Patrick Tay urges Government action on companies paying lower retrenchment benefits than tripartite guidelines

The Government will continue engaging companies that offer retrenchment benefits below the guidelines set out in the Tripartite Advisory on Managing Excess Manpower and Responsible Retrenchment, said Senior Minister of State for Manpower Koh Poh Koon.

The commitment followed a supplementary question in Parliament by NTUC Assistant Secretary-General Patrick Tay regarding retrenchment benefit payouts on 4 February 2026.

Anecdotally, Mr Tay noted certain MNCs were capping retrenchment benefits at 12 to 15 years of service, which is far below the 25 years commonly provided in Singapore.

Dr Koh acknowledged that some companies may be following norms from their home jurisdictions but stressed the importance of local engagement.

“But in general, we do encourage our unions to continue to engage with multinational [companies] … Through a more interactive understanding between the unions and the companies, we hope to socialise them to the norms here,” he said.

Data on retrenchment benefits

Mr Tay also sought data on retrenchment benefits from 2023 to 2025, asking how many local employees received payouts, the typical amount per year of service, and whether a survey would be conducted if the data was unavailable.

Dr Koh cited Mandatory Retrenchment Notification (MRN) data from companies with 10 or more employees, revealing that approximately nine in 10 eligible employees received retrenchment benefits between 2020 and 2025.

“Among them, around 8 in 10 received retrenchment benefits of at least two weeks’ salary per year of service, in line with the norms stated in the Tripartite Advisory on Managing Excess Manpower and Responsible Retrenchment,” he said.

The Ministry of Manpower said it will continue working with unions and employers to ensure retrenchment practices remain fair and consistent with Singapore’s standards.

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