Singapore - Termination

Singapore - Termination

When termination in Singapore, the employer must provide:

  • Notice
  • PILON is permissible.
  • Cash out accrued but unused vacation days
  • Severance is not mandatory by law but highly recommended by the Ministry of Manpower and it is a market practice to provide 14-30 days per year of service. We recommend following this government guidance.

In terms of process:

  • Hold a notification call
  • Allow the employee to digest and bring up any counter arguments
  • Final decision and letter of notification.
  • Can either work his notice or PILON – up to your business needs.

In terms of the work permit (if applicable):

  • XML will need to process the cancellation and tax clearance
  • Upon cancellation, the Ministry of Manpower (“MOM”) will immediately issue a Short-Term Visit Pass (“STVP”) which is valid for 30 days from date of the EP cancellation to find another sponsor or leave the country.
  • There will be a cancellation service fee of $1,000 USD.

Singapore is an “at-will” employment jurisdiction – so we simply can follow the notice provisions in the employment contract.

Nevertheless the possibility for an employee to anyways bring claims (e.g., discrimination, constructive dismissal, etc.).

The Singapore Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has a useful guidance on what constitutes wrongful dismissal – in a way similar to the ACAS code in the UK - tripartite-guidelines-on-wrongful-dismissal.pdf (mom.gov.sg).

The relevant example would be (III) – Circumstances where the right to contractually terminate is invoked (p. 2).

Best course of action is not to provide any justification when terminating employees other than to terminate them as per their notice provisions on their contracts. Interestingly, by providing justifications during the dismissal – this may lead to a claim of wrongful dismissal if they are not then backed up by evidence.


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