Singapore’s Workplace Fairness Act comes into force at end-2027. For employers with 25 or more employees, that is less than eighteen months away. For larger organisations, the preparation window is shorter still. Building a grievance-handling system, training managers and HR, and aligning your policies is not a two-week project.
The government’s approach is clear: education first, enforcement to follow. MOM and TAFEP are not looking to penalise employers making genuine efforts to comply. But genuine effort means starting now, not in the fourth quarter of 2027.
The standard employers are expected to meet is defined across five instruments: the Workplace Fairness Act, the Employment Act, the TAFEP Grievance Handling Handbook, the Tripartite Advisory on Managing Workplace Harassment, and the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices. Together, they cover both harassment prevention and fair employment, and together they define what a compliant organisation needs to have in place.
Start With What You Have
The first step is not drafting a new policy. It is finding out what you already have, and whether it holds together.
In our workplace harassment and fair employment work, we see two patterns. Some organisations have next to nothing: a single line in the employee handbook stating that harassment will not be tolerated, and nothing more. Others have the opposite problem: a harassment policy from several years ago, a grievance procedure that was updated at some point but never properly communicated, a code of conduct that says something slightly different from both, and an onboarding deck that references a process that no longer exists. In both cases, HR often cannot tell us with confidence what the current position is. In neither case is the organisation ready for what the WFA requires.
A structured review of your existing policies and procedures against the WFA and the Tripartite framework tells you exactly where to focus your effort, and is a far more efficient starting point than building from scratch.
What Needs to Be in Place
The WFA and the Tripartite framework together address two distinct but related obligations: preventing and responding to harassment, and ensuring that employment decisions are made fairly and without discrimination.
On harassment, employers are expected to have a written policy with a clear position statement, examples of what constitutes harassment, reporting channels, and information on the grievance and investigation process. Multiple reporting channels are recommended, including a route that does not require the employee to report through their immediate supervisor. This is essential where that person is the subject of the complaint.
On discrimination, the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices set out expectations for structured, documented employment decisions covering hiring, promotion, appraisal, and dismissal. Job requirements should be based on genuine occupational needs. Selection and appraisal criteria should be objective and applied consistently. Employees should know what criteria are used to assess their performance and what pathways exist for advancement. Good documentation protects both employer and employee if a complaint is made.
On grievance handling, the WFA requires every employer to commit in writing to inquiring into each grievance, reviewing it, informing the employee of the outcome, keeping written records, and protecting confidentiality. A fair process must also extend to the person against whom a complaint is made. That person must be told what the complaint is and given a genuine opportunity to respond before any decision is reached. Where dismissal is being considered, the Employment Act requires the employer to conduct a proper inquiry before acting.
Train Your People
Policy without training is paper without effect. In our experience, this is where most organisations have the most ground to make up.
In our harassment investigations and consulting work, we regularly encounter HR teams who are confident they have a functioning grievance process, until we start asking questions. Who is the designated handler? Have they been trained? What do your line managers do when an employee raises a concern? Do they know whether to handle it themselves, refer it, or escalate? In many organisations, nobody has thought this through.
Effective preparation means training across 3 levels:
- All staff: what harassment and discrimination look like in practice, what the grievance process is, and that it is safe to use
- Managers and supervisors: how to recognise harassment and discrimination, how to respond when someone raises a concern, their legal obligations, and how to handle disclosures in a way that supports rather than discourages the person from coming forward
- HR and appointed grievance handlers: how to manage a complaint process, conduct a fair inquiry, maintain confidentiality, and reach sound outcomes
The larger your organisation, the more lead time this requires. Training three hundred line managers across multiple sites is a different exercise from equipping a leadership team of fifteen.
How We Help Organisations Get Ready
Getting WFA-ready is not a one-size-fits-all exercise. What we have found works best is a sequenced approach that builds each layer on the one before it.
We start with policy.
Before any training can be meaningful, the organisation needs a clear, authoritative document that people can be trained against. We work closely with HR and legal teams to draft or overhaul the fair employment and anti-harassment policy, taking into account how the organisation is structured, what its culture is, and where its specific risks lie. The result is a policy that meets the required standard, works in practice, and is written in language that employees will actually read.
This process also surfaces things that need to be resolved before the policy can be finalised: conflicting existing documents, gaps in the grievance process, or areas where the leadership team needs to reach a clearer position. Better to surface those in the drafting stage than after a complaint has been filed.
We start at the top. The tone of an organisation on these issues is set by its leaders. Senior leaders who understand why fair employment and harassment prevention matter, and who take their own obligations seriously, send a signal that cannot be replicated by a policy on an intranet. Our leadership briefing is focused and practical: what the WFA means for the organisation, what is expected of leaders personally, and what it looks like to build a workplace where people feel safe raising concerns.
Manager training goes deeper. Managers are the people most likely to receive a disclosure first, and they are the ones making the day-to-day employment decisions the WFA is designed to regulate. Our training covers how to recognise harassment and discrimination, including the less obvious forms, how to respond when someone raises a concern, and their legal obligations.
We then roll out to all staff, and we prefer to start with junior employees, who are statistically the most vulnerable. For this group, the focus is on recognition and response: what harassment and discrimination look like in practice, what the organisation’s process is, and that it is genuinely safe to use.
Prepare for More Complaints
As awareness of the WFA grows, complaint volumes are likely to increase. Not because workplaces are getting worse, but because employees will feel more empowered to raise concerns that previously went unreported. We are already seeing this shift in the broader workplace fairness landscape. Organisations that are not ready will find themselves managing complaints reactively, without the systems or trained people to handle them well. Those that prepare now will be better placed to catch concerns early, before they escalate.
The Consequences of Not Being Ready
Serious contraventions under the WFA carry penalties of up to $50,000 for a first finding, rising to $250,000 for repeat contraventions. Individual decision-makers can be held personally liable. WFA judgments are intended to be publicly accessible, so a finding against an employer is not a private matter. Reputational consequences can far outlast the financial penalty.
Your WFA Readiness Checklist
Here is what every employer with 25 or more staff should have in place before end-2027:
- A written fair employment and anti-harassment policy covering both harassment prevention and fair employment practices, clearly communicated to all employees
- A grievance-handling process committing in writing to inquiry, review, outcome notification, record-keeping, and confidentiality
- Multiple reporting channels, including a route that does not require reporting to the immediate supervisor
- A fair process for the person against whom a complaint is made: informed of the allegations, given an opportunity to respond, with documented outcomes for any disciplinary action
- Training for all staff on harassment, discrimination, and the grievance process
- Training for managers on recognising and responding to harassment and discrimination, and their legal obligations
- Training for HR and grievance handlers on managing complaints and conducting fair inquiries
- Documented employment decisions covering hiring, promotion, appraisal, and dismissal
- A communications plan ensuring employees know the policy exists and how to use it
Where to Start
The most common mistake is waiting until the deadline feels urgent. By then, the time to do it properly has usually closed, particularly for larger organisations where policy, training, and process-building take months, not weeks.
Start with a review of what you have. Understand your gaps. Build a realistic plan for the second half of 2026 and into 2027 that sequences policy, process, and training in an order that works for your organisation’s size and structure.
At Catalyse, we work with organisations across Singapore and the region on reviewing and aligning policies, designing grievance processes, and delivering training for staff, managers, and HR teams. If you would like to understand where your organisation stands, we would be glad to start with a conversation.
By: Corinna Lim, Cynthia Chan
Catalyse