Workplace Fairness Act: set up grievance handling before end-2027

A team member tells his supervisor he was passed over for promotion because he cares for his elderly father. In a firm without a written process, what happens next can depend on who heard it and how busy they were. The Workplace Fairness Act, which TAFEP says is slated to take effect at the end of 2027, is designed to make that moment less improvised.

The Act will require covered employers to have a proper grievance handling process, and it will make adverse employment decisions based on protected characteristics unlawful, from hiring to dismissal. Parliament passed the main bill on 8 January 2025 and a second bill, on dispute resolution, on 4 November 2025. That leaves a little over a year to write, test and explain a process.

What should the grievance process contain?

The tripartite committee’s final report, whose recommendations the Government accepted, set out the core elements: a proper inquiry and documentation process, telling employees how to raise a grievance, communicating the outcome to the employee concerned, and protecting the confidentiality of people who report discrimination. Introducing the bill at its second reading, the Minister for Manpower said it requires firms to inquire into a grievance, review it and inform the employee of the result, while protecting the employee’s confidentiality as far as possible. TAFEP’s employer guide adds that a grievance policy should assure legitimate complainants of confidentiality and non-retaliation.

Each element hides a decision a small firm should make in advance:

• Channels: who receives a grievance, and the alternative route when the concern is about that person.
• Inquiry: who gathers the facts, how both sides are heard and what finishing target the firm sets itself.
• Records: what is written down, where it is kept and who can open it.
• Outcome: how the result reaches the employee who raised the concern; a written outcome avoids later disputes.
• Protection: how confidentiality is kept, and what happens if anyone is treated worse for speaking up.

Worked example: a café group writes its process

Consider a fictional group with three cafés and a central kitchen in Ang Mo Kio, employing 48 people. Until now, grievances went informally to outlet managers, and nothing was written down.

The owner and the operations manager draft a two-page procedure. Staff may raise a concern with their outlet manager, or go directly to the operations manager if it involves their own manager; concerns about the operations manager go to the owner. Each grievance is acknowledged within three working days, recorded on one form and stored in a folder only two people can open. The firm sets itself a target of finishing inquiries within four weeks, and tells the employee if it needs longer.

Staff hear about the procedure at onboarding and in a short briefing at each outlet, in the languages the team uses day to day. A test run with an invented grievance reveals that no one had decided who covers when the operations manager is on leave. These arrangements and timings are illustrative, not legal requirements.

Keep a decision record for hiring and promotion

A grievance process deals with concerns after a decision. A decision record makes the decision itself easier to explain. TAFEP’s 2026 guidance on fair recruitment notes that the Act covers decisions at every stage of employment, from hiring to performance appraisals, promotions and dismissals; TAFEP’s Workplace Fairness page also lists training.

For each hiring or promotion decision, record:

1. The job-related criteria, written before candidates are seen.
2. How each shortlisted candidate was assessed against those criteria.
3. Who made the decision, and when.
4. The reason for the outcome, stated in terms of the job.

The same TAFEP guidance suggests keeping records of interviews, assessment results and hiring decisions for at least one year, and storing them securely.

If a requirement touches a protected characteristic, such as a language, write down why the job needs it. TAFEP’s fair recruitment guidance says protected characteristics should be included in job advertisements only where they are a genuine requirement of the job or necessary to support national objectives, and it gives a language-proficiency requirement without a clear job-related reason as an example of a potentially discriminatory phrase. If software screens applications, the record still needs job-related reasons; our guide to AI agents covers keeping automated steps accountable.

A preparation checklist for 2026–2027

• Count employees, and confirm whether the firm falls within the Act’s initial scope.
• Draft the grievance procedure around the five decisions above, starting from TAFEP’s templates.
• Train every manager who may receive a grievance.
• Tell employees how to raise a concern, at onboarding and in a written policy.
• Add decision records to hiring, promotion and dismissal.
• Run a mock grievance, fix the gaps and name an owner for the procedure.
• Diarise a check for the confirmed commencement date and any further guidance.

Our guide to writing a process people use shows how to turn the procedure into steps a busy manager can follow.

What if you have fewer than 25 employees?

Small firms are exempt from the Act at the start, and the exemption is to be reviewed five years after the Act takes effect. The threshold applies to each individual company, not to a group as a whole. In the bill’s second reading speech, the Minister said the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices will continue to apply to these firms, and the round-up speech said all firms, including small ones, are expected to follow them. A one-page version of the process is still a practical way to deal with concerns early.

Common questions