What is Tripartite Alliance for Fair & Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP)?

Singapore is a country recorded to have over 5.5 million people and, impressively, with a 100% urban population. It is considered to be the 11th most peaceful and safest country in Asia according to the Global Peace Index. Singapore is a diverse society of multi-ethnic groups and religions.

It focuses on uplifting every section of society irrespective of gender, age, religion, or nationality. They are trying to build an environment that empowers people and ensures they are given employment based on merit and credibility. Talking about employment and empowerment drives us to an important topic — Tripartite Alliance for Fair & Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP).

Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices

In 2006 Tripartite partners, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and Singapore National Employer’s Federation, and the Tripartite Alliance invested the idea of fair and progressive growth in the employment sector as a benefactor to the employer and employees.

The Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices (TAFEP) are implemented in Singapore to ensure fairness, progressive growth, and equal opportunities. In addition, it is to create an understanding and coordination between the employers and employees. With so many people immigrating to Singapore every year, this practice prevents discrimination, encourages employers to build a good relationship with their co-workers, and helps stabilize its growth.

Principles of TAFEP

Merit-based

Regardless of ethnicity, age, gender, religion, race, appearance, other personal commitments, and physical issues, the recruitment must be based on the skills, experience, talent, and ability to show efficient work performance.

Fairness to the employees

Give due respect to the employees and implement a progressive human resource management system that would facilitate their growth.

Provide equal opportunities

Every employee should be given equal opportunities to strengthen their abilities through different training and development programs and achieve their full potential. In addition, personal biases should be strictly kept aside.

Honour the employees

Employees must be rewarded for their work based on a fair and square merit system. Their contribution, effort, and performance shown in the workplace should be accounted for and awarded when due.

Abide by labor laws

Every individual, be it an employee or employer, should abide by the guidelines implemented by the Tripartite Alliance and the country’s labor laws. While hiring, companies should also keep in mind that there is a quota on the number of foreigners they can hire based on their CPF account and should adhere to that.

Employment Practices Governed by TAFEP

As much as you need to know how Tripartite Alliance Guideline benefits the employees of Singapore, it is essential to see the employment practices stated.

Job Advertisements

Instructions and criteria should be explicit when creating the job advertisement, in straightforward language, categorizing the skills, experience, and qualifications under the specific vacancies. At the same time, employees should be considerate when applying for a suitable position and should be careful of scams.

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Age

You are not allowed to limit employees by their age. However, it still depends on what job they need to handle. You could use keywords like preferably young, middle-aged with experience, or able to handle heavy equipment, and such.

Gender

Employers should give equal opportunities to candidates regardless of their gender unless the job demands it. In such cases, you need to mention the reason for hiring a specific gender.

Religion

Religion doesn’t have to be an interference. It should not be a barrier for available job vacancies under any circumstances unless the job is related to cultural and ethnic affairs. The person of that religion might have more knowledge about it. For example, the “Requiring a Muslim teacher who could teach Islam” this kind of criteria must be stated politely under the requirements.

Language

Language can be stipulated as different jobs might require employees to interact with people from that specific region. Linguistic abilities matter when it has to entail the job.

Marital Status

This should not become a barrier and shouldn’t make a difference when applying for jobs. Your personal life doesn’t govern your professional life. This should definitely not be a selection criterion when applying for jobs.

Applications forms for the job

Be vigilant before applying for the job you select. Verify the details, and make sure to choose the relevant field for the job, corresponding to the area of the field of your studies and the required criteria. Of course, candidates have the free will to avoid anything discriminatory, such as marital status and religion. But as stated earlier, employers can add these conditions as long as it’s related to the title and they have enough reasons as to why it’s required. Also, before you provide details for identification, like the NRIC number, passport details, etc., make sure it’s a legitimate job.

Job Interviews

Interviews should be merit-based, fair, and unbiased, with equal rights to the interviewers. This will be the most crucial step in the recruitment process and for employees to get prepared and trained according to the Fair employment practice.

The interview should be recorded. Employees should be faced with one or two interviewers. They must know the Tripartite Alliance Guideline that generates fair employment practices. The selection criteria should not differ from employee to employee, and the interview questions should be directly related to the selection criteria.

Interviewers cannot stipulate or stereotype the employee under any circumstances based on criteria unrelated to the job. The interviewer cannot trigger the employee’s emotions by invading their personal space. The employee must know the mode used to send the interview results and definitely should be informed if they are not selected.

Exams

Some tests need to be taken if required, depending on the job title you apply for. The employer should ensure the candidates are informed about it beforehand.

Employer and Employee’s Role

Employers and employees should be accountable for their actions and abide by the Tripartite Guidelines on fair employment practices (TG. They can create a discrimination-free, respectful, and peaceful working environment by understanding the importance of the guidelines. This helps to boost the performance of the employees. In addition, the staff should also be familiar with the Tripartite Guidelines on fair employment practices to fight for their rights.

This helps communicate and build a strong relationship between the employer and employees to seek grievances from problems arising from discrimination at work. It helps to strengthen fair employment. It’s best to have good communication to understand the roles to contribute to the Tripartite fair employment practices and ensure that candidates are hired to conduct fair recruitment.

Employers and their intermediaries must cooperate and successfully implement the Tripartite fair employment principles in Singapore. This involves changing the mindset of the employment practices, which could be a success through education and promotional efforts. Over time, Singapore’s strong labor-management relations and Tripartite partnership of the tripartite alliance for fair and progressive employment practices will eventually positively impact Singapore’s HR system. It helps stabilize the growth of the organization and the well-being of the employees contributing to organizational excellence.