Ten companies here have been barred from hiring foreigners for six months, and also ordered to apologise publicly, for discriminatory hiring practices.
The Ministry of Manpower announced this on Wednesday, saying that the firms involved were unable to give valid explanations for restricting their recruitment to exclusive groups.
Clauses stated within the ads put out by some of these firms included discrimination by age, nationality and gender. The firms and the reasons for their barring are:
PSC Biotech Pte Ltd: Requiring Singapore PR, Employment or Dependants’ pass holders for a human resource manager position.
Winshire Education Centre: Specifying a preference for “Malaysians with teaching experience” for a full-time teaching position.
Dr.Ci:Labo Pte Ltd: Indicating “age 30-50” and “Japanese or Singaporean” as a requirement for a general manager position.
Modern Pak Pte Ltd: Stating “age range requirements” of “25-35 years old” for an administrative/office assistant position.
Global Citizen Forum: Seeking a director “aged around 30 years”.
Youbook Pte Ltd: Sought a “Singaporean/Singapore PR/Malaysian” for a project manager position for a client company, without informing them about the advertisement or its contents.
Accredit HR Consultancy: Posted an ad on its client’s behalf, stating “Filipinos welcomed” for an assistant store manager position, despite its client not indicating such a preference.
Stafflink Services Pte Ltd: Misinterpreted its client’s requirements for a marketing executive position, putting up an ad indicating a “female environment”, requiring an age range of between “18-26”.
Sky Asia Consulting Pte Ltd: Indicating it “preferred female Chinese” applicants for administration co-ordinator and sales support positions in an ad for a client when the latter did not indicate the preference and was not aware of the ad.
Zingmi Pte Ltd: It included “so let us hear from all the Singapore Permanent Residents from Malaysia – Truly Asia” as part of an ad for a bank treasury dealer position on behalf of a client, despite the client company not instructing them to do so.
Earlier this year in March, two other companies, Expedia Singapore and Incofood Singapore, were investigated by the ministry for discriminatory hiring practices. They, too, published public apologies for their actions.
“MOM expects all employers doing business in Singapore to comply with the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices, and put in place fair employment practices,” the ministry said in its statement. “MOM views non-compliance with the Tripartite Guidelines seriously, and strongly urges companies and and employment agencies acting on their behalf to familiarise themselves (with the guidelines).”
This announcement from the ministry comes two days after the introduction of new rules on companiesseeking to apply for employment passes that will kick in on 1 August next year, alongside a hike in minimum EP salary requirements that takes effect next year. Read more about them here.
Reported by Yahoo! Newsroom