Amid concerns over possible unfair hiring practices prioritising foreigners, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) set up the Fair Consideration Framework (FCF) to guide employers on non-discriminatory practices.
On Wednesday (5 Aug), MOM said that they’ve identified and placed 47 employers under the FCF watchlist due to some raised flags, according to The Straits Times.
There are about 1,200 other employers previously put on the watchlist. It’s not known how many are still on it.
According to MOM, 30 employers are in the financial and professional services sectors.
They can range from lawyers, advertising firms, consultation services, and more.
The other 17 deal with admin and support services, along with manufacturing and education sectors.
MOM said that 18 companies in the watchlist have more than half their workforce consisting of foreigners in professional positions (PMETs).
Another 30 employers had a high concentration of PMETs from 1 nationality in the financial and professional sectors.
Although the employers are on the watchlist, no action will be taken unless their future Employment Pass (EP) applications continue to show discriminatory practices.
This may result in less work pass privileges if an employer hasn’t been fair in their hiring practices.
In other words, they may be forbidden from hiring and renewing work pass applications for at least 12 months, and up to 24 months.
The aim is ultimately so that employers won’t pass up Singaporeans, even though the ones on the watchlist do employ them.
During this economical climate, there are record numbers of retrenchments and unemployed Singaporeans.
While many companies are doing badly, this is not to say that they can’t hire foreigners if they feel they can meet their work needs.
However, if they consistently neglect Singaporeans in favour of foreigners, MOM will take action.
They said that more than 100 employers from financial and professional services sectors were removed from the list since committing to improve their hiring.
We hope that Singaporeans, too, don’t encounter discriminatory hiring practices in Singapore. If anyone has heard of any such behaviour, they can report them to MOM.
Featured image by MS News.
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