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DIRECTORY OF SINGAPORE PROCESS & CHEMICALS INDUSTRIES 2021/2022
EVENT HIGHLIGHTS |
“To facilitate change and the development of new areas of policy, in order to maintain global competitiveness, productivity and business sustainability and to deal with emerging challenges to the engineering services providers in the process sector”
Government Advocacy
COVID-19 (TEMPORARY MEASURES) ACT 2020
The COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act 2020 was passed in April 2020 to offer temporary relief to businesses and individuals who were unable to perform their contractual obligations because of the pandemic. Following that, ASPRI worked with Netto & Magin LLC to organise a webinar on 2 September 2020 to explain the Act to members in greater detail.
Mr Daniel Ong, Lead of ASPRI’s Knowledge, Education, Experience & Networking (KEEN) Work Group, and Assistant Treasurer of ASPRI’s 13th Executive Council, opened the session by sharing how the pandemic had changed the way businesses operated and how it had been difficult for employers to abide by contractual obligations during this extraordinary time.
Following Mr Ong’s address, Mr David Shanmugam, Counsel from Netto & Magin LLC, helped members to walk through the Act and understand how they could apply for the relief. He added that the Industry Security of Payment Act (SOPA) was introduced to provide relief to contractors, whose jobs could not be performed because of restrictions due to the pandemic. Mr Shanmugam also shared some case studies and illustrated with a sample contract between plant owners and contractors. At the end of the presentation, concerned participants had the opportunity to seek clarity on some aspects of the relief measure with Mr Shanmugam.
STAGGERED
REST DAYS WEBINAR BY MOM
O n 12 August 2020, the implementation of
staggered rest days for Work Permit and S Pass
holders in the Construction, Marine and Process Sector was announced. Due to take effect on 31 October, it required employers to spread out the number of workers congregating
at any location on any
given day to prevent large
gatherings and reduce the
risk of cross-infection. But
as the date approached, about
60% of Process Sector Work Permit and S Pass holders still had not received an assigned rest day.
The Association received multiple queries from members anxious to find out more. To ensure members were in a position to comply with the assignment of rest days, ASPRI worked with the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) to organise a Zoom Webinar on this topic.
ASPRI Executive Director Mr Wayne Yap opened the webinar by explaining the rationale and purpose of implementing staggered rest days. This was followed by MOM’s Mr Christopher Koh who gave a detailed rundown on the rest days requirements in relation to the Process Sector.
Mr Koh told employers that while workers in the PCM sector could have Sunday as a rest
day ASPRI would have to work closely with the Enterprise Singapore (ESG) and Economic Development Board (EDB) on the finer details.
He added the initial deadline of 31 October 2020 to assign a rest day for workers had to be deferred until further notice. ASPRI would have to work with government agencies on this and an update would be provided at a later date.
At the close of the webinar, Mr Koh addressed questions raised by members through a moderated Q&A session.
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