Re: Retail Operations Manager wanted - for S'pore PR holders only, S'porean go fuck o
Are employers practising racial discrimination?
147th Singapore Prostitute Press, 6 February 1999
"...Interviews with the biggest employment agencies here show that although employers who tend to state their job preferences upfront are generally from smaller firms, the practice is not unique to them.Big Singapore companies and even multinationals also ask for job applicants of a particular race, most often - Chinese...
...But eventually is too far on the horizon for the likes of people like Mr A. Hari, 34, or Zarina Muhammad, 17, to fathom. Both say they have been victims of racial job discrimination. And they believe that unless something is done, minorities will be the ones left behind.
Mr Hari, a technical analyst in computing, spent almost a year trying to find a job, but each time, he says, there would be palpable unease the moment they hear over the telephone that he is not Chinese and the line soon goes click...
...Zarina, a convent girl who is waiting for her O level results, wrote to this newspaper to relate how, in a recent search for vacation jobs, a supervisor of a chain of stores told her it hired Chinese only.
Insight tried contacting the owner of the store, which is patronised by all races, but was told she was abroad. Zarina's friend, Melissa Kok, 17, who was with her and offered a job, vouched for her account...
...Other job-seekers who say they have faced similar discrimination point out that they cannot understand why the preference for Chinese has to be made and Mandarin always specified as a requirement...."
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Full Article - Part 1
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Are employers practising racial discrimination?
Singapore Prostitute Press, 6 February 1999
In recent weeks, letter-writers to The Straits Times have been crying foul over employers who specify race preference in their job advertisements. Does this constitute racial discrimination? Or are bosses just being upfront about their company's needs? ZURAIDAH IBRAHIM finds out.
"ACCOUNTANT - Chinese preferred". "Driver - Malay wanted".
Discrimination? Real or imagined?
The issue of so-called racial discrimination by employers recruiting new staff has been raging recently in The Straits Times Forum Page, with at least nine letters published on it and 18 others unpublished.
Is the practice of seeking employees of a certain race for a particular job a problem? How widespread is this tendency and should Singaporeans be concerned?
Should they worry that it is another sign of how, beneath the unifying plaster of multi-racialism and meritocracy, cracks like race can decide whether one gets by or not?
Interviews with the biggest employment agencies here show that although employers who tend to state their job preferences upfront are generally from smaller firms, the practice is not unique to them. Big Singapore companies and even multinationals also ask for job applicants of a particular race, most often - Chinese.
Manpower, one of the biggest American employment agencies which has five branches here, says that although its parent company in the United States abides by equal opportunity laws and has taken racist clients to court, it accepts a "material number" of requests here from clients insisting on workers of a certain race.
"If we do not take such orders, we might as well close down," says its regional director Christine Raynaud.
At Business Trends, the biggest Singapore agency, group managing director Laletha Dickens says that 70 per cent of its clients specify either race, age or gender, in that order.
"A multinational company may have an equal opportunity stance, but the person doing the hiring brings with him his own prejudices and preferences," she says.
A check with the Classifieds advertisements in this newspaper on Thursday, for example, found that out of 855 jobs being offered, 120 ads, or 14 per cent, asked for people of a specific race, mainly Chinese.
Typically, these positions are mostly in administrative, secretarial work, sales, finance and accounting.
Jobs for cleaners, despatch clerks, drivers and factory hands tend not to stipulate such racial preferences.
According to the employment agencies, discriminatory employers cite reasons ranging from wanting to have staff they are comfortable with, to having no provision for Muslim or vegetarian food in their canteen. Some hold blatant stereotypes, saying, for example, that Malays would not be good at accounting, even if they have the necessary qualifications.
One agency says it has also received requests for lighter-skinned people for positions which involve interaction with the public.
Others are just being upfront - or insensitive, depending on where one stands - as they actually have a legitimate reason for wanting someone of a particular race, for example, to work in China or with a Chinese clientele.
Yet others do not make the skill they actually need crystal-clear. Their actual requirement may be for a Mandarin-speaker, not necessarily a Chinese. The unfortunate effect of both is that it leaves a negative impression on spurned minorities.
Mrs Dickens says that the recent public interest in the issue has had the salutary effect of making her clients more circumspect in making race a job requirement.
Then again, those in the industry say that the recession and the relative scarcity of jobs have given employers the upper hand now.
Human resource managers interviewed point out, however, that employers who discriminate based on race or any criteria other than merit and skill may be doing themselves a disservice.
They may believe that a higher comfort level, for example, is important. But such excuses could be symptoms of more fundamental corporate governance problems in their firm.
In an increasingly globalised business environment, those with antiquated practices will be left behind eventually, say HR managers.
But eventually is too far on the horizon for the likes of people like Mr A. Hari, 34, or Zarina Muhammad, 17, to fathom.
Both say they have been victims of racial job discrimination. And they believe that unless something is done, minorities will be the ones left behind.
Mr Hari, a technical analyst in computing, spent almost a year trying to find a job, but each time, he says, there would be palpable unease the moment they hear over the telephone that he is not Chinese and the line soon goes click.
He now works at an American pharmaceutical company. But the experience has left him so dismayed, he says, that he fears he has no place here and will take steps to live and work abroad as soon as he completes an advanced course in computing.
