation. A Singapore business must pay salaries on time.
Similarly, if an employee is absent from work continuously for more than 2 working days without approval and a good excuse or without informing, the employment can be terminated without any notice period.
How long do you have to wait before taking such action for unauthorised absence in India?
However, a change in terms and conditions of employment is not a breach – either the parties need to agree to it or the employment can be terminated by following the notice period specified.
Notice period is not required to be observed if there is a dismissal pursuant to a disciplinary inquiry. This rule is the same in India.
Disputes pertaining to employment issues are adjudicated by the Employment Claims Tribunal which is created under Employment Claims Tribunal Act, 2016.
2 – Full and final settlement
- For an employee has been dismissed – latest within 3 days of dismissal
- Payment on termination by employee – on the day on which the contract is terminated (i.e. last day of service)
- If no notice is given or if the employee terminates before expiry of notice, then within 7 days from the date on which the employee terminates
3 – Severance compensation for directors and other senior employees
Usually, senior officers of a company are entitled to a ‘severance compensation’ if they are asked to leave.
- Adam Neumann earned over a billion dollars when he was asked to leave as Wework CEO.
- Parag Agrawal made USD 42 million.
These terms can only be agreed upon if the law allows.
What is the position in Singapore
A monetary compensation (in addition to notice pay) for terminating the contract before a specified period may be specified in the contract – this is perfectly valid and not regulated by the Employment Act, which leaves parties free to negotiate such commercials. Any disputes pertaining to this have to be settled by the civil court.
https://www.mom.gov.sg/employment-practices/termination-of-employment/termination-without-notice
How was it?
What did you learn?
Of course, this was only the beginning.
Once you learn this work, here are the things you can help a client with:
- Drawing up salary structures and incentive programs
- Preparing employment agreements
- HR Policy and handbook creation
- Handling disciplinary proceedings, exits and terminations
- HR compliance work (to the extent that it can be performed remotely)
Btw, you can also do this work for high-potential clients in advanced economies remotely.
You will have a massive cost advantage as compared to equivalent local resources there, as your services will be at least 60-70% cheaper.
Where do you find them?
You can find them directly through accelerators, or you can find projects on platforms like Upwork.
For example, here is a project that I found yesterday on Upwork relating to hiring employees in Singapore:
Similarly, if you know how to prepare an employment agreement, you can also do this project, even though it says the word contract drafting and corporate law.
What if you could do this for the US, UK, Canada, Dubai as well? We taught you a few things about Dubai yesterday.
Here is a project for doing such work for the US.
