Hearsay a lot of people feel their companies got gender discrimination… Your company have or not?
This survey NTUC’s Women and Family Wing and the PAP Women’s Wing did to study the issue of gender discrimination in workplaces in Singapore got some interesting findings…
The survey polled 3,097 respondents, 70% of them being women. Apparently hor, 2 in 10 women think their companies favour male candidates when hiring! One in 10 men also feel that their companies favour female candidates when hiring.
On promotion or career advancement, the survey also found that one in 10 female respondents, as compared to one in 20 male respondents, said that they have been passed over for promotion or career advancement because of their gender!
Sadly, according to the survey findings, only 40% of women surveyed are willing to report gender discrimination, as compared to 60% of men.
Why they are unwilling to report? Scared to make someone lose their job, and the fear of losing their own job. ☹ Some respondents even said that they did not know where to report…
When speaking to the media on 3 March, NTUC U SME and U WAF Director Yeo Wan Ling shared that she wants to raise awareness of avenues available to report workplace harassment and gender discrimination and also protect whistleblowers. She went on to share that not everybody is able to fully say out what they feel. True lor… So one of the things that the U WAF wants to try to do is train employers to not only have the awareness on what to do when someone reports… but also train workers and employees to be able to substantiate their feelings with an articulation of why they have a grievance. Steady lah, this labour MP! 👍
Not just that, SMEs also want to join in the labour union to fight gender bias and harassment in the workplace! Chief growth officer Jaslyn Chan of retailer IUIGA, said they started having harassment protection practices five years ago after a male employee stalked a customer… It then brushed up its code on bullying and verbal abuses after going through a checklist provided by U WAF. Even with more than half her 60-member workforce being women, Ms Chan said, championing the initiative sends a positive signal to her team.
You know lah, about 280,000 SMEs employ around 70% of the workforce in Singapore. So this is a good start. Now you know where to go if got people harass you at work or you’re facing gender discrimination in the workplace! But of course, hope you don’t kena…
Ministry of Manpower (MOM)
Phone: 6438 5122
Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP)
Phone: 6838 0969
National Trades Union Congress (NTUC)
Phone: 6213 8008
Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF)
Phone: 6827 6927
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