Platform Workers Act Singapore: What Platform Companies and Their Engaged Workers Must Know

From January 2025, Singapore became one of the first countries to create a distinct legal category for platform workers, sitting between employees and the self-employed. The Platform Workers Act 2024 gives ride-hail and delivery platform workers CPF contributions, work injury compensation on par with employees, and a formal right to representation, while placing new, enforceable obligations on the companies that engage them.

If your company operates a ride-hail or delivery platform in Singapore, or is considering entering this space, the Act is binding law with notification deadlines, contribution schedules and insurance requirements. Directors and company secretaries need to know exactly where their obligations begin and end.

This article covers who counts as a platform worker and platform operator, how the CPF contribution regime is being phased in, what enhanced work injury compensation means in practice, the role of platform work associations, and the compliance steps a Singapore platform company needs to take.

What the Platform Workers Act 2024 actually covers

The Platform Workers Act 2024 (Act No. 30 of 2024) was passed by Parliament on 10 September 2024 and assented to on 30 September 2024. It commenced in stages, with the obligations that matter most to businesses, CPF contributions, work injury compensation and mandatory notification, coming fully into force on 1 January 2025. The full text is on Singapore Statutes Online.

The Act rests on three pillars, set out on the Ministry of Manpower’s Platform Workers Act page: housing and retirement adequacy through CPF contributions from both platform operators and workers, financial protection through enhanced work injury compensation, and a legal framework for representation through registered platform work associations. The Act currently applies only to ride-hail and delivery platform services. Other gig or freelance marketplace models are not automatically covered, so companies should check the statutory definitions before assuming the Act applies.

Who counts as a “platform worker” and a “platform operator”

Under section 4 of the Act, a platform operator is a person or entity that provides a ride-hail or delivery platform service in Singapore by entering into an agreement with service users, while exercising management control over one or more platform workers who perform the underlying tasks. A platform operator can be an individual or any form of entity, including a sole proprietorship, corporate body, unincorporated association or partnership, whether registered in Singapore or overseas.

MOM’s guidance on platform operators explains “management control” as two things together: automated, largely human-free use of data to decide task eligibility, allocation or pay, and at least one imposed requirement from a defined list, such as dictating how a task is performed or applying performance-linked incentives or penalties.

A platform worker, under section 5, is an individual who has an agreement (written or oral) with a platform operator to provide ride-hail or delivery services in Singapore, is subject to that operator’s management control, derives payment or benefit in kind from the arrangement, and is physically in Singapore while performing the work. This is a narrower test than the one applied to, for example, interns and trainees, whose status depends on entirely different factors. Anyone engaged under a genuine contract of service falls under the Employment Act instead.

CPF contributions for platform workers: rates and phasing

From 1 January 2025, platform operators must deduct CPF contributions from platform workers’ earnings as they are earned and remit them to the CPF Board every month, in the same way employers do for employees.

Mandatory versus opt-in coverage

Whether full CPF contributions apply depends on date of birth, as confirmed on MOM’s CPF contributions for platform workers page:

Per MOM’s 9 September 2024 press release, contribution rates rise over five years, by up to 2.5 percentage points a year for the worker’s share and up to 3.5 percentage points a year for the operator’s share, aligning with the prevailing employee rate (20%) and employer rate (17%) by 2029. We could not retrieve CPF Board’s exact year-by-year table during this research; check current rates via the CPF Board’s contribution calculator each payroll cycle, since the rate depends on age band, net earnings and calendar year.

How contributions are calculated

Contributions are based on net earnings, not gross. Operators first apply a Fixed Expense Deduction Amount (FEDA), which also feeds into work injury compensation:

Net earnings are capped by the same annual earnings ceiling as employees, currently $102,000 per platform operator. Companies already running CPF payroll for employees will recognise much of this process; our guide to Singapore payroll and CPF obligations covers the wider employer-side mechanics and deadlines that apply in parallel.

To soften the impact on take-home pay, the Platform Workers CPF Transition Support (PCTS) scheme offsets part of the increase for workers earning $3,000 or less a month, tapering from a 100% offset of the Ordinary and Special Account increase in 2025, to 75% in 2026, 50% in 2027 and 25% in 2028, before ending in 2029. Eligible workers also began receiving Workfare Income Supplement monthly, rather than annually, from 2025.

Enhanced work injury compensation for platform workers

From 1 January 2025, platform operators must provide platform workers with work injury compensation (WIC) insurance at the same level of coverage as employees under the Work Injury Compensation Act (WICA). This does not replace WICA. It extends WICA-equivalent protection to a group of workers who would otherwise sit outside it as self-employed individuals, with mechanics adapted for gig work.

A platform worker can claim if injured while travelling to or from a pick-up or drop-off location, or if they contract an occupational disease in the course of platform work. Claims are excluded for injuries while off duty, running personal errands, under the influence of alcohol or drugs, in an unprovoked fight, using an illegally modified vehicle, or driving without the correct vehicle licence.

