06 Nov 2020
This shall supersede the circular that was sent on 30th October 2020.
On 30th October, ASPRI organised a Zoom Webinar with the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) on the topic of Staggered Rest Days. Please refer to the list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) here.
Since the webinar, ASPRI would like to provide an update to members on the following:
Staggered Rest Day applies to ALL Work Permit Holders and S-Pass Holders in the Construction, Marine and Process Sectors
- For Process Maintenance activities, the workers can have Sunday as a rest day. To enable this, ASPRI has work closely with MOM, ESG and EDB to develop a form where members can appeal for Sunday as the rest day.
- PCM companies with workers involved in turnaround maintenance or shift work can also appeal for a rotated rest day (Mon-Sat) option in the same form, which allows the worker to have a different rest day between Monday to Saturday each week, without a need for the employer to update the Safe@work system each week.
- PCM companies and E&C Plant Owners should work closely to select the appropriate rest day options for their process sector account Work Permit and S-Pass holders, taking into account their contractual agreements and manpower deployment requirements. We urge both parties to take prompt actions to comply with the assignment of rest days and submit the appeal where applicable by 20 November (Fri), before enforcement actions commence. This applies to both workers staying in dormitories as well as workers staying outside dormitories. However, workers not living in dormitories will not be required to apply for an Exit Pass to leave their residence on their assigned rest day.
- Please find below the updated summary of Staggered Rest Day arrangement for the various work activities:
| Type of Work Activity | Staggered rest day arrangement for Process Industry | Remarks |
| Process Maintenance | Process maintenance workers can have Sunday as rest day. | Employer to submit an appeal via ‘MOM-EDB-ESG – Appeal for Change of Rest Day to Sunday or Rotated Rest Day (Process Sector)’ by 20 November 20201 |
| Turnaround / Shutdown | They can rest on a different day (Mon-Sat) each week; should ask for “Rotated Rest Day” arrangement | Employer to submit an appeal via ‘MOM-EDB-ESG – Appeal for Change of Rest Day to Sunday or Rotated Rest Day (Process Sector)’ by 20 November 20201 |
| Process Construction | For process construction projects that apply to BCA for restart, the project has been assigned a rest day by BCA. All process sector account Work Permit or S-Pass holders involved in the project will rest on the project’s assigned rest day. | Assigned by BCA |
1 In addition to contact details, PCM companies will be required to submit an excel file containing details of their workers‘ FIN numbers as well as names of the end client(s)/plant owner customer(s) and main contractor(s) where applicable, that the PCM company is providing routine process maintenance and/or turnaround maintenance/shift work services for. For workers involved in routine process maintenance work, the requested rest day should be “Sunday” = 7. For workers involved in turnaround maintenance or shift work, the requested rest day should be “Rotated rest day (Mon-Sat)” = 8.
If you have any further questions, please email the ASPRI Secretariat at admin@aspri.com.sg