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The Ministry of Manpower and the Tripartite Alliance for Fair Employment Practices (TAFEP) released new guidelines in early November for fair employment practices.  The main purpose of the guidelines is to curb discrimination against Singaporeans and ensure that Singaporeans will be the majority in the workforce. 

As the Singaporean economy has been experiencing high growth with a 14.5% increase in 2010, more foreigners are entering Singapore for the lucrative business opportunities.  There have been growing claims of discrimination against Singaporean workers. Workers and labor unions claim that foreign managers prefer to hire foreigners over Singaporeans.

As a result, the government has created set of guidelines to ensure that two-thirds of every company’s payroll must be Singaporean.  This “core” of Singaporean workers is expected to exist in every major sector of the economy.  The TAFEP, made up of employers, workers and government, will use these guidelines when campaigning for fair employment practices.

The government is choosing to have guidelines rather than setting down laws to protect the employers.  This is because mandatory requirements would force many businesses to close.  However, Minister of State for Manpower Tan Chuan-Jin expects that most employers will follow the guidelines.