WORKPLACE discrimination in Singapore has continued to decline, with 6 per cent of residents in the labour force experiencing discrimination in 2023, down from 8.2 per cent in 2022, and 8.5 per cent in 2021.
Incidences of discrimination faced by job seekers have also declined slightly, according to data from a Ministry of Manpower (MOM) report released on Tuesday (Sep 24).
Some 23.4 per cent of resident job seekers reported discriminatory treatment during their search, compared with 23.8 per cent in 2022 and 25.8 per cent in 2021.
However, despite the decline in workplace discrimination, a smaller proportion of employees who experienced it chose to seek help.
In 2023, 29.3 per cent of employees who experienced workplace discrimination sought assistance from their employers, down from 35.3 per cent in 2022, but higher than the 20 per cent reported in 2021.
As in previous years, the primary reason for not seeking help – cited by 24.4 per cent of those affected – was the fear of being marginalised or creating awkward work relationships. Concerns about potential harm to their career (18.2 per cent) also played a significant role.
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“These findings suggest the need for more efforts to instil confidence (in) employees to seek help from available channels,” MOM said.
Incidences of workplace and job-search discrimination are assessed based on personal attributes such as age, sex, race, religion, nationality, family status, disability and mental health conditions. In 2023, gender identity and criminal history were added to the list.
Age was still the most common form of discrimination in the workplace, affecting 2.6 per cent of employees in 2023, followed by race (1.7 per cent), nationality (1.6 per cent) and mental health (1.6 per cent).
Employees who faced workplace discrimination most commonly reported unfair treatment related to salaries (43.4 per cent) and bonuses (26.8 per cent), as well as workload distribution (33.7 per cent) and daily interactions at work (26.8 per cent).
For job seekers, age similarly remained the most prevalent form of discrimination (18.1 per cent) during their search in 2023, followed by race (5.1 per cent) and nationality (4.8 per cent).
For those who faced discrimination during their job search, the most common source was job advertisements specifying demographic preferences (45.7 per cent).
This was followed by discriminatory experiences where employers requested irrelevant personal information (28.3 per cent), and instances of being passed over for jobs due to demographic characteristics (28.3 per cent).
“The proportion of job seekers who faced discrimination due to their age during (their) job search rose from 16.6 per cent in 2022 to 18.1 per cent in 2023,” noted Ang Boon Heng, director of the manpower research and statistics department at MOM.
“The upcoming Workplace Fairness Legislation will send a stronger signal that age discrimination of job seekers is not acceptable,” he added. He was referring to an upcoming law that will enhance protections against discrimination and provide assurance to workers that they can report incidents without fearing retaliation.
Tuesday’s report also revealed that the presence of formal procedures was statistically significant in reducing the likelihood of most forms of discrimination.
In 2023, 63.2 per cent of resident employees worked in organisations with formal procedures to manage workplace discrimination, up from 59.8 per cent in 2022 and 54 per cent in 2021.
Said MOM: “In particular, formal procedures were effective in managing workplace discrimination due to age and sex.”
The report is based on a survey conducted from Jul 3 to Sep 18, 2023, which received responses from 3,480 residents in the labour force aged 15 and above, excluding full-time national servicemen.
Respondents were asked whether they had experienced discrimination, based on actual incidents they encountered while employed or during a job search.
