The Singaporean government accepted the final recommendations of the Tripartite Committee on Workplace Fairness (TCWF), which includes two new recommendations.

On February 2023, the Tripartite Committee published its initial 20 recommendations in an interim report. 

The government will be working closely with tripartite partners to implement the recommendations in 2024. Singapore’s tripartite partners includes The Ministry of Manpower (MOM), the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF).

Once enacted, the legislative framework will cover all stages of employment, including in-, post- and more importantly, pre- employment, where the majority of discrimination complaints derive from today, according to MOM.

The legislation seeks to protect workers and jobseekers against unfair or discriminatory practices under the following protected characteristics, namely nationality; age; sex, marital status, pregnancy status, caregiving responsibilities; race, language and religion; disability and mental health conditions. The legislation will not cover sexual orientation, gender identity, and criminal history.

Singapore’s TCWF proposed two new recommendations to help further refine the legislation. For one, the committee suggested that a clear definition for ‘discrimination’ was both necessary and beneficial for employers and employees to understand what the law would cover.

 In its final report, the TCWF recommended defining ‘discrimination’ as ‘making an adverse employment decision because of any protected characteristic’.

 It also recommended that the legislation only cover direct acts of discrimination, as covering indirect discrimination poses ‘very wide legal obligations on employers’. The committee shared that acts of indirect discrimination could involve a seemingly neutral company practice that has an effect of putting persons with certain protected characteristic at a disadvantage.

The TCWF added that it felt that it would be best to leave such cases to the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices, where the alliance could help both employer and employees find a reasonable approach to resolve such disputes.

Meanwhile, the committee also recommended that a Tripartite Advisory be issued on providing reasonable accommodations to persons with disability.

The TCWF felt that legislating the need to provide reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities is an overly rigid approach that risks creating a more litigious workplace.

“From surveys, engagements and complaints, we know the common forms of discrimination experienced in Singapore,” Manpower Minister Tan See Leng. “The Workplace Fairness Legislation (WFL) will prohibit these common forms of discrimination – including age, sex, family status, race, nationality, and mental health.”

 “Our approach places emphasis on giving redress to the worker who experienced discrimination while preserving workplace harmony and relationships,” he said.

Instead, it concluded that better outcomes could be achieved for employees with disabilities and employers through TAFEP’s intervention.

TCWF recommended keeping the scope of legislation tight for now, and that the proposed characteristics covers 95 per cent of all discrimination complaints received by MOM and the Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practices (TAFEP), and protects 75% of all workers in Singapore.

The legislation will work in concert with the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices (TGFEP) to provide protection against all forms of discrimination.

To allow smaller companies time to adhere to the changes and build up their human resource capabilities, they would be exempted from the legislation for the first five years.

The TCWF hopes that the recommendations would improve Singapore’s workplace culture, and not result in one that is litigious.

 The committee added that the legislation is not a ‘cure’ for workplace discrimination, and that education remains key to correcting stereotypes and sustaining fair employment practices.

Singapore’s government will be working closely with tripartite partners to implement the recommendations in 2024.