SINGAPORE – Regardless of race, language, or religion - this mantra has been repeated through Singapore society since independence, but it's taken a while to finally enshrine it in workplace legislation.

On Wednesday 8th January 2025, the Singapore Parliament passed a Workplace Fairness Bill formally defining a series of protected characteristics that employers may not use as the basis for disadvantageous treatment of employees or job seekers. These are:

• Age
• Nationality
• Sex, marital status, pregnancy status, and caregiving responsibilities
• Race, religion, and language
• Disability and mental health conditions

The new legislation follows several years of tracking workplace discrimination complaints, the formation of a committee on workplace fairness to tackle discrimination issues, and the release of guidelines and recommendations.

Workplace discrimination in Singapore was a noticeable problem up to the late 2010s. Data from the Ministry of Manpower shows that in 2018, almost one quarter of employees and over 40 percent of job seekers faced discrimination. Age discrimination was the most common type, with nationality and sex discrimination following closely.

Several cases of discrimination against pregnant employees also made mainstream media headlines in subsequent years, and women's rights advocacy non-profit AWARE reported over 200 cases of maternity discrimination between 2019 and 2023 - ironic in a country with an ageing population and falling fertility rates.

In 2021, the Singapore government set up a Tripartite Committee on Workplace Fairness to review whether existing practices and measures to counter workplace discrimination were sufficient. Two years later, in February 2023, the committee released a set of recommendations for legislating anti-discrimination and fairness practices. The government accepted the recommendations in August of the same year, and the outcome is this year's Workplace Fairness Bill.

It is the first time Singapore has passed legislation specifically defining protected characteristics.

All this being said, fair employment practices have largely become expected in Singapore due to ongoing pressure from the government. As early as 2014, the government's Fair Consideration Framework had required employers to give local workers equal opportunities in hiring, right down to the wording of job advertisements, following intense controversy around preference being given to foreign candidates.

Singapore is not unique in the region in trying to tackle employment discrimination. Neighbouring countries have had broad statutes pertaining to the issue for some years. Malaysia's Employment Act, for instance, provides for employees to raise complaints around discrimination and bans employers from firing locals in order to hire foreign workers.

Indonesia also has laws around equal pay for men and women, specifically bans firing employees on grounds of religion, political orientation, ethnicity, color, race, sex, physical condition, or marital status, and requires employers to give job seekers equal treatment and employees equal rights, specifically including the disabled.