Bukit Batok Condo Management Called Out For Racism & Ageism in Tender For Security Services

By
Shawn Ambrose
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If there’s one thing almost everyone can agree on, it’s that all members of society, regardless of their ethnicity, age, or sex, should be afforded the same opportunities in life.

Schools shouldn’t discriminate when admitting students, the government shouldn’t neglect a particular group in its policies, and companies should base their hiring policies on merit.

But it’s one thing to hope for such a society to exist, and another altogether for it to actually form.

In the past year, several incidents involving racial abuse have been reported, alarming both residents and the authorities.

Now, it isn’t a bystander on the street or a certain ex-lecturer from Ngee Ann Poly that has been called out, but a management agency.

Bukit Batok Condo Management Called Out For Racism & Ageism

The Security Association Singapore (SAS) has called out a condominium’s management company for a tender that allegedly discriminates against older workers and non-Mandarin speakers.

Savills Property Management, which manages Hillview Heights, released a tender on 3 Sep for security services at the condo.

It was posted on the e-marketplace site Really Singapore.

What irked the association was that the tender asked for guards who speak Mandarin and are below the age of 60.

Moreover, the tender stated that the security agency that would provide the guards could face financial penalties of $100 a shift if it fails to provide “a Chinese-speaking guard” for more than six shifts each month.

Confusingly, the tender added that dialects are “acceptable”, which would seem to imply that the company was merely looking for Chinese security guards since some dialects and Mandarin are not mutually intelligible.

As the SAS said:

“It appears that the intention is for an ethnically Chinese officer to be deployed on a frequent basis at the condominium. This would be race discrimination.”

“Furthermore, for a Singapore condominium, is it a reasonable requirement for a Chinese-speaking officer to be deployed at all times?” it added.

Savills said it may also impose fines of $100 on security agencies each time a guard younger than 21 years old or older than 60 years old is deployed without the management’s approval.

“It appears there is just an intention for older workers not to be deployed at the site,” the SAS added.

SAS Will Raise Issue With TAFEP

Detailing their concern over the tender in a Facebook post, the SAS said it would raise the issue with the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (Tafep) and the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

“…but we are also well aware that there may not be much they can do, because the fair employment guidelines apply only to employers,” SAS said.

That’s why management agencies like Savills and those who engage such services, like Hillview Heights, may be able to get away with “forcing service providers like security agencies to carry out discriminatory practices” SAS said.

SAS added that it raised this “gap in the law” last year to MOM, urging for the guidelines on hiring practices to be extended to “buyers of outsourced services” as well.

“We will continue to monitor tenders and contracts put out by MAs and buyers for clauses that are discriminatory,” it said.

Average of 400 Case of Employment Discrimination Investigated Yearly For Last 3 Years

Back in March, the authorities said that they have investigated an average of 400 cases of possible employment discrimination annually in the past three years.

6 out of 10 of these cases involved discrimination based on nationality.

An average of 50 employers a year have had their work pass privileges suspended due to this discrimination.

There’s clearly a problem here, and hopefully, it won’t be left unresolved.

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Shawn Ambrose
Email: [email protected]