Trade Unions Act 1940 · 2020 Revised Edition · Part 3 · Registration
8. Necessity for registration
Feedback & supportEvery trade union shall apply to be registered under this Act within a period of one month reckoned from the date on which it is so established.
trade union
“trade union” means any association or combination of workmen or employers, whether temporary or permanent, whose principal object is to regulate relations between workmen and employers for all or any of the following purposes:(a)to promote good industrial relations between workmen and employers;(b)to improve the working conditions of workmen or enhance their economic and social status;(c)to achieve the raising of productivity for the benefit of workmen, employers and the economy of Singapore,and includes any federation;
The Registrar may, if he thinks fit, from time to time, grant an extension of the period specified in subsection (1), provided that no such period shall, in any particular case, be so extended as to exceed a period of 6 months in the aggregate.
Registrar
“Registrar” means the person for the time being appointed by the Minister under section 3 by name or by office to be or to act as Registrar of Trade Unions, and includes any person appointed by the Minister under section 4 to be or to act as an Assistant Registrar of Trade Unions;
For the purposes of this Act, a trade union is established on the first date on which any workmen or employers agree to become or to create an association or combination for the furtherance of any one or more of the objects specified in the definition of a trade union in section 2.
For the purpose of prosecuting any trade union which fails to apply for registration in accordance with this section, the date of establishment of that trade union shall, in the absence of proof of the date referred to in subsection (3), be deemed to be —
the date on which any person is proved to have been accepted or admitted as a member of that trade union; or
the date on which any act is proved to have been done by that trade union in furtherance of any one or more of the objects specified in the definition of a trade union in section 2.
Where proof is available of both the dates referred to in subsection (4)(a) and (b), the earlier of such dates shall be deemed so to be the date of the establishment of that trade union.