Guide · Work · 3 min read
Hurt at work
When your employer has to pay work injury compensation, and how the accident has to be reported.
In plain English · by laws.sg · not legal advice· Law as at 30 Sep 2026
On this page · 5 parts
The short answer
If personal injury is caused to you by an accident arising out of and in the course of your employment, your employer is liable to pay compensation under the Work Injury Compensation Act 2019.
Work Injury Compensation Act s 7(1)
As soon as possible after a work injury in an accident, tell your employer, your supervisor at the time, or a person your employer has designated for this.
Who this covers
Under the Act, an employee is an individual who has entered into or works under a contract of service with an employer, but not a class of individuals listed in the Act's Third Schedule.
Work Injury Compensation Act s 3(1)
The Act also covers an accident outside Singapore, if you are ordinarily resident in Singapore and are employed by an employer in Singapore who requires you to work outside Singapore.
When your employer is liable
An accident arising in the course of your employment is taken to have arisen out of that employment, unless there is evidence to the contrary.
Work Injury Compensation Act s 7(4)
Your employer is not liable to pay compensation for:
- An injury directly attributable to your being under the influence of alcohol or a drug at the time of the accident, if that is proven
- Deliberate self-injury, or deliberately making an accidental injury worse
- An injury suffered in a fight or an assault, unless you did not assault anyone (or did so in private defence), or you were breaking up or preventing the fight or assault, or safeguarding life or property or maintaining law and order under your employer's instruction or with its express or implied consent
Work Injury Compensation Act s 7(2)
An accident is taken to arise out of and in the course of your employment if it happens while you are travelling, with your employer's express or implied permission, as a passenger to or from your workplace in transport operated by or for your employer, and not in the ordinary course of a public transport service.
Reporting the accident
Your claim for compensation is taken to be made when your employer first has notice of the accident. Your employer has notice when you tell it, your supervisor at the time or a person it designated the date and place of the accident and the cause of the injury, or when it learns of the accident by any other means.
Work Injury Compensation Act s 35(1), (2)
Within the prescribed time after it first has notice, your employer must give notice of the accident to the Commissioner, and in writing to its insurer.
Work Injury Compensation Act s 35(3)
Your claim is taken to be withdrawn if your employer does not have notice of the accident by the end of one year after the date of the accident, or one year after your death if you die within that year, unless the Commissioner specifies a later date because the delay was caused by mistake, absence from Singapore or other reasonable cause.
Sick leave while you are compensated
You are not entitled to paid sick leave under the Employment Act for a period in which you are receiving, or are entitled to receive, compensation for temporary incapacity under the Work Injury Compensation Act 2019.
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