SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has issued 129 stop-work orders to workplaces that were found to neglect safe distancing measures.



MOM has conducted more than 850 workplace inspections since Mar 23. Aside from the stop-work orders, it has also served 260 remedial orders, the ministry said in response to CNA’s queries on Thursday (Apr 2).





More than half of the orders served included improving work from home arrangements, it said.



Stop-work orders require companies to cease operations until they rectify their processes. Under remedial orders, workplaces must take corrective action but are allowed to continue their activities.



Office inspections focused on whether employers implemented work from home arrangements - when employees were still working in offices, even though they could perform their duties and access corporate systems and information from home, MOM said.





“In such instances, we have issued a remedial order to the company to get their staff to work from home, as far as reasonably practicable,” the ministry said.



Besides offices, MOM said it also inspected factories and construction sites to ensure there were measures in place to protect workers unable to work from home.



Employers who do not make facilities available for members of staff to work from home where reasonably practicable, could be jailed or fined, according to an addition to the Infectious Diseases Act published in the Government Gazette on Wednesday.



Persons who contravene the new workplace preventive measures regulations shall also be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding S$10,000 and/or jailed a maximum of six months.



The flexible work arrangements are aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19 in Singapore.



This message was highlighted previously on Tuesday by Manpower Minister Josephine Teo, who pointed out that companies that do not allow telecommuting wherever possible might face stop-work orders or other penalties.



MOM plans to have more than 100 enforcement officers conduct checks on companies, she added.



The Government will take a measured approach to enforcing the penalties by first looking at the firm's specific circumstances, said Mrs Teo.



“If the company is really not taking it seriously at all, then we have no choice and will not hesitate to issue a stop-work order,” she said, adding that the duration of such an order would depend on factors such as the severity of the case.

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Editor’s note: This article has been amended to correct the penalties faced by employers who do not adhere to the new workplace preventive measures. We apologise for the error.

