What you need to know
- From 1 October 2020, licensed employment agencies (EAs) in Singapore will be subject to stricter licence conditions which require them to take various steps to prevent discriminatory recruitment and hiring practices.
- Further details on the new licence conditions for EAs will be released in due course.
What you need to do
- Employers, regardless of whether they utilise EAs for recruitment, should familiarise and comply with Singapore's anti-discriminatory framework.
The Singapore economy has been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in increasing levels of retrenchments and overall unemployment. With a large number of job seekers in the market, the Singapore Government has announced stricter licence conditions for EAs starting from 1 October 2020. These licence conditions require EAs to comply with Singapore's anti-discrimination framework and are intended to build on recent amendments to the Fair Consideration Framework (FCF) (previous discussed by us here and here) in advancing the policy objective of maintaining a strong Singapore core in the workforce.
Singapore's anti-discrimination framework
While Singapore does not have a framework of dedicated anti-discrimination legislation, this area of employment is nonetheless subject to regulation, primarily in the form of the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices (Fair Employment Guidelines). The Fair Employment Guidelines apply to employment practices such as recruitment and hiring, performance management, and dismissals. In the recruitment and hiring context, the Employment Guidelines require employers to recruit and select employees on the basis of merit and to not apply any discriminatory criteria. According to the Tripartite Guidelines, such discriminatory criteria are age, gender, race, religion, language, nationality (particularly if a preference for non-Singaporeans is shown), marital status and family responsibilities.
As with other guidelines and advisories issued by the Tripartite Partners, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) monitors compliance with the Fair Employment Guidelines and may take enforcement action if necessary in the event of non-compliance. As part of compliance with the FCF, Employers are required to comply with the Fair Employment Guidelines, and particularly to give due consideration to Singaporean candidates for their job openings.
Conditions on EAs
Commonly known as "recruitment agencies" or "recruitment firms", EAs essentially seek to place job seekers with employers. Noting that EAs handle a large portion of recruitment on behalf of employers, the MOM proposes to introduce new licence conditions to make clear the obligations of EAs to uphold fair hiring.
From 1 October 2020, EAs, as part of their licence conditions, must:
- comply with the Fair Employment Guidelines when recruiting on behalf of their clients by clearly stating the selection criteria (which should be fair and objective) in every job advertisement and not using any discriminatory language in the advertisement. EAs must also shortlist and refer applicants based solely on merit and not discriminate against any applicant on a ground which is irrelevant to the requirements of the role;
- brief their clients (both existing and new) of the relevant requirements set out in the Fair Employment Guidelines at least once and retain documentary proof of such briefing. EAs are also required to brief their clients on any subsequent changes to the Fair Employment Guidelines; and
- make reasonable efforts to attract Singapore candidates for vacancies, unless otherwise instructed in writing by the employer.
There will also be other licence conditions on EAs regarding disclosure of personal information, reporting of discriminatory practices, and retention of documents.
EAs who do not comply with the licence conditions may face enforcement action from the MOM in the form of demerit points, suspension or revocation of their licence. Serious breaches may even result in criminal prosecution.
Impact on employers who engage EAs
Once the stricter licence conditions take effect, it will be clear that the Fair Employment Guidelines will apply to the same extent to recruitment done through an EA as it does to that done in-house. Employers must therefore ensure that its outsourced recruitment processes are robust and implement the appropriate safeguards from a risk and compliance perspective.
As a matter of best practice, employers should carefully document all communications with the EAs engaged by them regarding their requirements for the job and their consideration of any applicants put forward by the EAs. At the same time, employers should continue to document their in-house recruitment processes. This particularly applies where the employer intends to implement a legitimate recruitment practice which may nonetheless give rise to misunderstanding, such as directing an EA to search only for foreign candidates because the employer intends to utilise its internal resources to search for local candidates.
Conclusion
Employers and EAs should note the upcoming changes to the licensing regime and take it as a further example of the Singapore Government's ongoing commitment to Singaporeans in the workforce. For further information, please contact any of the key persons listed below.
