THE PAP Women’s Wing (WW) is taking steps to make Flexible Work Arrangements (FWA) a reality for more of Singapore’s working women.
The Tripartite Guidelines on FWA Requests came into effect in December 2024, after WW leaders advocated in Parliament for better support of FWAs. The Guidelines provide clear guidance for employees and employers on asking for, and implementing, FWA.
However, a recent joint WW-NTUC Women and Family (WAF) survey with over 1,500 respondents shows that challenges remain.
“One-third of the respondents actually expressed that they feel that they will be stigmatised if they ask their employers for FWAs,” shared Women’s Wing Research Head Yeo Wan Ling.
“1 out of 3 also felt that more can be done to improve trust and culture around flexible work.”
Research Head Yeo, who is also MP for Punggol GRC, was sharing the survey findings to more than 300 activists, partners and experts attending Work Your Worth, the WW’s International Women’s Day event for 2026.
Union leaders can help employees with caregiving needs apply for FWAs in a structured manner, said Ms Yeo. She encouraged business owners and human resource practitioners to engage with these leaders when employees surface these requests.
“Flexible work arrangement requests are important for us [women] because we don’t experience work in a linear fashion,” she added. “There’s a season for caregiving, there’s a season for ambition, there’s a season for returning to work. I hope that we will be able to push our Flexible Work Arrangements to make it more normalised.”
“FWAs connect Careers and Leadership as well as Seasons of Life, because caregiving is a major reason for FWA requests,” said WW Chairperson Sim Ann, mentioning two of the WW’s four policy advocacy domains.
“We will continue to engage the ground on all four domains, by organising Listening Sessions that allow women and men to share with us their challenges and aspirations, so that we can co-create with citizens the change we all want to see.”
“Inputs gathered will inform our policy advocacy,” she added.
Nine of ten FWA requests are approved
Work Your Worth featured a frank panel discussion of the Tripartite Guidelines on FWA Requests. Chairperson Sim was part of the panel, which was composed of Government officials, unionists and private sector experts.
Pauline Loo, Senior Vice-President of Human Resources at Nippon Sanso Holdings, Aslam Sardar, Chief Executive Officer of the Institute for Human Resource Professionals, Ang Yuit, President of the Association of Small & Medium Enterprises and former NTUC Union leader Pravita Nandan also shared their insights at the panel. WW Adviser Hazlina Abdul Halim served as moderator for the panel.
Mr Aslam supported Ms Yeo’s insights about the internalised self-stigma against FWA — and about how work cultures can change.
“I pushed [FWAs] in town hall, in management briefings. But no one wanted to apply because they are afraid their colleagues will think badly of them,” he shared from his organisation’s experience.”
“Then we had one staff member who boldly stood forward and said ‘I want to take FWA and go back at 4 o’clock to pick up my daughter from childcare’,” he added. “Next thing you know, another staff did it, and another staff did it. Then nine came on board. …and then more requests came in.”
Advisor Hazlina highlighted another important finding from the WW-NTUC WAF survey: About 9 out of ten FWA requests get approved. Seven out of 10 of these are approved with no modifications.
“Employees must find the courage to ask,” said Advisor Hazlina, who is also MP for East Coast GRC. “Remember, each time you hesitate, just remember the number is 9 in 10 gets approved. I hope that’s one thing that we truly take away from today.”
