In this episode of Got People Say, join host Munah Bagharib as she delves into the topic of workplace discrimination. Also, learn how the recently passed Workplace Fairness Legislation helps build fair workplaces in Singapore that will benefit both employees and employers.
This post is in partnership with Ministry of Manpower.
Watch more: https://www.asiaone.com/video
This post is in partnership with Ministry of Manpower.
Watch more: https://www.asiaone.com/video
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00:00An employee applying for her company's talent development scheme is asked in an interview
00:04for the scheme if she plans to start a family and she replies yes she's keen to do so soon.
00:11She's then not enrolled in the scheme and her employer says this is because the interview
00:15panel felt that she would not be suitable for the high demands of the scheme due to her family plans.
00:30God people say workplace discrimination is a thing of the past and while statistics show
00:39that it has been on a decline, the bigger question is what is workplace discrimination
00:44and why should it matter to you? This is God People Say, a talk show where we provide
00:49a space for open conversations about topics often left unspoken. I'm your host Munah Bagharib and
00:55today we are talking about a very important topic which is workplace fairness. Now Ministry
01:01of Manpower is introducing the workplace fairness legislation to build fair workplaces in Singapore
01:08and I've got four guests with me who will be talking about workplace fairness and the potential
01:13benefits of this legislation. Alright so Annabel, let's start with you. So what is workplace
01:19fairness legislation? So the workplace fairness legislation or WFL in short seeks to protect
01:25job seekers and employees from the more common forms of workplace discrimination. So actually
01:32this is not the first time that we are doing this. We have been on a journey for many years
01:36with our tripartite partners and we have been building this fair workplace culture and norm.
01:42In particular, we want to preserve and improve on the existing fair and harmonious workplace
01:48norm that we have in Singapore. So then why is MOM deciding to introduce WFL? So we want to
01:55provide legal backing to our existing framework and in particular we think that it is very important
02:02for us to focus on education so that we don't just have a law but we focus on the norms and
02:08the mindset changes that we want. And there are three points that I want to share. So first is
02:13you know we've talked a lot about fair merit-based workplaces and that's something we want to
02:18reinforce. The second thing is actually in terms of providing more avenues for recourse and redress
02:23and the last point I spoke about workplace harmony. So what we want to do with the law is to
02:28actually provide a safe constructive space for the employers and employees to come together to
02:33discuss agreements. So how is workplace discrimination defined under this legislation?
02:40So workplace discrimination is defined as any adverse employment decision based on any
02:46protected characteristic. So when we say adverse employment decision, what we mean is things like
02:51you're not being hired, not being sent for training, not being sent for promotion or even dismissed.
02:56We realise that discrimination at its root is a mindset issue. Actually the protected
03:02characteristics under the workplace fairness legislation cover about 95% of all the complaints
03:08on workplace discrimination that TAFAP and MOM have received. So we are very familiar with such
03:13cases and would be quite confident in handling such cases. Also the protected characteristics
03:19actually support Singapore's wider social and economic objectives. So as we all know Singapore
03:25is an ageing population. So what that means is that there could be individuals that would like
03:29to work longer into old age and so protecting discrimination against age would be something
03:36that would support the employment of senior workers. At the same time with an ageing population
03:42I think more of us will then have to then balance and manage caregiving responsibilities even as we
03:48continue to work. So covering caregiving responsibilities under the legislation
03:53would also support the caregivers that are in our workforce today. Then of course protecting
03:58against discrimination against sex as well as pregnancy status actually supports women's
04:04participation in the labor force especially in a very tight labor market that we face today
04:08and it also supports women to thrive in their careers. Okay so there is a lot of support being
04:14included in this. I do want to hear from Derek from an HR perspective. How will this legislation
04:21benefit businesses and employers? I think top of the mind of almost every HR professional
04:27would be about how to engage the workforce more productively, how to able to better attract
04:32talents, how to improve employer branding and I think most importantly how to retain and able to
04:39bring the employees for a longer haul. So what we believe is that this workplace fairness legislation
04:45is actually having the potential to be able to gel these factors together to send a very clear
04:50message to current employees and would-be employees that this is an organization that
04:55stands firm on its ability to capture and retain the best talents. And Mr Ang just to jump in
05:02from an employer's perspective how do you think this legislation will be beneficial? I think if
05:07you look at the employer's perspective what employers want to look at is hiring the best
05:12people and how do they assess that is through certain indicators and right now what we are
05:20saying is that certain proxy indicators should not be used and therefore it will level up the ability
05:27of the employers to be more specific about what exactly they are really hiring for and when you
05:33level up the employers through the whole process you would create better companies, you will create
05:39people where the employers and employees are actually talking and overall a more harmonious
