Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower on Monday issued an advisory providing guidance for  employers on how to set HR policies for handling their employees’ travel movements during the pandemic period. The guidelines, which were jointly issued by the ministry, the National Trades Union Congress, and the Singapore National Employers Federation, cover all travel outside of Singapore, whether for work or otherwise, and include measures such as mandatory leave of absence from work upon returning.

Travel abroad should be reduced as far as possible, according to the guidelines. For work-related travel, employers are advised to defer all non-essential travel and consider alternatives such as teleconferencing instead. If travel is unavoidable, employers are expected to provide additional paid leave to cover any quarantine, isolation, or delays. Furthermore, the ministry states that “Employers should accede to employees’ request to not go on any work-related travel and should not penalize them for making such a request.”

However, the guidelines also state that if employees go on non-work-related travel and encounter delays or isolation orders, they will be expected to cover the delays out of their own leave entitlement. Employers, on the other hand, should remind all their people to defer non-essential travel in accordance with the advisory.

To drive home the message, the ministry has also stated that it will not make its leave of absence support program available to employers or self-employed individuals who travel after March 15. This program, which offers a S$100 daily allowance to affected citizens put on a leave of absence order, was initially meant to offset income loss, but the ministry is now taking a clear stance that it will not subsidize the losses of those who behave recklessly despite the advisory.

Some employers in industries more likely to be affected have already taken their own measures even before this latest advisory. Public hospitals, for example, have introduced extensive protocols, kept constantly updated, surrounding travel and the measures to be taken if an employee returns from abroad.