By Justin Ong
Of the five companies that have been taken to task under the enhanced penalties for discriminatory hiring practices, one of them, Ti2 Logistics Pte Ltd, has been charged.
15 January, 2020
SINGAPORE — One company put up a job application specifically hiring males, another falsely declared that it had interviewed Singaporean job applicants when it had already selected a foreign candidate.
In total, five companies have faced stiffer penalties for discriminatory hiring practices under the Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM’s) updated Fair Consideration Framework (FCF) unveiled on Tuesday (Jan 14).
Welcoming the “more robust and resolute” measures, the National Trades Union Congress' assistant secretary-general Patrick Tay said in a Facebook post that the enhanced framework serves to level the playing field for Singaporean professionals, managers and executives.
“The harsher penalties will send a deterrent effect to would-be and recalcitrant employers and businesses,” he wrote.
“The blacklisting and highlighting of specific companies is a positive move to send a strong signal to the errant company, the sector/industry and to the labour market as a whole.”
[There are those who believe that foreigners are depriving Singapore Citizens of jobs or are otherwise depressing salaries/wages for Singaporeans or just making things bad or difficult for Singaporeans. This report shows that the government is acting to bring those who break the rules and discriminate against Singaporeans to task. Of course, this will NOT assuage the fears of those who believe that foreigners are taking our jobs. In fact, they could well point to this report as evidence that there is such discrimination and these 5 firms were merely unlucky enough to be caught and their prosecution is mere tokenism.]
Of the five companies that have been taken to task under the enhanced penalties, one of them, Ti2 Logistics Pte Ltd, has been charged.
Read also: Harsher penalties against discriminatory hiring practices, including non-renewal of work passes for foreign staff
Ti2 LOGISTICS PTE LTD
The company, which is in the shipping industry, had submitted an Employment Pass (EP) application for the positions of business development manager and accounts manager.
For the former role, it made a false declaration that it had interviewed two Singaporeans and considered candidates fairly when it had not done so.
Read also: Logistics company charged with making false declaration in EP application
For the role of accounts manager, the firm also treated the job advertising requirement under the FCF as a paper exercise, posting a job description unrelated to the job.
In reality, it had already pre-selected the EP applicant and had no intention to interview any Singaporean candidates.
Under the FCF, employers submitting EP applications need to first advertise on jobs portal MyCareersFuture.sg and fairly consider all candidates, barring exemptions.
Read also: On MOM watch list: 350 companies which unfairly hire foreigners over S'poreans
MOM charged the company on Tuesday with one count of making a false declaration to the Controller of Work Passes in its EP application.
It has also been debarred from hiring new EP holders or renewing existing work passes for two years.
If convicted in court, Ti2 could be fined up to S$20,000.
Read also: The Big Read in Short: Protecting workers amid the spectre of retrenchments
NIHON PREMIUM CLINIC PTE LTD
The medical company submitted an EP application for the position of regional customer development manager.
However, the firm was found not to have fairly considered Singaporean candidates. It did not list critical information in its job advertisement in terms of the key criteria that the applicant must fulfil, such as the ability to speak fluent Japanese and Mandarin. As a result, none of the applicants was suitable for consideration.
Instead, an EP applicant recommended by one of the company’s shareholders was deemed suitable after an interview.
For not giving fair consideration to Singaporean candidates, the company was debarred from hiring new EP holders or renewing existing work passes for 12 months.
MEYER BURGER (SINGAPORE) PTE LTD
The company in the solar and semiconductor industry submitted an EP application for the position of process engineer.
The firm’s human resource team was based overseas, and had already interviewed the EP applicant and deemed him suitable for a position in Singapore. It then put up the position in a job advertisement.
Like Ti2 Logistics, Meyer Burger failed to interview any candidates because had already decided on the EP applicant. The job advertisement was posted solely to make an EP application.
MOM debarred the company from hiring new EP holders or renewing existing work passes for two years. It added that it did not consider the ignorance of the overseas human resource personnel as a mitigating factor in any way. On the contrary, the firm’s failure to have a Singapore-based human resources team was “an aggravating factor that contributed to the violation”.
TARANTULA GLOBAL HOLDINGS PTE LTD
The company in the info-communications industry submitted an EP application for the position of senior information technology support engineer.
Like Meyer Burger and Ti2 Logistics, the company had pre-selected the EP applicant, who was a former employee of an affiliated overseas company. It put up a job advertisement, but likewise did not consider any candidates other than the chosen one.
The company was debarred by MOM from hiring new EP holders or renewing existing work passes for 12 months.
MEOW SERVICES PTE LTD
The company, which is an employment agency, posted a discriminatory job advertisement looking for only “male” production operators, which breached the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices.
The agency said that the staff member who posted the job was not aware of the guidelines, and felt that females would not be able to perform a job that was physically demanding.
MOM said that it expects all employment agencies to be familiar with the Tripartite Guidelines and train their employees accordingly. It added that all companies should not make assumptions based on stereotypes and attributes that are not merit-based — such as race, gender and age.
For having discriminatory hiring practices, the agency was debarred from hiring or renewing existing work passes for 12 months and was also given demerit points for breaching the Employment Agencies Licence Conditions.
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