SINGAPORE — Telecommuting, or working from home using technology, has been possible for years and some firms were ready for it during this Covid-19 pandemic, but others are scrambling to make the switch now that the authorities are cracking the whip. 

In response to TODAY’s queries on Thursday (April 2), the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said that in an effort to enforce safe distancing at workplaces, it has conducted more than 850 workplace inspections and served a total of 129 stop-work orders and 260 remedial orders.

For some firms that had to change their back-end work processes overnight — such as those in the cleaning, transport and construction industries — digitalisation is not only proving somewhat costly in one hit, it also takes time.

Mr Louis Khoo, director of Kimly Constructions, for example, is scrambling to order 20 laptops for employees to work from home.

Some 270 employees in his firm — including drafters, technical engineers and corporate officers — had to be segregated and for that to happen, Mr Khoo has to upgrade the company’s IT infrastructure, provide hardware and transfer company documents to a cloud.

“There is the upgrading (of IT systems) cost, the migration to cloud cost and on top of that, the cost of buying 20 new laptops for employees to work from home,” he said, adding that the company has forked out about S$100,000 in total on segregation measures.

He has also exhausted all of the company’s spare laptops to issue to those working from home. Mr Khoo even allows employees to take home their office desktops while waiting for the laptops he has ordered.

On Wednesday (April 1), an update to the Infectious Diseases Act was published in the Government Gazette, stating that employers who do not implement telecommuting measures for their workers when it is possible to do so could be fined up to S$10,000, jailed up to six months, or both.

The same penalties will also apply to those who fail to execute safe-distancing measures at the workplace or cancel events that are not critical to their operations.

Employees who still enter a workplace even though they feel unwell will also be penalised.

More than half of the orders served by MOM included improving work-from-home arrangements, the ministry's spokesperson said.

“For offices in particular, our inspections focused on compliance in implementing work-from-home arrangements. We observed cases where employees were still working in offices, when they could perform their duties and access relevant corporate systems and information from home.

“In such instances, we have issued a remedial order to the company to get their staff to work from home, as far as reasonably practicable,” MOM said.

Inspections are also being carried out in factories, construction sites and other workplaces to ensure that precautionary measures were carried out for workers who are unable to work from home.

Mr Khoo of Kimly Constructions said that two of his construction sites were inspected by MOM officers over the last two weeks.

“We had safe-distancing measures in place — markers on the floors, tables, chairs and rooms for offices, rest areas and queue lines.”

However, the company was issued a remedial order by MOM to improve on these measures. It followed up on them, complied with and responded to the directives the next day, he added.

Mr Khoo said: “I can understand the intention… they want all employers to do their part. We are trying our best to be proactive.”

He added that every industry has its own set of challenges and different operation settings.

Agreeing, Mr Peter Peng, owner of cleaning company Abba Maintenance Services, and Mr Bobby Chiew, who heads the human resources team at private transport operator Woodlands Transport, said that their firms are trying to segregate their teams as much as possible but they still have many employees who work the ground.

Mr Peng said that working from home is impossible for his employees due to the nature of their work as cleaners, but those not on the ground have been telecommuting regularly since they started segregation in February.

“We started early because I don’t want my team to become a cluster. If one gets infected, they all get infected, and my production will be paralysed,” he said.

Mr Chiew said that 50 per cent of his Woodlands Transport’s employees are working from home this week and is expecting another 25 per cent to follow suit by the end of next week.

He added that the rest of the firm's employees will be segregated across its three offices and two auxiliary ones as they roll out work-from-home processes gradually.

“We are expecting some teething issues, but we have been using teleconferencing apps (to communicate). We hope they will get used to it in the next few weeks,” Mr Chiew said. 

EASIER FOR TECH-BASED COMPANIES

For technology-based companies, telecommuting is not a tall order, but requires time for workers to adjust.

At Singapore-based retail technology company Trax, a spokesperson told TODAY that it has closed its offices to allow employees to work from home.

“We are taking steps to ensure everyone stays engaged and can adjust to this new way of working, such as raising the frequency of internal updates, putting together an in-house guide on 'Best Practices for Working from Home', and organising activities such as virtual happy hours and interactive stay-at-home challenges.”

Mr Alwin Liang, chief executive officer and co-founder of technology startup Roadbull Logistics, said that since its internal systems are mostly cloud-based, his team is able to function as long as there is internet connection.

“However, as for the operational aspect of the business, it still remains very much hands-on, because deliveries cannot be done autonomously. To ensure safety, we practise and encourage contactless delivery.

“Drivers will drop off the parcel at the customer’s door, take a photo of the parcel at the door and stand a safe distance away from the door while they collect their parcel.”

As for safe-distancing measures, its employees also sit more than 1m apart from one another, stagger lunch breaks and are divided into different teams — one at home and one in the office, Mr Liang said.

“In view of the increasing number of Covid-19 cases, there is a need for stricter and harsher measures as an attempt to flatline the number of cases in Singapore.

“The measures only emphasise the Government's firm stance on combating the issue, which I agree is the correct path to take. I see this in a positive light. Not only will it slow down the pace of transmission, it brings forward the digitalisation plan that the Government has for us small- to medium-sized enterprises."