Mr President, the Singapore National Trades Union Congress delegation joins other delegates to congratulate you on being elected to preside over the 96th Session of the International Labour Conference.
Discrimination
In Singapore, we recognised that discrimination is very difficult to prove, and therefore it is difficult to enforce. As such, we decided that we would make continuous efforts to educate the employers and public on the issue. Early in 1999, the tripartite partners, that is, the Singapore National Employers’ Federation, the Ministry of Manpower and the Singapore National Trades Union Congress issued the “Tripartite Guidelines on Non-discriminatory Job Advertisements” to promote the use of objective criteria in the recruitment of job candidates. In 2001, at the National Manpower Summit, the tripartite partners endorsed a statement which states that “In line with the principle of meritocracy, employers will select candidate for jobs based on merit, experience, capability and other relevant job requirements.” In 2002, the tripartite partners jointly issued a “Code of Responsible Employment Practices”, based on the principle that staff should be treated fairly and employers should continue to recruit based on skills, merit, experience, capability and relevant job requirements.
Last year, the Singapore’s Tripartite Alliance for Fair Practices (or TAFEP), which was co-chaired by SNTUC, was set up on the recommendation of the Tripartite Committee on Employability of Older Workers, to shift mindsets among employers, employees and the general public, towards fair and responsible employment practices for all workers. Last month, the TAFEP launched a new set of guidelines to fight discrimination at the work place. Following the new guidelines, job application forms asking for a person’s age, gender, race or even photograph are soon going to become a thing of the past in Singapore.
Being a small country with very limited human resources, every citizen is important to us. We can ill-afford to allow discrimination to strip us of the much needed human resources and break up our social fabric. The SNTUC will continue to fight discrimination till the end together with our social partners.
An All Inclusive Labour Movement
As we become more and more globalised, the gap between the rich and poor, skilled and unskilled, permanent and contract workers is increasing. Singapore is no exception. Hence, I am pleased to inform that since last year, the SNTUC has came up with a 5-year plan to bridge the gaps and strive for an all-inclusive labour movement that reaches out to all income groups, especially the lower income, as well as workers of all collars, all nationalities and all ages. We plan to achieve this through job re-design and re-creation, skills upgrading, development of membership benefits and the strengthening of our social partnership with the government and employers.
On this note, I wish all a fruitful conference. Thank you
