The Workplace Fairness Bill was passed in the Singapore Parliament yesterday. It is the first anti-discrimination employment legislation in Singapore. It transforms the existing voluntary Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices into enforceable regulations. Here are some key points and actionable steps for employers and HR practitioners.
Key points from legislation
1. It defines discrimination as making an adverse employment decision because of any protected characteristic (including having discriminatory policies). The Committee clarified that this is not intended to include indirect discrimination, i.e. apparently neutral practice which has the effect of putting people with a protected characteristic at disadvantage.
2. Prohibits workplace discrimination in respect of the following characteristics: (i) age, (ii) nationality, (iii) sex (but not gender identity or sexual orientation), marital status, pregnancy status, caregiving responsibilities, (iv) race, religion, language; (v) disability and mental health conditions (“protected characteristics”).
3. Covers all stages of employment i.e. the pre-employment (recruitment), in-employment (e.g. promotion, performance appraisal, training selection) and end-employment (e.g. dismissal) stages (“employment decisions”).
4. Prohibits the use of words or phrases in job advertisements that indicate a preference for a protected characteristic.
5. Legislate the job advertisement requirement for submission of Employment Pass and S Pass applications under the existing Fair Consideration Framework.
6. Prohibits retaliation against those who report cases of workplace discrimination or harassment.
Provisions to support business/organisational needs and national objectives
7. Allows employers to consider a protected characteristic in employment decisions if it is a genuine and reasonable job requirement.
8. Allows religious organisations to make employment decisions based on religion and appropriate religious requirements (i.e. conformity with religious beliefs and practices).
Processes for resolving grievances and disputes while preserving workplace harmony
9. Require employers to put in place grievance handling processes. Employers should also protect the confidentiality of the identity of persons who report workplace discrimination and harassment, where possible.
Ensuring fair outcomes through redress for victims of workplace discrimination, and appropriate penalties for breaches
10. Where the claim involves a suspected serious breach of the workplace fairness legislation, the authorities may concurrently conduct investigations with a view to taking enforcement action, apart from civil action.
11. Provide a range of penalties including corrective orders, work pass curtailment and financial penalties that can be imposed against firms and/or culpable persons, depending on the severity of breach.
Actionable Steps
Employers and HR practitioners should review existing policies, handbooks, SOPs and guidelines for the entire HR lifecycle – including attraction, recruitment, onboarding, benefits, development, retention, appraisals, internal meetings and communications, termination, and post-termination.
This would include having a calibrated non-discrimination policy, robust grievance handling procedure, and guidelines for non-discriminatory language in external and internal communications.
Regarding benefits, appraisals, and staff development, policies should be reviewed to preempt any possible discriminatory criteria or factor, and to craft new policies which achieve organizational objectives which would not be deemed or alleged to be discriminatory of any characteristic. Notably, affirmative / positive discrimination is not prohibited under the legislation. Employers may wish to utilize benefits to incentivize certain behaviour which may loosely relate to protected characteristics.