5 Companies Punished for Hiring Only Younger Candidates As It’s Considered Discriminatory Hiring

By
Boon Hun
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When hiring managers put out their hiring ads for candidates, they’ll probably have the image of an ideal candidate in their mind based on the role.

Someone who is outgoing.

Maybe a male is needed.

Or even a certain age, maybe.

But here’s the thing: even if they have this image in mind, they can’t exactly air this out, even if they think it’ll save them and the candidates some time.

If not, they could end up like these 5 companies we’re going to talk about.

5 Companies Punished for Hiring Only Younger Candidates As It’s Considered Discriminatory Hiring

On 25 Jul 2020, it was reported that five companies are being punished for discriminatory hiring by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

They are:

  • Wisdomtree Learning Centre
  • Outshinerz Events
  • Security & Risk Solutions
  • Incredible Service Doc
  • IDOC Pte Ltd

What They Did

These five companies had “placed discriminatory job advertisements, or had indicated preferences for candidates of a certain age group during the hiring process.”

Wisdomtree Learning Centre had indicated that they wanted someone younger than 30 years old in an ad placed on mycareerfuture.sg for a senior Chinese teacher.

Outshinerz Events had also indicated their age requirements in ads for three different positions:

  • customer relations executive
  • project management trainee
  • product marketing executive

They had posted the ads on Fastjobs.sg on 31 Jul last year.

Security & Risk Solutions had posted two jobs ads on WhatsApp for the position of a security officer, one indicating that they’ll prefer someone below 40 years old and the other indicating a preference for candidates below 50 years old.

Incredible Services and IDOC Pte Ltd, under the same group (Incredible), came to the authorities’ attention after a candidate claimed that she was rejected “immediately” after being told “she was too old for the job”.

MOM investigated them and found that both companies have failed to adopt fair hiring practices.

They had:

  • discriminated against candidates on account of their age
  • and made egregiously discriminatory remarks to an applicant

Penalties

All five companies attempted to explain the requirements, either because they needed someone more vibrant and able to connect to the youths, or that the role required physical fitness that is more than what older people can typically muster.

Unfortunately, the MOM doesn’t think their reasons are valid.

All five companies are not allowed to hire foreign workers for 12 months. They are also not allowed to renew the work passes for existing foreign workers in their employment for the same period.

Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices

Companies in Singapore are expected to abide by the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices.

While it sounds chim, it’s basically a “Singapore Kindness Movement” for businesses here.

Or, how to not be a jerk to your employees.

Companies must:

  • Recruit based on merit
  • Respect employees
  • Provide fair opportunities
  • Reward fairly
  • And comply with labour law

There are also certain areas that these guidelines will apply to:

Should any companies be found breaching the guidelines? They’ll be punished just like the five companies mentioned above.

Watch this for a complete summary of what REALLY happened to Qoo10, and why it's like a K-drama:

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Boon Hun
Email: [email protected]
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