Compensation is calculated from Average Daily Earnings, derived from net earnings over a lookback of up to 90 days before the accident. Medical expenses are covered up to $45,000 for accidents before 1 November 2025, rising to $53,000 from that date, or one year from the accident, whichever is sooner. Lump sum compensation for permanent incapacity ranges from $116,000 to $346,000, and for death from $91,000 to $269,000. Where a worker is concurrently working for more than one operator, liability is apportioned by earnings share.

The Act also amended the Workplace Safety and Health Act to formalise safety duties for both operators and workers, supported by an Approved Code of Practice for platform services developed jointly by MOM and the Workplace Safety and Health Council.

Platform Work Associations and the right to representation

Before this Act, platform workers had no legal framework for collective representation, being neither employees nor covered by the trade union system. The Act created a parallel structure: Platform Work Associations (PWAs) can register with MOM’s Registry of Platform Work Associations and represent workers in negotiations with operators, much as a trade union represents employees.

A PWA must apply to the Registry, and to negotiate on behalf of workers it must obtain a mandate, either through recognition by a platform operator or a ballot among its members. MOM’s published directory currently lists three registered associations: the National Private Hire Vehicles Association, the National Taxi Association and the National Delivery Champions Association. It is a criminal offence, punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 (up to $10,000 for repeat offences) and possible imprisonment, for a platform operator to include any term in a worker agreement restricting a worker’s right to join or participate in a registered PWA.

Platform operators should review standard worker agreements to ensure no clause discourages association membership, and build a process for engaging constructively with any PWA that gains a mandate over their workforce.

Compliance obligations for Singapore platform companies

The Act places the burden of self-assessment on the company. MOM does not proactively identify platform operators; it expects businesses to determine their own status using the statutory definitions or MOM’s self-assessment checklist, and to act accordingly.

The key obligations are:

• Notify MOM within 14 days of meeting the requirements of a platform operator. Your obligations begin from the date you actually meet the definition, or 1 January 2025, whichever is later, not from the date you notify MOM.
• Make CPF contributions monthly on net earnings after the FEDA deduction, remitted alongside the operator’s own share.
• Provide WIC insurance at the same level as required for employees under WICA.
• Issue compliant earnings slips specifying platform worker status, gross earnings, deductions and net earnings.
• Notify MOM again if you cease to be a platform operator.
• Keep accurate records of tasks, earnings and mode of transport, since these feed directly into CPF and any WIC claim.

This mirrors a broader pattern in MOM’s approach to compliance: proactive, timely notification is expected. Companies that have managed employer obligations when a foreign employee absconds will recognise the same expectation of reporting workforce changes promptly.

Many delivery platform operators work closely with food and beverage businesses. If that describes your company, our compliance guide for Singapore F&B companies covers licensing, tax and employment matters that often interact with your platform worker obligations. If your business also uses Work Permit holders for warehousing or fleet maintenance, eligible occupations change over time, such as the recent expansion of the Non-Traditional Sources Occupation List, a separate regime within the same workforce compliance function.

Practical checklist for directors and company secretaries

Given the back-dated liability risk built into the Act, directors of platform businesses should treat this as a standing compliance item, not a one-off exercise at launch:

1. Run the self-assessment against sections 4 to 6 of the Act, or MOM’s checklist, whenever your business model or worker arrangements change.
2. Notify MOM within 14 days if you meet the platform operator definition, and set a reminder to notify cessation if that changes.
3. Set up payroll processes to apply the correct FEDA, calculate net earnings, and deduct and remit CPF contributions monthly.
4. Arrange WIC insurance cover equivalent to WICA levels before engaging any platform worker.
5. Build earnings slip and record-keeping templates capturing task, transport mode, and gross and net earnings.
6. Review worker agreements to remove any clause restricting a worker’s right to join a Platform Work Association.
7. If you also recruit traditional staff, work with a licensed employment agency so your hiring practices meet MOM’s fair hiring expectations across both channels.

The phased CPF increases also have a real cash flow dimension over the next few years. It is a reasonable moment for founders and directors to revisit sound financial management across the business as a whole, so rising statutory costs are planned for rather than absorbed as a surprise each January.

Conclusion

The Platform Workers Act 2024 has permanently changed the compliance landscape for any Singapore company running a ride-hail or delivery platform. The obligations are specific, time-bound and, for CPF and WIC, financially material, and they apply from the date your business meets the statutory definition, regardless of when you notify MOM. Getting the self-assessment right early, and building CPF, insurance and record-keeping processes that can scale as contribution rates rise through to 2029, will save considerable trouble later.

If you are structuring or restructuring a platform business in Singapore and want a second opinion on whether your company falls within scope, or need help setting up compliant payroll and record-keeping processes alongside your other corporate secretarial matters, the team at Raffles Corporate Services is happy to help.

To speak with the team at Raffles Corporate Services, you can email [email protected] or call, SMS, or WhatsApp +65 8501 7133. We are happy to assist with any queries.

The Editorial Team, Raffles Corporate Services