Almost a Quarter of Survey Respondents Believe Gender Discrimination in the Workplace Exists

A month-long survey conducted by NTUC’s U Women and Family (U WAF) Unit and the People’s Action Party (PAP) Women’s Wing of over 3,000 male and female respondents found that 23 per cent of them believe that gender discrimination exists in the workplace today.

However, results showed that only two out of five women were willing to report their discrimination experience, as compared to three out of five men.

The main reasons cited for not doing so included the fear of losing their job or causing someone to lose theirs.

The lack of a clear reporting framework was also cited as a reason.

NTUC U SME and U WAF Director Yeo Wan Ling revealed the survey findings on 3 March 2022.

She also made clear her intentions to raise awareness of avenues available to report workplace harassment and gender discrimination while protecting whistleblowers who report such incidents.

She said: “There are actually two needs. The first need is for our HR policies within companies to have a better, escalation pathway for people to be able to report this [workplace discrimination], and also to report this without fear of retaliation.

“The second thing is actually to better equip our employees to be able to recognise what workplace discrimination and what genuine grievances are; a way for them to articulate it in a way that HR policies would be able to action on.”

Committing to Make a Difference

Meanwhile, four SMEs also signed an agreement with NTUC at the event.

They pledged to implement fair recruitment and employment practices, as well as to maintain a work environment that is safe from harassment with proper grievance handling procedures.

The four SMEs were IUIGA, Scanteak Singapore, Oriental Remedies Group and Xi De Li.

A further 18 SMEs, all of which are partners of NTUC U SME, will sign the agreement on 5 March 2022.

However, Ms Yeo said she hopes that more SMEs would come forward to work with NTUC.

“We would like to encourage more SMEs to tap on our resources and knowledge base for guidance to develop effective policies, and to join us in committing to make workplaces safe and fair for all. U WAF will continue championing fair, inclusive and progressive workplaces for all employees,” she said.

Fairer and More Progressive Workplaces

U WAF will embark on a three-pronged approach to assist SMEs in building fairer and more progressive workplaces.

First, U WAF will set out to create greater awareness on workplace harassment and gender discrimination by engaging SME employers through dialogues, talks and webinars.

It will also provide advice and resources to assist SMEs in formulating clear human resource policies, communication procedures and channels for reporting workplace grievances.

Third, it will provide training for SMEs’ human resource professionals and management personnel to manage such workplace grievances.

Ms Yeo noted that workplace discrimination is not an issue faced only by women.

“I do believe that gender discrimination is an issue that isn't just related to women only. Our survey did include both men and women to talk about this. So I hope that going forward that this will be something that is a whole-of-society effort, because it does take the whole society to recognise gender discrimination and harassment at the workplace,” she said.