New law weaves in work protections and retirement benefits into gig workers' safety net

Platform workers will be able to make CPF contributions into their ordinary and special accounts.

- Lim Jia Ying

With Singapore’s gig economy booming, authorities have floated a new law aimed at providing gig workers more financial protection,ensuring their improved safety conditions, and offering them secure retirement options.

Gig workers, also known as platform workers, include delivery workers, private-hire car drivers, and taxi drivers that use online matching platforms. Usage of these services have become increasingly vital in Singapore. For example, the ride-hailing industry alone is expected to log a market volume of US$1.07b by 2028, growing at a rate of 4.42% over the next four years, according to data from Statista.

Despite providing convenience to others, platform workers lack benefits and face risks in their everyday lives on the road.

“As platform workers are a ‘precarious’ segment of Self- Employed Persons (SEPs), this legislation comes in to provide certain basic protections for them,” Lim Jia Ying, partner for Employment Practice at WongPartnership, told Singapore Business Review. “In particular, unlike typical SEPs, platform workers have less control over their income and working conditions. When operating costs increase, they are unable to increase prices and may need to deplete their own savings.”

A vulnerable workforce