Employment (Amendment) Bill

Bill No. 11/1971

Read the first time on 19th October 1971.
An Act to amend the Employment Act (Chapter 122 of the 1970 Revised Edition).
Be it enacted by the President with the advice and consent of the Parliament of Singapore, as follows: —
Short title
1.  This Act may be cited as the Employment (Amendment) Act, 1971.
New section 45A
2.  The Employment Act is hereby amended by inserting immediately after section 45 thereof the following new section: —
Priority of retirement benefits, etc.
45A.—(1)  Where a collective agreement or an award contains a provision for the payment of a gratuity or sum of money to an employee on his retirement or on the termination of his services under such circumstances as may be provided for in the collective agreement or award, such gratuity or sum of money which is due and owing to the employee shall be included among —
(a)the debt which, under section 292 of the Companies Act (Cap. 185), are to be paid in priority to all other unsecured debts in the winding up of a company and such gratuity or sum of money shall rank after the preferred debts referred to in the said section;
(b)the debts which, under section 43 of the Bankruptcy Act (Cap. 18) are to be paid in priority to all other debts in the distribution of the property of a bankrupt or of a person dying insolvent.
(2)  For the purposes of this section —
“award” means an award made by the Industrial Arbitration Court under the provisions of the Industrial Relations Act (Cap. 124);
“collective agreement” means a collective agreement, a memorandum of which has been certified by the Industrial Arbitration Court in accordance with the provisions of the Industrial Relations Act.”.
Amendment of section 95
3.  Subsection (2) of section 95 of the Employment Act is hereby amended by deleting the expression “four dollars a day or her ordinary rate of pay for a day, whichever is less,” appearing in the sixth and seventh lines thereof and substituting therefor the words “her ordinary rate of pay for a day”.