"If they don't need me here, I might as well work elsewhere," he says....[End of Part 1]
Are employers practising racial discrimination?
147th Singapore Prostitute Press, 6 February 1999
"...Interviews with the biggest employment agencies here show that although employers who tend to state their job preferences upfront are generally from smaller firms, the practice is not unique to them.Big Singapore companies and even multinationals also ask for job applicants of a particular race, most often - Chinese...
...But eventually is too far on the horizon for the likes of people like Mr A. Hari, 34, or Zarina Muhammad, 17, to fathom. Both say they have been victims of racial job discrimination. And they believe that unless something is done, minorities will be the ones left behind.
Mr Hari, a technical analyst in computing, spent almost a year trying to find a job, but each time, he says, there would be palpable unease the moment they hear over the telephone that he is not Chinese and the line soon goes click...
...Zarina, a convent girl who is waiting for her O level results, wrote to this newspaper to relate how, in a recent search for vacation jobs, a supervisor of a chain of stores told her it hired Chinese only.
Insight tried contacting the owner of the store, which is patronised by all races, but was told she was abroad. Zarina's friend, Melissa Kok, 17, who was with her and offered a job, vouched for her account...
...Other job-seekers who say they have faced similar discrimination point out that they cannot understand why the preference for Chinese has to be made and Mandarin always specified as a requirement...."
**************
Full Article - Part 1
**************
Are employers practising racial discrimination?
Singapore Prostitute Press, 6 February 1999
In recent weeks, letter-writers to The Straits Times have been crying foul over employers who specify race preference in their job advertisements. Does this constitute racial discrimination? Or are bosses just being upfront about their company's needs? ZURAIDAH IBRAHIM finds out.
"ACCOUNTANT - Chinese preferred". "Driver - Malay wanted".
Discrimination? Real or imagined?
The issue of so-called racial discrimination by employers recruiting new staff has been raging recently in The Straits Times Forum Page, with at least nine letters published on it and 18 others unpublished.
Is the practice of seeking employees of a certain race for a particular job a problem? How widespread is this tendency and should Singaporeans be concerned?
Should they worry that it is another sign of how, beneath the unifying plaster of multi-racialism and meritocracy, cracks like race can decide whether one gets by or not?
Interviews with the biggest employment agencies here show that although employers who tend to state their job preferences upfront are generally from smaller firms, the practice is not unique to them. Big Singapore companies and even multinationals also ask for job applicants of a particular race, most often - Chinese.
Manpower, one of the biggest American employment agencies which has five branches here, says that although its parent company in the United States abides by equal opportunity laws and has taken racist clients to court, it accepts a "material number" of requests here from clients insisting on workers of a certain race.
"If we do not take such orders, we might as well close down," says its regional director Christine Raynaud.
At Business Trends, the biggest Singapore agency, group managing director Laletha Dickens says that 70 per cent of its clients specify either race, age or gender, in that order.
"A multinational company may have an equal opportunity stance, but the person doing the hiring brings with him his own prejudices and preferences," she says.
A check with the Classifieds advertisements in this newspaper on Thursday, for example, found that out of 855 jobs being offered, 120 ads, or 14 per cent, asked for people of a specific race, mainly Chinese.
Typically, these positions are mostly in administrative, secretarial work, sales, finance and accounting.
Jobs for cleaners, despatch clerks, drivers and factory hands tend not to stipulate such racial preferences.
According to the employment agencies, discriminatory employers cite reasons ranging from wanting to have staff they are comfortable with, to having no provision for Muslim or vegetarian food in their canteen. Some hold blatant stereotypes, saying, for example, that Malays would not be good at accounting, even if they have the necessary qualifications.
One agency says it has also received requests for lighter-skinned people for positions which involve interaction with the public.
Others are just being upfront - or insensitive, depending on where one stands - as they actually have a legitimate reason for wanting someone of a particular race, for example, to work in China or with a Chinese clientele.
Yet others do not make the skill they actually need crystal-clear. Their actual requirement may be for a Mandarin-speaker, not necessarily a Chinese. The unfortunate effect of both is that it leaves a negative impression on spurned minorities.
Mrs Dickens says that the recent public interest in the issue has had the salutary effect of making her clients more circumspect in making race a job requirement.
Then again, those in the industry say that the recession and the relative scarcity of jobs have given employers the upper hand now.
Human resource managers interviewed point out, however, that employers who discriminate based on race or any criteria other than merit and skill may be doing themselves a disservice.
They may believe that a higher comfort level, for example, is important. But such excuses could be symptoms of more fundamental corporate governance problems in their firm.
In an increasingly globalised business environment, those with antiquated practices will be left behind eventually, say HR managers.
But eventually is too far on the horizon for the likes of people like Mr A. Hari, 34, or Zarina Muhammad, 17, to fathom.
Both say they have been victims of racial job discrimination. And they believe that unless something is done, minorities will be the ones left behind.
Mr Hari, a technical analyst in computing, spent almost a year trying to find a job, but each time, he says, there would be palpable unease the moment they hear over the telephone that he is not Chinese and the line soon goes click.
He now works at an American pharmaceutical company. But the experience has left him so dismayed, he says, that he fears he has no place here and will take steps to live and work abroad as soon as he completes an advanced course in computing.
"If they don't need me here, I might as well work elsewhere," he says....[End of Part 1]
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