Mr Muhaimin described the exclusion of outsourced workers, who are often older workers in lower income jobs, as a “significant gap” in this Bill. Currently, tripartite advisory for this group of workers does not include anti-discriminatory practices by service buyers.
“This creates a troubling situation where service buyers can specify preferred race, age or religion of the workers, forcing service providers to implement discriminatory practices or face contractual penalties,” the first-time MP said.
Likewise, Mr Cai Yinzhou (PAP-Bishan Toa Payoh) was concerned about the Bill’s exclusion of outsourced workers and freelancers, including platform workers which total up to about 67,600 last year.
In response, Dr Tan said the new legislation focuses on protecting workers in employee-employer relationships as the authorities want to take a “sure-footed and prudent approach” in implementing the law.
However, he stressed that the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices will be updated to clarify that platform operators and corporate service buyers should not discriminate based on “non job-related characteristics”.
A POWER IMBALANCE?
Several MPs also brought up concerns on how the proposed law might favour employers, given an asymmetry of power.
