Question

Dear HR Professionals,

Would appreciate your sharing on what's your Company practice on medical claim incurred by foreign workers.

Our Medical claim is capped at S$300.00 / year for all staff.

Are we even allowed to cap the medical fee for Foreign workers?

Thank you.

Christina

Reply 1

Your foreign workers are covered under the EA.

The EA states that employer shall bear medical consultation fees by (1) government doctors and (2) company-approved doctors if medical certificate results in paid sick leave.

In practice, companies, by and large, bear all medical expenses either through internal finance or via medical insurance. Hence when a company imposes a capping on the medical claim, it may step into a grey area. For example, does your company covers consultation fees, diagnostic costs (such as blood test) and medicines? Do you allow medical claim even if there is no paid sick leave? If your capping covers only the minimum requirements (i.e. consultations fees from paid sick leave) stipulated in the EA but is not sufficient per year, then it infringes the EA. However, if your capping covers beyond the minimum requirements (i.e. consultations fees from paid sick leave) stipulated in the EA but is not sufficient per year, then you may need to analyse the expenses required by EA and the expenses not required by EA in order to know whether the capping is sufficient for that particular employee who exceeds the cap.

AL