Employers must keep employee records and salary records for every employee covered by the Employment Act, in the prescribed form, and produce them on request. This is the file an inspection asks for first, and it is the employer’s only evidence in a salary dispute — where the records are absent, the employee’s account is what stands.
Employment Records
Statutory registers and retention
Employers must keep employee records and salary records for every employee covered by the Employment Act, in the prescribed form, and produce them on request. This is the file an inspection asks for first, and it is the employer’s only evidence in a salary dispute — where the records are absent, the employee’s account is what stands.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Employer | [COMPANY NAME], UEN [UEN] |
| Records maintained by | [NAME], [DESIGNATION] |
| Format | [Payroll system / Spreadsheet / Physical file] |
| Location | [ADDRESS OR SYSTEM] |
| Retention — current employees | Latest [2] years |
| Retention — former employees | [1] year after the employee leaves |
| Backup and access control | [DETAIL] |
| Last review | [DATE] |
1. The Two Records
| Record | What it contains | Who it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Employee record | Identity, role, employment dates, terms and leave particulars | Every employee covered by the Employment Act |
| Salary record | Salary period, amounts paid, allowances, deductions, overtime, net pay | Every employee covered by the Employment Act, for each salary period |
1.1Records may be kept in soft or hard copy. What matters is that they are complete, accurate, retrievable and produced on request.
1.2Records must be kept for current employees for the latest two years, and for former employees for one year after they leave.
1.3Other laws impose longer retention on overlapping data — tax records, contribution records and work injury documentation among them. Retain to the longest applicable period rather than the shortest.
Annexure A
Employee Record
Annexure B
Salary Record
Annexure C
Leave Record
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In a salary or leave dispute at the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management or the Employment Claims Tribunal, the employer is the party expected to hold the records. Where they are missing, incomplete or reconstructed after the fact, the employee’s account of what was worked and what was paid is generally what stands. The records are worth keeping for that reason alone.
Employee and salary records must be kept for current employees for the latest two years, and for former employees for one year after they leave. Note that these are the Employment Act minimums — other obligations run longer on overlapping data.
Tax, contribution, work pass and safety records all have their own retention requirements, several of them longer than the Employment Act period. Disposing of a personnel file at the Employment Act minimum can destroy records needed for a tax enquiry or an injury claim. Section 2 sets them out together for that reason.
Retention limitation under the Personal Data Protection Act requires personal data to be disposed of once the purpose has ended and retention is no longer necessary. Indefinite retention of unsuccessful applicant data, or of leaver files decades old, is a contravention in the other direction. Control 14 applies the schedule rather than defaulting to keeping.
The salary record and the payslip both require the number of overtime hours worked. Recording only a lump sum makes the computation unverifiable, and overtime claims are among the most common disputes. Note the rate is 1.5 times the hourly basic rate for employees covered by Part IV.
Allowances and deductions must be recorded individually. A single line reading "allowances" or "deductions" cannot be reconciled to the key employment terms or the payslip, and is the defect most often found on inspection.
Leave records reconstructed at year end from emails and memory are the source of most final-settlement disputes over encashment. Control 7 requires contemporaneous updating. The leave balance in a final settlement should be traceable to a record, not to a calculation done on the day.
Whether an employee is covered by Part IV determines hours, rest day and overtime entitlements, and coverage changes on promotion or when salary crosses the threshold. Recording it once at hire and never revisiting it produces overtime paid to people not entitled, or withheld from people who are.
Records may be kept electronically. What matters is completeness and the ability to produce them on request. A payroll system that holds the data but cannot export a salary record in the prescribed form is a practical problem when an inspection asks for it. Control 11 tests retrievability before it is needed.
Key employment terms, letters notifying changes to terms, warning letters, due inquiry records and grievance outcomes belong with the personnel file. The register shows the position; the documents show how it came about, which is what a dispute turns on.
Personnel files contain identification numbers, salary, health information and disciplinary history. Access should be role-based, reviewed, and logged. Wide access to the payroll drive is a common and significant data protection weakness.
Records held only in one system, never test-restored, are records the employer may not actually have. Control 13 tests it annually, which is cheap compared with reconstructing several years of salary history.
Disposal at the end of the retention period should be secure and should follow the data — backups, archives and any copies held by a payroll provider, not merely the live system.
A major review of the Employment Act is under way with proposals expected in the second half of 2026. Coverage thresholds and record-keeping requirements are both within its potential scope. Diarise a review of this register once the outcome is published.
Reflects Singapore law current as of {{DATE OF USE}}. Record-keeping requirements, retention periods, Part IV coverage thresholds and the prescribed particulars all change — confirm the current position with the Ministry of Manpower, and set the retention periods in Section 2 with advice rather than leaving the placeholders unfilled.
This is a ready-to-use template provided for convenience. Laws and requirements change, and every situation is different — please have it reviewed by a qualified professional (a lawyer, corporate secretary, or accountant as relevant) before you rely on it.