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National Servicemen (Employment) Bill

Bill No. 22/1970

Read the first time on 21st May 1970.

An Act to make provision for securing the employment of persons who have completed national service and for matters connected therewith.

Be it enacted by the President with the advice and consent of the Parliament of Singapore, as follows: —

Short title and commencement

1. This Act may be cited as the National Servicemen (Employment) Act, 1970, and shall come into operation on such date as the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, appoint.

Interpretation

2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —

“employee” includes any person seeking employment;

“employer” includes any person desiring to employ other persons;

“Register” means the Register established and maintained under section 4 of this Act;

“registered person” means a person whose name appears for the time being in the Register.

Appointment of Director and Assistant Directors

3.—(1) The Minister may appoint an officer to be styled the “Director of Employment” (hereinafter in this Act referred to as “the Director”), and may appoint such number of Assistant Directors of Employment as he may think fit.

(2) The Director shall have superintendence of all matters relating to this Act, subject to the direction and control of the Minister.

(3) The Assistant Directors may perform all the duties imposed and exercise all the powers conferred on the Director by this Act.

(4) All appointments made under this section shall be published in the Gazette.

4.—(1) The Director shall establish and maintain a Register of persons who have completed full-time national service under the National Service Ordinance, 1952 (M. Ord. 37 of 1952), or any other written law for the time being in force relating to national service or enlistment.

(2) The Register shall be maintained in such form, and entries therein, and alterations and removals of such entries, shall be made in such manner as the Minister may determine.

Powers of the Minister to make orders directing employment of registered persons

5.—(1) The Minister may, by order published in the Gazette, direct that, after such date as may be specified therein, an employer to whom such order applies shall not, except with the written consent of the Director, engage or re-engage any employee otherwise than from among registered persons.

(2) No order made under subsection (1) of this section shall apply to an employer who takes or offers to take into his employment at any time a person whom apart from that subsection it would have been his duty to take into employment either —

(a)	by virtue of any written law; or
(b)	by virtue of any agreement made before the coming into operation of this Act.

(3) An order made under subsection (1) of this section may be made so as to apply —

(a)	either to all employers or to such employers or class of employers as may be specified in the order; and
(b)	either to all employees or to such employees or class of employees as may be specified in the order,

and may provide that any directions contained in the order shall not apply in any specified circumstances.

(4) Any employer who contravenes the provisions of an order made under subsection (1) of this section shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars, and in respect of each employee employed by him in contravention of any such provision, to a further fine not exceeding fifty dollars for each day on which that employee is so employed.

(5) Where, in respect of the employment of any person, there has been any contravention of the provisions of an order made under subsection (1) of this section, such person shall not, by reason only of such contravention, be deemed to be employed under an illegal contract of employment.

(6) Any order made under subsection (1) of this section may be varied or revoked by a subsequent order of the Minister published in the Gazette.

Provisions for exemption and appeals

6.—(1) If an employer to whom an order made under subsection (1) of section 5 of this Act applies is unable to find a registered person whom he considers suitable to fill any vacancy, the employer may, after obtaining the written consent of the Director, employ any other person to fill the vacancy.

(2) If the Director refuses to give his consent to the employment of any other person in the circumstances set out in subsection (1) of this section, he shall notify the employer in writing of such refusal and his reasons therefor, and if the employer is dissatisfied with such refusal he may, within fourteen days of such refusal, appeal to the Appeals Board appointed under subsection (3) of this section.

(3) For the purposes of hearing appeals under subsection (2) of this section, the Minister shall appoint an Appeals Board consisting of such number of persons as he may think fit.

(4) The decision of the Appeals Board on every appeal under this section shall be final and conclusive and shall not be called in question in any court.

Obligation of employee to notify Director

7.—(1) Any registered person shall, upon securing employment, notify the Director in writing within seven days of such employment.

(2) Any person who fails to comply with subsection (1) of this section shall have his name deleted from the Register.

Entry into premises and furnishing of information

8.—(1) The Director, or any public officer authorized in writing by the Director, may for the purposes of this Act, on producing, if so required, documentary evidence of his identity —

(a)	enter, at any reasonable time, any premises other than premises used solely as a dwelling;
(b)	request any person whom the Director or such public officer has reason to believe to be an employer or an employee to produce to him and to allow him to examine such documents and to furnish him such information, being documents or information in the possession or under the control of such person, as the Director or such public officer may specify.

(2) Any person who —

(a)	wilfully obstructs the Director or such public officer in the exercise of any of his powers under subsection (1) of this section;
(b)	fails to produce or furnish any document or information in accordance with the request made to him under subsection (1) of this section; or
(c)	knowingly makes any false statement for any purpose connected with this Act,

shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or to both such fine and imprisonment.

Powers of the Director to summon any person

9.—(1) If the Director has reason to believe that any provision of this Act has been contravened or if he wishes to inquire into any matter connected with the provisions of this Act, he may summon any person who he has reason to believe is able to give information respecting the matter, and the person so summoned shall attend at the time and place specified in the summons and answer truthfully all questions which the Director may put to him.

(2) Any person so summoned who neglects to attend as required by such summons shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or to both such fine and imprisonment.

Offences by corporations

10. Where any offence under this Act committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any reckless neglect of duty on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other officer of the body corporate, he, as well as the body corporate, shall be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

Rules

11. The Minister may make rules for carrying out or giving effect to the provisions of this Act, and, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing power, may make rules —

(a)	prescribing matters which are to constitute conditions of, or disqualifications from, the retention in the Register of the names of any persons, either generally or in particular circumstances; and
(b)	prescribing the issue of certificates to persons whose names appear on the Register and the custody, use and delivery up of such certificates.