As a developed economy that relies on people as her main natural resource, Singapore should strive to achieve fair working conditions for employees.
Unfortunately, whether we like it or not, workplace discrimination exists. And the Singapore government has been on a campaign to ensure fairer employment practices and protection for employees who face discriminations.
In end-September 2024, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) released its Fair Employment Practices 2023 report – highlighting the state of workplace discriminations in Singapore.
Here are 5 things we learned from the report:
#1 6% Of Employees Faced Workplace Discrimination In 2023, 4x Fewer Than In 2018
The proportion of employees who faced workplace discrimination fell to 6.0% in 2023 – close to four times lower than the 24% of employees who faced workplace discrimination in 2018.
Read Also: Understanding TAFEP Guidelines On Fair Employment Practices & Fair Consideration Framework
#2 Age Discrimination Was The Most Common Form Of Discrimination
While all forms of discriminations exist, age discrimination was the most common – with 2.6% of employees facing it. This is somewhat worrisome as Singapore is a rapidly greying country.
Race discrimination (1.7%) was the next most common discrimination, followed by Nationality (1.6%) and Mental Health (1.6%).
Nevertheless, it is also heartening to see in the chart above that all forms of discriminations have reduced since 2022. The biggest improvements were in Mental Health and Disability discriminations, which reduced 3.1%-points and 1.4%-points respectively.
#3 Salary Was The Most Commonly Reported Unfair Treatment
Unfair treatment can come in all forms, including salary, bonus, annual leaves staff welfare, promotions, training, workload, even daily interactions and even dismissals.
The most common instance of unfair treatment was related to remuneration – with Salary (43.4%) and Bonus (26.8%). Work Environment was also a complaint for many employees facing discriminations – with Workload Distribution (33.7%) and Daily Interactions At Work (26.8%).
Instances of termination – for both Dismissal and Selection For Retrenchment – was the lowest reported complaint for unfair treatment.
#4 23.4% Of Jobseekers Faced Employment Discrimination
Discrimination is not constrained to just employees; jobseekers can also face discriminations in considerations for a job. In 2023, 23.4% of jobseekers faced discrimination. This was again, significantly lower compared to 2018 – when 42.7% of jobseekers faced discrimination.
Here, again, age discrimination was the most common form of discrimination, with Race and Nationality similarly the next most common forms of discriminations. Except for age-related discriminations, all other forms of discriminations saw a reduction.
The most common source of discrimination was from job advertisements stating a preference for specific demographic characteristics, followed by discriminatory experiences when jobseekers were asked for personal information that was irrelevant to the job.
Read Also: Anti-Discrimination Processes Recruiters Should Adopt To Comply With Fair Hiring Practices
#5 63.2% Of Employees Work In A Firm That Has Formal Workplace Discrimination Procedures
Compared to 2018, when less than half of employees worked in a firm that had formal workplace discrimination procedures, 63.2% of employees now work in a firm with formal workplace discrimination procedures.
This is a positive sign for further improvements in workplace fairness going forward. The report also suggested that just the “presence of formal procedures was statistically significant in reducing the likelihood of discrimination across most forms of discrimination, except mental health discrimination”.
7 In 10 Employees Who Face Discrimination Still Did Not Seek Help
While there may be more avenues to seek help to handle instances of workplace discriminations, 7 in 10 employees who face discrimination still do not seek help.
The “Fear of being marginalised at work or making work relations awkward” was the main reason employees did not seek help. Many were also concerned with detrimental impacts to their careers.
This suggests that employees need greater protection, and the Workplace Fairness Legislation is meant to protect victims of workplace discriminations against retaliation.
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