Singapore Says Current Labour Rights are Sufficient — Are They?

On 28 September 2026, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) confirmed that the outcome report of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) was formally adopted. The Straits Times reported that “Singapore supports 71% of human rights recommendations by UN member states”. In our analysis of the compiled list of recommendations and our government’s response, 119 of the 243 recommendations accepted were to continue existing efforts and about 15 were to consider further action. Supporting recommendations does not necessarily mean committing to substantive reform. 

The government gave justifications for not supporting specific recommendations. This included extending the Employment Act (EA) and the Work Injury Compensation Act (WICA) protections to domestic workers:

“Singapore recognises that migrant domestic workers require additional protection and we have enacted more customised legislation, namely, the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act 1990, to recognise the demands of their work environments and better meet their unique protection needs.”

While the relevant recommendations were formally “noted”, does the EFMA really function to "better meet [MDWs'] unique protection needs?" Let’s compare the essential protections defined in the EFMA with the EA and the Work Injury Compensation Act (WICA), both of which exclude MDWs. 

Protections	Employment Act (EA) / Work Injury Compensation Act (WICA)	Employment of Foreign Manpower Act (EFMA)
Limits on Working Hours	Normal working hours are capped at 44 hours a week. Generally no more than 12 working hours a day, subject to exceptions.	No statutory limits on working hours.
Overtime Pay	At least 1.5 times the hourly basic rate for overtime. Generally capped at 72 overtime hours a month, subject to exemptions.	No statutory entitlement to overtime pay or limits to hours.
Breaks During Work	Cannot be required to work for more than six consecutive hours without a break	The employer of the foreign employee shall grant the foreign employee “adequate rest” daily, subject to their discretion.
Rest Day	One whole rest day each week, midnight to midnight. Employees who work on their rest day are paid extra.	A weekly rest-day entitlement exists, but rest days can be exchanged for compensation by agreement, except at least one per month.MOM allows the rest day to be split into two four-hour blocks, and can be deferred by up to one month
Paid Public Holidays	Entitled to 11 Government gazetted public holidays.	No statutory entitlement to paid public holidays.
Paid Annual Leave	After three months’ service: seven days in the first year, increasing with years of service to 14 days.	No entitlements. Dependent on individual employment contracts
Work Injury Compensation Act	Up to SGD269,000 in compensation for death, and more for work-related injuries.	Entitled to personal accident insurance, with a minimum of SGD 60,000 assured.

If EFMA is designed to meet domestic workers’ unique protection needs, why does it exclude them from basic employment rights? Other migrant workers are covered by both EA and EFMA.

What’s Next in the UPR Process

The UPR is a State-driven peer-review mechanism of the UN Human Rights Council that assesses the human rights records and obligations of the 193 UN member states about every 5 years. The UPR process can be broken down into 3 stages, we are at the start of the implementation stage. This is when the state is responsible for implementing the accepted recommendations and civil society groups as well as national human rights institutions track progress and continue advocacy.

To learn more about the UPR and HOME’s involvement as a civil society stakeholder, see our previous UPR post and read HOME and TWC2’s joint UPR submission. 

Published 20 October 2026