WHEN Rachel applied for jobs as a fresh graduate, she was repeatedly asked if she had plans to get married and start a family. When an Upper Bukit Timah condominium issued a tender for security services, it required Chinese-speaking guards who were below the age of 60.

These are not unique examples, and the odds are people you know have had similar experiences. Last year, Aware-Milieu found that half of those surveyed in Singapore had experienced some form of discrimination at work, with ageism and sexism taking the second and third spots respectively. Discrimination on the grounds of race took top spot.

Singapore will be addressing this with robust anti-discrimination laws. In its February 2023 interim report, which set out recommendations for those laws, the Tripartite Committee on Workplace Fairness proposed to prohibit workplace discrimination on the basis of (i) age; (ii) nationality; (iii) sex, marital status, pregnancy status and caregiving responsibilities; (iv) race, religion, and language; and (v) disability and mental health conditions – the ‘protected characteristics’.