'Employee training and education is going to be absolutely critical as we move forward into this new era,' lawyer says
Singapore’s government is set to introduce a workplace fairness law in the second half 2024 to further protect employees against workplace discrimination.
It comes after The Tripartite Committee on Workplace Fairness released its final report in 2023 with recommendations of what the new law should entail.
At the time, Minister for Manpower Dr Tan See Leng said the new legislation, “marks a significant step in Singapore employment law, and it will be scoped to achieve three wins: preserve harmonious workplaces, better protect workers, and support business growth in Singapore.”
“From surveys, engagements and complaints, we know the common forms of discrimination experienced in Singapore. The WFL (workplace fairness legislation) will prohibit these common forms of discrimination – including age, sex, family status, race, nationality, and mental health.
“Our approach places emphasis on giving redress to the worker who experienced discrimination while preserving workplace harmony and relationships.”
But how can HR teams prepare for the upcoming law?
Currently, Singapore’s tripartite parties have Guidelines for Fair Employment Practices, which employers can refer to when it comes to fair treatment of employees.
“There is currently no law that covers workplace discrimination,” Francis Chan, co-founder and executive director of Titanium Law Chambers told HRD Asia.
“But these are guidelines that deal with how employers should have Fair Employment Practices; for example, when it comes to hiring, when it comes to promoting, firing, performance appraisals so on and so forth.”
If an employee was discriminated against, they could lodge a complaint to the Labor Ministry or the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP), he said.
“TAFEP can investigate a complaint of discrimination or unfair employment practices and if there is indeed discrimination, the case will be referred over to our Labor Ministry, who will look into it,” he said.
“And if a company is found to have indeed practiced discrimination, that company can face the consequence of being debarred from hiring foreigners and renewing work passes in Singapore. That is something that can be quite harsh on the employer, especially if they rely quite a lot on foreign labour.”
And if an employee has been dismissed because of discrimination – for example, due to their age or religion – they can file a claim for wrongful dismissal before the Employment Claims Tribunal or go to civil court, Chan added.
In developing its recommendations for the new workplace fairness law, the tripartite committee consulted with a variety of stakeholders including employers, employee groups trade associations and union leaders.
Their final recommendations included four key elements:
“If all the recommendations are accepted, then employers will need to examine all the points in this report that will go into the workplace fairness law,” Chan said.
He added that employers should also keep the current Guidelines for Fair Employment Practices in mind.
“The committee has made it clear that the guidelines will not be replaced, but they will work hand in hand with the new law, so employers can’t just forget about the guidelines as though they never existed,” he said.
Chan pinpointed the key factor employers need to know when it comes to the new law.
“Firstly, direct discrimination will now be outlawed,” he said. “And direct discrimination will be defined as employers making an adverse decision because of any protected characteristics, for example age, gender, religion or caregiving responsibilities.”
He went on to describe two other areas where Singaporean employees may experience discrimination: maternity leave or national service obligations.
“In Singapore, all men who turn 18 are supposed to go into the army for two years and after that, they get called back to serve for anywhere between one week to four weeks every year,” Chan explained. “This can go on until you're 40 or 50 years old. So some employers don't like hiring men for that reason because they have to go back to the army to do their refresher obligations.”
He added that some employers may not want to hire young women because of the potential of them becoming pregnant and going on maternity leave.
“These are some of the things that will be outlawed once the new law comes into place,” Chan said.
The first step HR teams can take when it comes to the new workplace fairness law is to look at whether their company complies with the current guidelines, Chan said.
“The guidelines are a good reflection of what will be in the workplace fairness law because basically, if you comply with them, it means that your company's practices are fair and you have a culture and environment where things like discrimination are prohibited,” he said. “So if you comply with the guidelines, minimal adjustments will be required once the new law comes into place.”
The second step Chan recommended is to review key internal HR processes where discrimination is prone to happen, such as hiring, appraisals, and grievance handling.
“Most of the time, no one sets out to discriminate,” he said. “But the problem is that sometimes, because of inherent biases and because of legacy practices, certain practices and processes can be prone to discrimination. So I think this would be a good time for HR teams and employers to relook at these processes that they have.”
The third step is the educate and train employees – especially line managers – and have appropriate sanctions in place for discriminatory conduct, Chan added.
“In my experience training clients and dealing with clients, organisations often champion anti-discrimination,” he said. “But why do breaches occur? They occur because there's one or two bad hat employees who engage in discriminatory practices. So I think education and training of employees is going to be critical moving forward.”
And finally, Chan suggested that companies put in place a comprehensive grievance policy.
“In this regard, training is critical because who do people approach when they have a grievance? Most of the time, the line manager,” he said. “But line managers are often not equipped to handle grievances. So again, employee training and education is going to be absolutely critical as we move forward into this new era in Singapore.”
