The goal should be to strip the gender filter off FWAs and caregiving

EVEN as the pandemic has forced the mainstreaming of working from home, wider efforts to get employers to offer flexible work arrangements (FWAs) - which extend to flexi-hours and phased workloads, for instance - continue.

The White Paper on Singapore Women's Development, released on Monday, included the announcement of new tripartite guidelines on FWAs, to be introduced by 2024.

The guidelines will require that employers consider FWA requests "fairly and properly", to create a workplace norm where employees feel it is acceptable to make such requests - though employers retain the prerogative to accept or reject them, depending on business needs.