Guidance only, issued by MOM on 20 October 2026.
MOM has added guidance on adjusting outdoor work by the 1-hour PM2.5 reading, alongside its existing guidance based on the PSI forecast. Employers reduce outdoor work step by step as the reading rises.
At Elevated (56 to 150 micrograms per cubic metre), vulnerable employees avoid strenuous outdoor work. At High (151 to 250), they avoid outdoor work. At Very High (251 and above), employers prohibit outdoor work for vulnerable employees and minimise all outdoor work for everyone else. N95 or equivalent masks are provided. MOM names the elderly, pregnant women and those with chronic heart or lung diseases as vulnerable employees.
What this means for a Singapore SME
The guidance reaches every business with staff who work outdoors: building sites, deliveries, security posts, outdoor events and stalls. MOM reminds those employers to review their haze management plans, and the bands above are the test a plan now meets. The hourly readings are published at haze.gov.sg, and MOM keeps its haze guidelines at mom.gov.sg/haze.
Two points sit outside the safety plan. A job with a fixed completion date or an event on a fixed day carries the hours lost to a Very High reading, so the contract's delay terms matter. And a plan only works if someone checks the hourly figure during the day, not just the morning forecast: the bands move hour by hour, and this guidance is written against the 1-hour reading, beside the existing guidance on the PSI forecast.