05:44workplace. Now given all of that being a legislation I think there will be adaptations that companies
05:50have to make and here's where I think as associations will come in to help provide that
05:56level up in terms of education and really mindset shift and how do you translate that into real
06:01action. So you spoke about settling disputes right so how can employers and employees actually
06:09settle workplace discrimination disputes? So under the workplace fairness legislation employers will
06:15be required to put in place an internal grievance handling process and there are three points I would
06:20like to highlight here. The first is that with a grievance handling channel employers need to
06:25communicate that and let employees know how to use it because no point having a channel that no
06:30one knows about or knows how to use. Then secondly when a grievance does come up through that channel
06:36employers are required to address the issue look into the grievance and also close the loop with
06:41the employee who reported the issue and thirdly I think which is very important in building trust
06:46and a safe space is that in terms of maintaining confidentiality of the report that was given but
06:52if this fails and or if the company somehow did not put in this channel that employees can use
06:58then they can come to TAFAP and in that case mediation will be a key approach to how we will
07:05resolve the dispute. Mediation is quite important process it provides a platform for both parties to
07:11share their views and also mutually agree on what are the outcomes that they can agree to so as to
07:19move the issue forward. There'll be a minority hopefully a very small minority that might be
07:25errant and always blatantly flout the rules and in those cases the Ministry of Manpower also
07:31take actions and impose penalties on them depending on the severity of the breach.
07:36And with Derek HR plays a really important role in handling grievances right so maybe you can
07:43share more about that too? I think much like how Faith has pointed out about communicating about
07:48a grievance channel what I believe would be very functional for organisation would be for the HR
07:55department to work closely with the management team. Ideally one of the method can be they setting
08:00up a joint committee to be able to overview the entire workplace fairness legislation
08:06implementation. So I think on top of communication what is crucial is also to be able to hold a
08:12workshop for the frontline managers so that these frontline managers are able to of course
08:18understand the legislation at the same time pick up any potential issues that's happening on the
08:22ground and also be able to help the employees to seek redress. So as a business owner operating in
08:29Singapore one of the benefits is that the Singapore government does actually communicate its policies
08:34way in advance so that companies are able to put in place policies preparations and on top of that
08:41there's also a lot of toolkits and resources available. So now we understand how workplace
08:47discrimination disputes can be resolved but what if someone from the outside applies for a job and
08:53faces discrimination? Sometimes we see unconscious bias creeping into the job advertisements that are
08:59put out and so we sometimes see job advertisements that say I need the person to be of a certain age
09:06of a certain sex to be able to do the job and in most cases this is not true right. The second way
09:12in which a job seeker may experience workplace discrimination could be at the job screening or
09:18the job interview phase and this happens sometimes when for example the employer or HR asks for a
09:25person's age right and then says things like oh you know for this role as a facilitator for young
09:32children's education programs you need people who are young and energetic right and this may
09:39then come across as the remark that that does touch on age which is a protected characteristic
09:45as well as demonstrates that hey something was said that resulted in me maybe not getting the
09:50job then TAFAC would be the place to go. In addition to that when it comes to the selection
09:56and interview phase what we would also recommend HR professionals to adopt is the blind recruitment
10:02method such that before sending out the resume to the hiring manager what the HR manager could
10:09actually have been doing would be to remove away the personal information such as the name, the
10:14name itself could be telling of the gender, the age can remove away marital status and maybe even
10:21removing the photo so this allows the hiring manager to be able to also use a more fair and
10:27inclusive hiring decision when it comes to judging the candidate based on their track record based
10:34on their experience. And to Faith how do you think employers can hire fairly? I think the first step
10:41is to actually be quite familiar with what is required under the tripartite guidelines as well
10:47as the legislation and at TAFAC I think we have quite a lot of resources either templates for how
10:52to draft the job advertisement, interview question templates as well which employees can tap on in
10:59terms of conducting interviews that really tease out what are the qualities, skills, knowledge,
11:05experience of the candidate those are the focus of what a fair hiring exercise should be. If I may add
11:12I think there's a whole bunch of training and the practice and scenarios that we have to go through
11:19because if you hear just from these scenarios you know this is something that many people can
11:24easily slip into and I think that training is critical. Thank you so much for being on this
11:31episode of Got People Say and thanks for sharing great insights on the upcoming workplace fairness
11:36legislation. I hope you've learned more about the legislation and how you can be protected from
11:41workplace discrimination and if you are an employer how to create a more harmonious workplace.
11:47Till then I'm Una and this is Got People Say, see you in the next episode!