I REFER to last Thursday's letter, 'Childcare leave - employees' dilemma', where Ms Ler Liling shared that her friends had been denied childcare leave by their employers.

Childcare leave is a statutory benefit under the law. This enables working parents to spend time with their children and better balance their work and family commitments. As in all other forms of paid leave, both employers and employees are encouraged to discuss and agree on a suitable arrangement for employees who wish to go on childcare leave.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) takes a serious view of unreasonable employers who deny employees their statutory rights, including childcare leave entitlement. Affected employees can approach MOM for assistance.

We urge the friends of Ms Ler to e-mail mom_lrd@mom.gov.sg or call (65) 6438-5122 to provide details of their cases so the ministry can look into the matter. All information given to the ministry will be kept strictly confidential.

Under the Employment Act, employers who refuse to grant childcare leave to employees without reasonable grounds may face a penalty of a court fine of up to $5,000 for the first offence and $10,000 for subsequent offences.

Farah Abdul Rahim (Ms)
Director, Corporate Communications
Ministry of Manpower

This article was first published in The Straits Times.