Survey on Perceptions of Discriminatory Hiring and Other HR Practices to Include Employee Respondents

22 Mr Leon Perera asked the Minister for Manpower (a) whether a Government survey including employee respondents has been conducted on perceptions of discriminatory hiring and other HR practices, as a follow-up to past surveys focusing on employer respondents; and (b) if so, when will the findings be made public.

The Minister of State for Manpower (Mr Zaqy Mohamad) (for the Minister for Manpower): Mr Speaker, let me begin by saying this: the Government does not tolerate any form of workplace discrimination. In a 2018 survey commissioned by MOM, over 80% of job seekers did not feel that their gender, marital status, number of children, race, religion or nationality was an impediment in finding work. The majority of employees also felt that they were fairly treated in their organisation, in terms of their employment terms and benefits, training, career development and performance evaluation.

MOM and the Tripartite Alliance on Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) follow up on feedback and complaints about workplace discrimination. This is complemented by TAFEP's efforts to promote and advise employers on fair employment practices.

Rather than depend on perception surveys alone, MOM relies on other indicators too, for evidence of workplace discrimination. A good indicator is the number of complaints, which decreased from about 580 in 2015 to about 200 in 2018 and constitutes less than 1% of all complaints received. Discriminatory job advertisements have become rare and employment outcomes of groups such as women and older workers have also improved in the past decade. The employment rate of older residents aged 55 to 64 increased from 57% in 2009 to 68% in 2019, and that of female residents aged 25 to 64 increased from 64% to 73% over the same period. We have also seen that the adjusted gender pay gap has also narrowed over time, down from 8.8% in 2002 to 6.3% in 2018.

Mr Leon Perera (Non-Constituency Member): Mr Speaker, Sir, I thank the Minister of State for his reply. Just a few supplementary questions. I believe the Minister of State mentioned that 80% of job seekers do not perceive any kind of discrimination. Just to clarify, was this a survey of both job seekers and those already in jobs? Did the survey cover both job seekers and those who are already in jobs about the perception of discriminatory HR practices? Or was it only job seekers? And if it covered both, was there any difference in the findings between those who are job seekers and those who are already in jobs about their perception of HR practices in their company?

Secondly, of the 20% who did perceive some form of discriminatory practice, can the Minister of State share what was the breakdown by the type of discrimination perceived – be it by gender or nationality or other type for that 20%? Thirdly, what was the sample size of this survey and fourthly has it already been made public or and if not, will it also be published in full?

Mr Zaqy Mohamad: I thank the Member for his questions. MOM's survey or Fair Employment Practices are nationally representative and because they provide credible gauge of ground sentiment. So, we do this regularly, just to get ground-sensing. And the 2018 survey cover approximately 3,100 individuals and 3,400 establishments. As our surveys have shown, the majority of employers adopt Fair Employment Practices, but nonetheless, we recognise too that there will be minority of employers who deliberately circumvent employment principles and requirements.

For actual details, the Member may want to file a separate Parliamentary Question because this was really just about whether we have a survey or not. But just to answer the Member's question on whether this will be made public, we will publish an occasional paper on fair employment in the later part of this year, so do stay tuned.