Beginning November 2021 All Employers in Singapore must declare all retrenchments in Ministry of Manpower

Effective 1 November 2021, employers in Singapore with at least 10 employees under the payroll will be required to notify the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) of all retrenchments regardless of the number of employees affected. Dubbed as the mandatory retrenchment notification, this exercise has to be filed by employers within five working days after they provide notice of retrenchment to the affected employee(s).

Before this, employers were only required to notify the MOM when they retrench five or more employees within a six-month period. (The Ministry said failure to comply with the requirement on mandatory retrenchment notifications under the Employment Act is a civil contravention, which can garner administrative penalties. "Employers who willfully do not comply with the requirement may be guilty of an offence, for which strong enforcement action may be taken," MOM added.)

MOM also shared that the reason for this revised notification enables the tripartite partners, Workforce Singapore, NTUC’s e2i as well as other agencies to better reach out to affected local employees to provide timely employment and job search support and assistance.

The updated requirements on mandatory retrenchment notification will be reflected in the Employment (Retrenchment Reporting) (Amendment) Notification 2021. "Employers should also ensure that they manage any retrenchment exercises responsibly and fairly, in line with the Tripartite Advisory on Managing Excess Manpower and Responsible Retrenchment," the Ministry reminded.