New rules have been introduced for employment agencies in Singapore. The agencies will need to fulfill this and other new conditions to be licensed by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) from Oct 1 onwards.

It added that employment agencies with good hiring practices will be chosen as "placement partners", to help local job seekers secure jobs and traineeships under the SGUnited Jobs and Skills Package.

This comes as the Government moves to strengthen job opportunities for Singaporeans amid the more difficult labor market conditions as a result of Covid-19.

There are about 3,900 licensed agencies here and they fill about three in 10 job vacancies, said Manpower Minister Josephine Teo in a Facebook post on Monday.

“Most help to uphold fair hiring but every year, we still get about 20 complaints. Clearly, there’s scope to bring EAs on board to uphold fair hiring,” she said, adding that discrimination must not be tolerated anywhere, especially at the workplace.

Under the new rules, employment agencies must comply with the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices when recruiting for employers, who are their clients. These include having consistent and fair selection criteria throughout the recruitment process, such as in job application forms and interviews, and hiring and developing a Singaporean core.

Employment agencies must also make “reasonable efforts” to attract Singaporeans to the positions they are trying to fill.  Agencies must also consider all candidates based on merit, and not discriminate based on factors such as age, race, nationality, religion, marital status and family responsibilities, gender, and disability. They must turn down requests or instructions from clients to carry out discriminatory hiring.

Employment agencies that fail to comply with the licensing conditions may be given demerit points, have their license suspended or revoked, or face prosecution said the MOM.

A ministry spokesman said that those who act in a manner detrimental to public interest can already be taken to task under the Employment Agencies Act, but the new licensing conditions clearly state their specific obligations to uphold fair hiring, in line with the tripartite guidelines which employers are also required to follow.

They can also be taken to task under the Fair Consideration Framework, which was introduced in 2014 to specifically target discrimination against locals.

Under the framework, firms with at least 10 employees must advertise openings for jobs paying below $20,000 a month on the national MyCareersFuture.sg portal for at least 14 days before applying for an employment pass for a foreigner.

Those found guilty of discriminatory hiring practices will not be able to apply for new work passes nor renew existing work passes for between 12 and 24 months.