You will be able to check a job offer for the key employment terms and prepare questions before you sign.
Kai Wen's offer came as a two-page letter with his salary, start date and job title, and a line saying "other terms as per the employee handbook". He'd been told the full contract would follow. A friend who had joined a start-up the year before said hers never did. Six months in, she still didn't know her notice period, and when she asked, HR sent her a handbook that had been updated twice since she joined.
The law gives you a way to avoid that. Employees covered by the Employment Act are entitled to a written record of the main terms of their job. This lesson shows you what those terms are, how to check an offer against them, and what to ask before you sign.
Employers must give employees covered by the Employment Act their key employment terms in writing. These are often shortened to KETs. They can be set out in the contract, in an offer letter, or in a separate document, and in soft or hard copy. MOM's website lists exactly which terms must be included, who is entitled to them, and the deadline for issuing them after you start.
The point of the rule is simple: the basic facts of your job should be written down, in one place, from the start, and not left to memory or to a handbook that can change.
MOM's list is detailed, but it covers a set of basics that any offer should answer. The main ones are your job title and main duties, your start date and how long the job lasts if it's a fixed term, your working hours and days and your rest day, your salary period, basic salary and fixed allowances, any fixed deductions, overtime pay arrangements, other salary components such as bonuses, the types of leave you get, medical benefits, your probation period, and your notice period.
Read your offer or contract against MOM's list with a highlighter. Mark each term you can find. Anything you can't find, or that's described too vaguely to act on, goes on your list of questions.
Kai Wen's two-page letter covered his job title, start date, basic salary and the thirteenth month. It didn't state working hours, leave, medical benefits, probation or notice. Those were the terms that mattered most to him after reading lesson 6.1, Probation and notice: how and when either side can end it.
Many contracts and offers refer to an employee handbook, staff policies or a code of conduct. A phrase like "subject to the company's policies as amended from time to time" can bring those documents into your contract, and their rules then apply to you.
That can be fine. Handbooks often cover leave, claims, working from home and conduct in useful detail. But two things follow. First, you should read the handbook before you sign, not after, because you're agreeing to it. Second, check whether the company can change it without your agreement, and how it tells you when it does.
Ask for a copy of any document the offer refers to. If the handbook sets your notice period or your leave, it's as important as the contract itself.
You have the most room to ask questions, and to negotiate, before you sign. Once you have, the terms are agreed, and changing them needs the employer's goodwill.
So gather your questions from this module into one short email. From lesson 6.1, notice and probation. From lesson 6.2, Bonus clauses: contractual, discretionary and clawback, how bonuses are decided and any clawback. From lesson 6.3, Non-compete, non-solicit and confidentiality clauses, the scope of any restrictive clause. And from this lesson, any key term that's missing or vague.
Keep the email factual and polite. You're not challenging the offer. You're making sure you understand it. Something like: "Thank you for the offer. Before I sign, could you confirm my working hours, annual leave entitlement and notice period after probation? I'd also be grateful for a copy of the employee handbook referred to in the letter." These are easy questions for an employer to answer. If one won't put basic terms in writing, that tells you something too.
Kai Wen sent his email the day he got the offer. The full contract came back two days later, with working hours, leave, probation and notice filled in, and the handbook attached. He read both before signing.
Whether you're holding a new offer or a contract you signed years ago, the check is the same. Open MOM's list of key employment terms in one window and your document in another, and go through them one term at a time. For a contract you've already signed, you can still ask HR to confirm any term you can't find. It's easier to sort out now than in the middle of a resignation.
Compare a job offer or your contract with MOM's list of key employment terms and write down anything missing or unclear.
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