Workplace Fairness Bill Passed in Parliament to Establish Fair Employment Practices, Protections from Discrimination

On 8 January 2025, the landmark Workplace Fairness Bill (“Bill“) was passed in Parliament. The Bill will complement the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices (“TGFEP“) by:

1. strengthening protections against discrimination for jobseekers and employees, while retaining flexibility for employers to meet genuine business needs.

• • Clauses 5, 6, 7 and 17 of the Bill prohibits employers from making an adverse employment decision on the ground of a protected characteristic. Examples of adverse employment decisions include declining to hire a jobseeker, giving an employee a poor performance appraisal, denying a promotion opportunity, or dismissing them because the jobseeker or employee has a protected characteristic.
  • Clauses 18 and 19 also prohibits company policies or job advertisements that discriminate on the ground of a protected characteristic.
  • The protected characteristics set out in the Bill fall into five categories: (i) Age; (ii) Nationality; (iii) Sex, Marital Status, Pregnancy and Caregiving Responsibilities; (iv) Race, Religion and Language Ability; and (v) Disability and Mental Health Conditions.

2. providing for grievance-handling processes to promote better communication and amicable resolution of workplace issues.

• • Clause 27 of the Bill requires firms to inquire into the grievance they have received, review it, and inform the employee of the result. The employee’s confidentiality must also be protected to the extent possible.
  • Clause 28 of the Bill prohibits employers from retaliating against employees who file complaints and claims. 

3. providing calibrated enforcement levers to deal with egregiously unfair employment practices.

• • A one-stop resource website has been set up for employers, employees, and Human Resources (HR) professionals. There will also be training resources, briefings, clinics, and webinars, including those catered to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
  • Under Part 7 of the Bill, less severe breaches may result in the Ministry of Manpower (“MOM“) issuing directions to attend educational workshops and administrative financial penalties. For more severe breaches, MOM can bring the offenders to Court to recommend heavier civil penalties. For body corporates, this ranges from a maximum fine of S$5,000 for civil contraventions to penalties of S$250,000 for repeated serious civil contraventions.

Additional resources

In the Second Reading Speech and Round Up Speech for the Bill, the Minister for Manpower (“Minister“) noted that various resources are in the works, including:

• for disabilities: a Tripartite Advisory for Reasonable Accommodations to raise awareness and provide practical guidance to employers in relation to accommodations for persons with disabilities;
• for age discrimination: guidelines and resources to support training and job redesign;
• for mental health conditions: further guidance on what constitutes a genuine job requirement to prevent inadvertent discrimination; and
• for platform workers and outsourced workers: updates to the TGFEP to clarify that platform operators and corporate service buyers should not discriminate based on non-job-related characteristics.

Implementation

The Bill is expected to take effect in 2026 or 2027, together with a second bill that will set out claims procedures and implement amendments to the Employment Claims Act (if passed).

In recognition of the difficulties that small firms may have in achieving full compliance immediately, clause 4 of the Bill exempts firms with fewer than 25 employees. This exemption will be reviewed five years after the Bill comes into effect, although it should be emphasised that such firms will still need to maintain compliance with the TGFEP.

It is also important to note that in the Second Reading Speech, the Minister emphasised that “MOM and TAFEP will support you. You will not be turned away simply because it is not a protected characteristic. The TGFEP will continue to cover all other forms of workplace discrimination [emphasis added]”, making clear that the Government will continue to pursue and tackle workplace discrimination even if based on other characteristics.

Click on the following links for more information:

Available on the MOM website at www.mom.gov.sg:

• MOM Speech titled “Second Reading Speech at Workplace Fairness Legislation Bill”
• MOM Speech titled “Round Up Speech at Workplace Fairness Bill”
• MOM Press Release titled “Passing Of Workplace Fairness Bill Marks Next Step In Building Fair and Harmonious Workplaces”

Available on the Singapore Statutes Online website at sso.agc.gov.sg:

• Full text of the Bill

Rajah & Tann Singapore publication:

• November 2024 Legal Update titled “Landmark Workplace Fairness Bill Introduced in Parliament: Key Obligations and Practical Pointers”