Singaporean employers least likely to grant parental care and sick leaves

But employers ultra-generous with compassionate leaves.

According to a new employment survey by the Ministry of Manpower, a wide majority of establishments gave compassionate leave (89%) and marriage leave (73%). Slightly over half granted paternity leave (53%), while slightly over a third (36%) provided study/examination leave and one in six (16%) gave parental care/sick leave.

Sickness absenteeism was broadly stable over the years. In 2011, 58% of employees took outpatient sick leave and 4.2% took hospitalisation leave. This was broadly comparable to 55% and 4.3% in 2009. Employees who had taken outpatient sick leave in 2011 on average consumed 4.7 days of sick leave, unchanged from 2009. The corresponding figure for those on hospitalisation leave was 16.0 days in 2011, compared with 14.9 days in 2009.