The Answer in 60 Seconds

Many tender and RFP templates ask every bidder for a "Workmen's Compensation" coverage note, even a firm whose staff all work at desks. The buyer is not only checking your compliance; it is protecting itself. Under section 13 of the Work Injury Compensation Act 2019, where a business contracts out work in the course of its trade and a contractor's employee is injured in that work at a place the business controls or where it undertook the work, the Commissioner may direct the business to pay the compensation as if it were the employer; the business is then entitled to be indemnified by the contractor. That right is worth what the contractor can pay. MOM gives main contractors the same advice: "ensure that each of your sub-contractors buy insurance to cover their own employees" (MOM). Your coverage note is the buyer's evidence that an insurer, not your own balance sheet, stands behind your people. The law does not make every firm insure everyone: the Act covers every employee whatever the salary (MOM), but insurance is compulsory only for manual workers and non-manual staff earning S$2,600 or less a month, and for the rest a valid claim is paid by the employer whether or not it is insured (MOM). If you hold WIC cover, ask your insurer for the coverage note now; if you hold none, tell the buyer so in writing or put cover in place - MOM asks employers to give their insurer the information it needs at least 21 days before a policy starts.

The Sourced Detail

What the law covers, and what it makes you insure

Per MOM, the Work Injury Compensation Act covers any local or foreign employee under a contract of service or a contract of apprenticeship, regardless of salary, age or citizenship. It does not cover independent contractors and the self-employed, domestic workers, or uniformed personnel.

The duty to insure, set by section 24 of the Act, is narrower. Per MOM, an employer must buy WIC insurance for:

  • all employees doing manual work, regardless of salary; and
  • all employees doing non-manual work earning a salary of S$2,600 or less a month, not counting overtime, bonuses, annual wage supplements, productivity incentive payments and allowances (MOM).

Some classes of employee sit outside the insurance duty altogether, among them the employees of a bank, of an employer engaged in retail trade, and of a hotel-keeper, under the Second Schedule to the Work Injury Compensation (Insurance) Regulations 2020. A communication agency, a consultancy or most other service firms are not in that list.

Failing to insure an employee you must insure is an offence: a fine of up to S$10,000, jail of up to 12 months, or both (MOM).

Why the buyer asks: its own liability

Section 13 of the Act is the reason. Where a business (the Act calls it the principal) contracts, in the course of or for the purpose of its trade or business, for a contractor to execute work, the Commissioner may direct the principal to fulfil the employer's obligations under the Act to any of the contractor's employees employed in that work. The principal then pays the compensation as if the employee had been its own. Two conditions shape it: the section applies only where the accident happens at a place where the principal undertook to execute the work, or a place under its control or management; and a principal that pays is entitled to be indemnified by the contractor that employed the injured person.

So the buyer's protection is a right to be repaid by you - worth exactly what you can pay. A WIC policy turns that right into an insurer's money. MOM tells main contractors to make the same check: "Instead, you should ensure that each of your sub-contractors buy insurance to cover their own employees" (MOM). A buyer asking for your cover note is making it.

For employees outside the compulsory group, MOM adds the employer's side: the choice whether to insure them is yours, but "if those employees make a valid claim, you will have to compensate them regardless of whether they are insured." A firm with no WIC policy for them carries that claim itself.

What a valid policy looks like today

Since 1 January 2021, every WIC policy must be issued by an MOM-designated insurer and comply with MOM's compulsory terms (MOM). A note from any other source will not show the buyer what it needs to see.

The timing

MOM asks employers to finalise insurance contracts and give the insurer the information it needs at least 21 days before a policy starts (MOM). A firm that discovers the gap in a tender's last week should tell the buyer where it stands rather than send a document that does not answer the question. For getting a certificate issued against a deadline, see how to obtain a certificate of insurance for a tender deadline in 24 hours.

Common Mistakes

  1. Sending a different policy. A group medical or group personal accident certificate is not WIC cover, and a buyer that asked for WIC will read it as a gap.
  2. Assuming office staff cannot be insured. The compulsory group is the floor, not the limit: MOM lets you choose to insure employees outside it.
  3. Starting in the deadline week. MOM's 21 days run from before the policy starts, not from the tender's closing date.
  4. A name that does not match. The insured's name on the note should be your company's name as registered with ACRA, which Bizfile shows.

What This Means for Your Business

If your firm bids for corporate work, expect this request in most tenders, whatever your trade. Knowing which of your employees fall in the compulsory group, and whether the rest are insured, turns a last-minute scramble into a document you already hold.

Questions to Ask Your Adviser

  • Does our WIC policy cover all our employees, or only those we must insure?
  • Can you issue a coverage note in the name the tender requires, by the closing date?
  • Does this buyer's contract ask for anything beyond the statutory cover, such as a common law extension or the buyer named on the policy?
  • If we have no WIC policy today, how long will it take to put one in place?

Related Information

Published 27 October 2026. Source verified 27 October 2026.