The Workplace Fairness Act moves fairness from tripartite guidance to enforceable law, with a grievance procedure that employers of a certain size must have, a claims route to the Employment Claims Tribunal, and civil penalties. It is expected to commence at the end of 2027. The sensible course is to build the process now and use the intervening period to make it work, rather than to draft it the week before.
Workplace Fairness and Grievance Policy
[COMPANY NAME]
The Workplace Fairness Act moves fairness from tripartite guidance to enforceable law, with a grievance procedure that employers of a certain size must have, a claims route to the Employment Claims Tribunal, and civil penalties. It is expected to commence at the end of 2027. The sensible course is to build the process now and use the intervening period to make it work, rather than to draft it the week before.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Approved by | [NAME], [DESIGNATION], on [DATE] |
| Effective from | [DATE] |
| Policy owner | [DESIGNATION] |
| Applies to | All employees, and to applicants for employment |
| Employees in Singapore | [NUMBER] (the Act applies to employers of 25 or more in its first phase) |
| Grievance contact | [NAME], [EMAIL], [PHONE] |
| Alternative contact | [NAME], [EMAIL] |
| Review | Annually, and on commencement of the Workplace Fairness Act |
1. Commitment
1.1The Company makes employment decisions on merit — on the skills, experience, performance and potential relevant to the role.
1.2The Company does not make an adverse employment decision on the ground of a protected characteristic, at any stage of employment: recruitment and hiring, terms offered, training, assignment, appraisal, promotion, remuneration, discipline, redeployment, retrenchment, re-employment or dismissal.
1.3The Company will not tolerate retaliation against any person who raises a concern in good faith, assists an inquiry, or gives evidence.
2. Protected Characteristics
| Group | Characteristics |
|---|---|
| Age | Age |
| Nationality | Nationality |
| Sex and family | Sex; marital status; pregnancy status, including past, current or intended pregnancy; caregiving responsibilities |
| Race, religion and language | Race; religion; language ability |
| Health and disability | Disability; mental health condition |
2.1This policy applies to decisions based on a protected characteristic whether the reliance is direct or indirect, and whether or not it was intended.
2.2The Company also does not tolerate unfair treatment on any other ground unrelated to merit. Where conduct falls outside the protected characteristics, it will be dealt with under this policy or the code of conduct with equivalent seriousness, and the person will be told which process applies.
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These notes accompany the template and explain the drafting choices, the compliance points and the mistakes most often made with this document. They appear as a final page in the Word file, intended to be deleted before the document is executed.
The Workplace Fairness Act was passed in January 2025 and the accompanying dispute resolution legislation in November 2025. Commencement is expected at the end of 2027, with the first phase applying to employers of 25 or more employees and smaller employers following later. The obligations are therefore known; the date is not yet upon us. Building the process now is straightforward, and doing it under time pressure later is not.
Age; nationality; sex, marital status, pregnancy status and caregiving responsibilities; race, religion and language ability; and disability and mental health conditions. Two are worth noting because they are commonly overlooked in policies drafted for other jurisdictions: **caregiving responsibilities** and **mental health conditions**. Both are frequent grounds for informal disadvantage that nobody records.
Employers within scope must have a grievance handling procedure, communicate it, and act on grievances. A procedure that exists in a handbook but has never been used, has no named contact, and has no register will not satisfy the requirement in substance. Appoint contacts, train them, and keep the register from day one.
A single named contact fails the moment the grievance concerns that person or their manager. Clause 5.3 and the policy header both require an alternative. This is the most common structural gap in grievance procedures and the easiest to fix.
Clause 5.10 states this expressly, and it matters more than it appears. Where employees believe an unproved grievance will be treated as misconduct, genuine concerns stop being raised — which is precisely the outcome the Act exists to prevent. Establishing bad faith requires its own inquiry and its own evidence.
Most organisations handle the grievance itself reasonably and then let the person raising it quietly fall out of favour — excluded from meetings, passed over, given narrower work. Clause 6.2 names those forms deliberately. Monitor the treatment of people who have raised grievances for a period afterwards.
The dispute resolution framework provides a route for individuals to bring workplace fairness claims, with the Employment Claims Tribunal handling claims up to a limit and the High Court above it. Civil penalties for serious contraventions are substantial. This is a material change from a guidance-based regime.
Where a decision is challenged, the question will be whether it can be explained on objective, job-related grounds. Selection criteria recorded before candidates were assessed, interview notes, appraisal records, and reasoning for promotion and retrenchment decisions are what answer it. Decisions that were reasonable but undocumented are hard to defend after the event.
Questions about marital status, family plans, pregnancy, religion or age are asked more often than employers realise, usually as small talk by managers who have had no training. They create a direct evidential problem if a candidate is later rejected. Clause 4.4 and checklist item 7 address it; briefing hiring managers is the actual fix.
The requirement to advertise on the national jobs portal and fairly consider Singapore citizens before applying for an Employment Pass operates separately from the Act and is already in force. The advertisement must precede the pass application. Non-compliance can result in work pass restrictions.
The Act permits reliance on a characteristic in limited circumstances, including genuine job requirements. A preference is not a requirement, and a customer preference is almost never a genuine requirement. Clause 3.2 routes any reliance on an exception through a named approver with recorded reasoning — keep that control.
Harassment is addressed under the Company’s anti-harassment policy and, where relevant, the Protection from Harassment Act. Where a grievance raises both discrimination and harassment, the person should be told which process applies to which element and how they will be coordinated.
Individual grievances resolved correctly can still conceal a pattern — one team generating repeated complaints, one characteristic recurring, or consistently long resolution times. Clause 7.4 requires an annual review. That review is also what evidences a functioning process if the Company is ever asked.
Reflects Singapore law current as of {{DATE OF USE}}. The Workplace Fairness Act is passed but not yet commenced, and subsidiary legislation, thresholds and guidance are still to be issued — review this policy against the Act and any regulations before commencement, and have it reviewed by an employment adviser.
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.