50% of employees who work from home can return to the office from January 1st

SINGAPORE — From Jan 1, 50 per cent of employees who can work from home will be allowed to return to the office, in line with workforce vaccination measures that are kicking in at the start of the new year. 

According to Today Online, only workers vaccinated against Covid-19, or those who have recovered from the disease in the past 180 days, may return to the office. 

Announcing this relaxation of rules in a statement on Tuesday (Dec 14), the Ministry of Health (MOH) said that Singapore was in a "better position to ease the current default work-from-home posture".

Finance Minister Lawrence Wong, co-chair of the national Covid-19 task force, said at a press conference that the Government was considering removing the concession for unvaccinated persons to return to worksites with a negative Covid-19 test.

"It does have implications for employers and workers, and that's why we are consulting and discussing with our tripartite partners (employers and unions) on this particular move, and we will provide more details when the arrangements are finalised." 

MOH added that there would also be more relaxed measures for work-related events, with the present cap of fifty people being raised for certain activities.

Participants at these events, however, must remain masked and seated at a safe distance from one another, and they must all be vaccinated or have recovered from Covid-19 in the last 180 days.

Social gatherings at the workplace, however, will continue to be banned, MOH said, adding that more details would be released separately. 

Mandatory rostered routine testing regime

As Singapore steps up its efforts to detect and ring-fence quickly the cases of infections due to the Omicron coronavirus strain, all sectors would have to stick to the present mandatory rostered routine testing regime, until more information is available on the highly infectious variant, MOH said.

"Testing remains key to our early detection and rapid tracing and containment of transmission, especially in light of the Omicron variant," it added.

The Government would extend subsidies for companies with employees who are required to go for mandatory rostered testing. 

The subsidies, which were to end on Dec 31, would be available until March 31 next year. 

"Beyond that, employers and businesses should be prepared to factor in testing costs as part of their normal business operations," MOH said.