You need to get work injury compensation insurance for all employees doing manual work, as well as all employees earning less than $1,600 a month.
Who needs to be insured under work injury compensation
If you are an employer, you are required to buy work injury compensation insurance for:
- All employees doing manual work, regardless of salary level.
- All employees doing non-manual work, earning less than $1,600 a month.
You must have insurance for both local and foreign employees. Failure to provide adequate insurance is an offence carrying a fine of up to $10,000 or jail of up to 12 months, or both.
For other employees, you have the flexibility to decide whether to buy insurance for them. However, if those employees make a valid claim, you will have to compensate them regardless of whether they are insured.
Choosing insurance coverage
When you are buying or reviewing your company’s work injury compensation insurance coverage, do the following:
Check that you have an insurance policy covering your employees.
Make sure the insurance policy covers the eligible claims under the Work Injury Compensation Act. These include
- Medical leave wages
- Medical expenses
- Compensation for permanent incapacity or death
You can check the benefits of a typical Work Injury Compensation Insurance here.
Check which employees are covered.
Review the occupations and number of employees listed on your policy. Make sure it includes the employees that you are required to cover.
Do not under-declare the number of employees to your insurer. This will cause some of your employees to be uninsured.
Check for exclusion clauses and recovery clauses.
Work-related exclusion clauses are no longer allowed in insurance policies for work injury compensation (except for asbestos-related cases). This means that your insurer is liable to pay for accidents, even if the policy contains the exclusion.
However, they can still recover the compensation from you if a recovery clause exists. If you have any doubts or questions, check with us.
Update insurance details
If you are applying for or renewing a Work Permit or S Pass, you need to give MOM the following work injury compensation insurance details:
- Name of insurer.
- Policy number.
- Policy commencement date.
- Policy expiry date (include the maintenance period, if there is one).
You will need to provide the information when you get the pass issued in WP Online or EP Online.
Note you should not file using the insurance policies purchased by your main contractor, unless the main contractor’s insurer has agreed to pay work injury compensation on behalf of your insurer.
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Last Updated: 11 Nov 2015
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