Written Answer by Minister for Manpower Dr Tan See Leng to PQ on Definition of "Discrimination" under TAFEP

NOTICE PAPER NO. 1390 OF 2022 FOR THE SITTING ON 3 OCTOBER 2022

QUESTION NO. 2202 FOR WRITTEN ANSWER

NMP: Dr Shahira Abdullah

To ask the Minister for Manpower how does the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices define ‘discrimination’ for the purposes of its investigations and referrals to the Ministry for enforcement actions to be carried out.

ANSWER:

Employers are required to abide by the principles of fair employment practices set out in the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices (TGFEP). These include recruiting employees on the basis of merit —such as skills, experience or ability to perform the job—, and rewarding employees fairly based on their ability, performance, contribution and experience. Recruitment, in-employment promotion and rewards, and dismissals based on factors that are not relevant to the job requirements are breaches of the TGFEP.

TAFEP looks into all reports of workplace discrimination. Employers found to have hired a foreigner without considering similarly qualified local candidates, or shortlisted candidates for reasons that are not related to job requirements such as age or race, are clearly in breach of TGFEP. In such cases, TAFEP would refer these employers to MOM for further investigation and enforcement action to be taken, including suspension of work pass privileges.

When workplace fairness legislation is enacted, the offences on discrimination will be made clear, for which a wider range of enforcement actions can be taken against offending employers. Work and discussion on this are ongoing.