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Oral Answer by Mr Zaqy Mohamad, Minister of State for Manpower, to Parliamentary Question on data on complaints received by TAFEP

Employment practices

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1490 OF 2019 FOR THE SITTING ON 15 JAN 2019

QUESTION NO. 2544 FOR ORAL ANSWER

MP: ASSOC PROF WALTER THESEIRA

To ask the Minister for Manpower (a) whether the Ministry will consider making public the data on complaints of unfair employment practices received by the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) or the Ministry that identify the employer, specific complaint, and action taken; and (b) what considerations the Ministry has in publishing such data or keeping such data confidential.

Answer

  1. TAFEP already publishes aggregated statistics on complaints of unfair employment practices. TAFEP and MOM received 450 such complaints a year on average between 2015 and 2017. The vast majority of complaints are claims of unfair consideration for Singaporeans or age-discrimination. In investigating these complaints, TAFEP would engage the employers involved and employers are generally cooperative. Most of the complaints arise because employers do not have a proper system to address internal grievances or are insensitive to the different needs and conditions of employees. For the former, TAFEP would help employers improve their internal practices and processes. For the latter, our priority is to resolve such complaints amicably in a way that allows both the employers and the employees to move on from the incidents.
  2. Some complaints result in sanctions. These involve employers who are not cooperative with TAFEP or who are found to adopt unfair employment practices. MOM takes enforcement actions against such employers, including curtailing their work pass privileges.
  3. MOM and TAFEP will consider publicising cases in situations of public interest or where the conduct is egregious, as we have done so in the past. However, while naming all errant employers publicly would serve as a deterrence, there could be unintended consequences such as indirectly identifying the affected employees and breaching their privacy.
  4. To raise public awareness and prevent unfair employment practices, TAFEP develops cases studies from actual cases and educates employers through focused channels such as TAFEP’s briefings and workshops to share contextualised learnings from specific cases. Employers can better understand and appreciate the need to adopt fair employment practices through such in-depth discussions.