Singapore’s guidelines on fair employment practices to become law

Minister of State for Manpower Gan Siow Huang said, “This gives a strong signal that we do not tolerate discrimination of any form, including against women.

“For example, a company that’s looking at hiring a new employee should be looking at qualities such as the person’s experience, the person’s ability to perform the job and not look at whether the person is a man or woman before hiring a candidate.”

In addition to addressing unfair employment practices, the White Paper on Singapore Women’s Development is looking at new proposals to allow people to report discrimination at workplaces that they observe or experience, she added. These would include putting in place SOPs for dealing with complaints or reports of discrimination and ensuring the confidentiality of complainants to prevent retaliation.

Also, tripartite guidelines on flexible work arrangements will be ready by 2024. “Flexible work arrangements will become a norm in our future workplaces, and this enables more women, especially those with caregiving responsibilities, to remain or to return to work.” Offering such arrangements allows employers to tap on a larger pool of talent such as seniors, Gan said.

READ: Singapore allows more employees to return to office

The government plans to increase the adoption of the voluntary Tripartite Standard on Flexible Work Arrangements by employers to 40% by the end of this year from the current 27%, according to Channel News Asia.