55% of workers surveyed in Singapore have faced workplace discrimination within the past five years

When it came to seeking recourse, more than half (54%) of respondents who had experienced workplace discrimination did not report it to any channels including their HR team.

According to a recent survey by AWARE in partnership with Milieu Insight, around one in two workers in Singapore have experienced workplace discrimination in the past five years.

For these insights, the survey polled 1,000 respondents on their experiences in the previous five years of the following, if any:

1. Direct discrimination - Had respondents ever been treated less favourably at work because of factors such as their age, race, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, etc.?
2. Indirect discrimination - Had any company policy or organisational practice put them and others like them at a particular disadvantage compared with those who did not share the same characteristics?
3. Discrimination-related harassment - Had respondents experienced conduct that made them feel disrespected or that made their work environments intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive, based on aforementioned characteristics?

While 55% of all respondents had experienced at least one form of discrimination, certain groups proved more vulnerable to discrimination at work than others: Persons with disabilities experienced discrimination at a significantly higher rate (78%) than persons without disabilities (50%), as did LGBTQ persons (68%) compared to those who did not identify as LGBTQ (56%).

This was also applicable for those of minority race (89%) compared to those of majority race (44%). In terns of gender, 58% of women had experienced at least one type of discrimination compared to 53% of men.

For more details per group, refer to the graphic below.

Overall, the three most common experiences of discrimination were:

• Unfair company policies or practices, e.g. inaccessible office spaces, or prohibitions against flexible schedules that made it difficult for workers to manage family responsibilities - 18% of all respondents experienced this.
• Job advertisements that mandated or specified preference for certain characteristics that were not job requirements - 17% of all respondents experienced this.
• Discriminatory employment practices in relation to performance appraisal and promotion, e.g. receiving a poorer performance appraisal after disclosing pregnancy, disability or health conditions - 17% of all respondents experienced this.

For the full list of instances, refer to the graphic below.

When asked the grounds upon which they faced discrimination, respondents chose race (41% of those who experienced discrimination), age (35%) and gender (23%) as the top three. Others included: family responsibilities (18%), religion (16%), marital status (11%), medical conditions (7%), sexual orientation (7%), gender identity (6%), pregnancy (6%) and disability (5%). (the data is shared in the image above)

Corinna Lim, Executive Director of AWARE, commented: "The findings highlight particular ‘pain points’ that deserve attention, such as indirect discrimination, which is frequently left out of conversations and policy decisions."

Lim pointed out that AWARE’s Workplace Harassment and Discrimination Advisory (WHDA) has seen a rise in discrimination cases since its inception in 2019. WHDA saw 59 discrimination cases in the first two quarters of 2022, up from 44 in the same period of 2021, and 26 in 2020.

When it came to seeking recourse, 54% of respondents who had experienced workplace discrimination did not report it to any channels (e.g. human resources, a boss or senior, Ministry of Manpower and so on). Most of those who did not report (36%) cited their reason for not doing so as not believing that the discrimination was “severe” enough. This was then followed by not trusting authorities to act on the report (30%) and not having enough evidence of discrimination (29%).

An almost identical proportion of those who reported discrimination (29%) and those who did not report (28%) ended up quitting their jobs. Other actions taken by those who reported included avoiding their perpetrator as much as possible (34%); requesting transfer to another department or location (29%) and refraining from applying for jobs in that industry (13%).

Of those who did not report, besides quitting, 23% avoided their perpetrator while 4% requested transfer and another 4% refrained from applying to jobs in that industry.

“The adverse career impacts on even those who did report discrimination are a grim indictment of organisations’ ability to deal with this issue,” said Lim. 

ALSO READ: What makes fair hiring? Developing a fair and effective job ad

Lead image / Provided

Follow us on Telegram and on Instagram @humanresourcesonline for all the latest HR and manpower news from around the region!