Singapore to enhance safety and retirement for gig workers

The country will become the first in the world to introduce such measures.

Singapore will introduce legislation to safeguard platform workers, focusing on retirement benefits, work injury compensation, and collective representation.

“No Singaporean will be left behind, especially vulnerable workers,” Minister for Manpower Tan See Leng said in his May Day speech.

“This is a landmark move in employment legislation, and we are one of the first in the world to do so,” Tan added.

According to Allen & Gledhill, platform workers include delivery personnel, private-hire car drivers, and taxi drivers who use online platforms to connect with delivery and transport service demands but are not employees of the operating companies.

The MOM first introduced measures to strengthen the protection of platform workers in November 2022.

“Companies to implement the recommendations progressively from the later part of 2024 at the earliest,” the MOM said in its November 2022 announcement.