Employees injured while working from home must be compensated by employers, Singapore Minister of State for Manpower Zaqy Mohamad said in Parliament on June 04.

“Work-from-home arrangements do not change an employer’s responsibility for work injury compensation,” Zaqy was quoted as saying in a report by Channel News Asia.

This was in response to a question by MP Patrick Tay regarding the status of work injury compensation in case the employee is working from home. Due to Singapore’s COVID-19 circuit breaker measures, many employees from non-essential roles and businesses have been working from home since April 07.

“The key is to ascertain that the injury arose while doing work at home and not while performing non-work activities at home. This is a fact-finding exercise that is no different from all other work injury compensation claims,” Zaqy said, adding that employers purchase work injury compensation insurance, and this covers injuries sustained in the line of work, even from home.

Since June 01, Singaporean businesses have been gradually reopening, starting with “low-risk” businesses. This means that many employees are still working from home.

 According to Zaqy, there have been two reported work injuries since the circuit breaker period began. Both cases are still being investigated, and Zaqy said he was unable to disclose further details while the investigations are ongoing.

The minister added that premiums for work injury compensation insurance remain unchanged.