SINGAPORE, March 28 — Singapore’s new Shared Parental Leave (SPL) scheme, which will enable eligible working parents of Singapore citizen children to share up to 10 weeks of paid leave between them, will take effect on April 1.
The Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) said that with the enhancements, eligible couples will be entitled to 30 weeks of paid parental leave in the child’s first year.
“The new SPL scheme underscores the government’s commitment to providing stronger caregiving support to parents during their child’s infancy stage, when their care needs are the greatest.
“The SPL also promotes shared parental responsibility and enables fathers to take an active role in caring for their children,” the ministry said in a statement.
SPL should be consumed within 12 months of the child’s birth and taken after Government-Paid Maternity Leave (GPML) or Government-Paid Paternity Leave (GPPL) has been fully utilised.
Currently, GPML provides eligible working mothers with up to 16 weeks of leave, while GPPL provides eligible working fathers with up to four weeks of leave, starting from April 1.
Both types of leave must be taken within 12 months from the child’s date of birth.
MSF said that the SPL scheme will be rolled out in two phases to allow employers time to adjust their manpower and operational arrangements.
In phase one, eligible working parents of children born on or after 1 April 2025 will be entitled to six weeks of SPL while in phase two, parents with children born on or after 1 April 2026 will be entitled to 10 weeks.
The SPL entitlement, by default, will be equally distributed between both parents, but they will have the flexibility to decide on the sharing arrangement that best suits their family’s caregiving needs. — Bernama