Workplace Fairness Act: What Counts as Discrimination Under Singapore’s New Law

For a long time, fair treatment at work in Singapore was guided mainly by the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices, a set of principles that employers were strongly encouraged to follow but that did not carry the force of law. That changed with the Workplace Fairness Act, passed in Parliament on 8 January 2025, which for the first time makes workplace discrimination based on a defined set of characteristics a legal matter rather than just a best practice guideline.

If you have ever wondered whether it is actually illegal for an employer to pass you over because of your age, your race, or your caregiving responsibilities, this is the law that finally answers that question clearly.

From Guidelines to Law

Under the old system, an employer who discriminated against a job applicant or employee based on age, race, or other characteristics could face reputational consequences and possibly lose access to government support schemes if reported to the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices, but there was no dedicated law that made the discrimination itself illegal in the way, for example, that failing to pay CPF contributions is illegal.

The Workplace Fairness Act changes that. It creates Singapore’s first standalone statute prohibiting workplace discrimination, sitting alongside the Employment Act rather than being folded into it. This is a significant shift, because it moves fair employment from being a matter of persuasion and reputation to being a matter of legal compliance with real consequences for breaching it.

What Counts as a Protected Characteristic

The Act defines a specific list of protected characteristics that employers cannot use as the basis for making adverse employment decisions. These include age, nationality, sex, marital status, pregnancy, and caregiving responsibilities, as well as race, religion, and language ability. Disability and mental health conditions are also included as protected characteristics.

This list matters because it sets the boundary of what the law actually covers. If an adverse decision, such as not hiring someone, not promoting them, or terminating them, is shown to be based on one of these characteristics rather than genuine job related reasons, it can now fall foul of the Act. Characteristics not on this list are not covered by the Workplace Fairness Act specifically, though other laws may still apply depending on the situation.

What Counts as Discrimination

Discrimination under the Act is defined around the idea of making an adverse employment decision because of a protected characteristic. This covers a wide range of employment actions, including hiring decisions, promotions, performance appraisals, training opportunities, and dismissals. It is not limited to outright refusal to hire someone, but can extend to more subtle forms of unequal treatment across the employment relationship.

Importantly, the law does not ban all differentiation between employees. An employer can still make decisions based on genuine job requirements, performance, and merit. The issue arises specifically when a protected characteristic, rather than a legitimate work related reason, is the basis for the decision. This distinction is likely to be where much of the practical debate and case law develops as the Act comes into force.

What Employers Must Now Do

Employers in Singapore are expected to review their hiring, promotion, appraisal, and dismissal processes to ensure decisions are documented and grounded in job related criteria rather than protected characteristics. This is particularly relevant for job advertisements, interview questions, and performance review templates, all of which can inadvertently reference or lean on characteristics the Act now protects.

Because the Workplace Fairness Act works alongside a separate law covering how discrimination complaints are actually resolved, employers should also expect a more formal complaints and dispute process to sit behind these new obligations, rather than complaints being handled purely informally or through the Tripartite Alliance as before.

What This Looks Like in Practice

It can help to picture some concrete situations. A job advertisement that states a preference for candidates under 35 without any genuine reason tied to the role would likely raise concerns under the Act, since age is a protected characteristic and the preference is not obviously connected to job requirements. Similarly, passing over a qualified employee for promotion specifically because she recently returned from maternity leave and is now seen as a caregiving risk would fall squarely within what the Act is designed to prevent, since caregiving responsibilities are explicitly protected.

On the other hand, choosing not to hire someone because they lack a required professional qualification, or because a structured interview process found another candidate scored better on job relevant criteria, would not on its own amount to discrimination under the Act, even if the unsuccessful candidate happens to belong to a group with a protected characteristic. The law is concerned with decisions actually motivated by a protected characteristic, not with every outcome where someone with a protected characteristic does not get the result they wanted.

Why Singapore Moved From Guidelines to a Full Law

Singapore relied on the Tripartite Guidelines for many years, and employer compliance was generally considered reasonably strong, particularly among larger companies that wanted to protect their reputation and access to government grants and work pass privileges. However, the guidelines had a structural limitation: they relied on cooperation and reputational pressure rather than legal obligation, which meant there was no direct legal remedy available to an individual employee who experienced discrimination.

As Singapore’s workforce has become more diverse in age, background, and family structure, and as public awareness of workplace discrimination issues has grown, pressure built for a law with real legal teeth rather than a voluntary code. The Workplace Fairness Act is the direct result of that shift, and it is widely seen as one of the most significant developments in Singapore employment law in recent years, precisely because it introduces something that was previously missing entirely: an enforceable legal right not to be discriminated against at work based on the characteristics it protects.

The Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices, which administered the old guidelines, is expected to continue playing a role even under the new law, particularly in areas of employment practice that fall outside the strict legal definition of discrimination but still touch on fairness more broadly. In other words, the guidelines are not being scrapped entirely, but they now sit alongside a proper law rather than being the only mechanism available to a worker who feels they have been treated unfairly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the Workplace Fairness Act apply to small companies with only a handful of employees?

The Act is written to apply broadly across employers in Singapore rather than being limited to large companies, though as with many employment laws, specific exemptions or thresholds can apply to certain categories of employer, so smaller businesses should not assume they fall outside its scope without checking.

Can an employer still choose not to hire someone if a characteristic is a genuine requirement of the job?

Yes. The Act is generally understood to allow for genuine occupational requirements, meaning a characteristic that is authentically necessary for a specific role can still be considered, rather than every reference to a protected characteristic automatically being treated as unlawful discrimination.

Does the law cover discriminatory language in job advertisements?

Job advertisements are a common area of concern under fair employment rules generally, since specifying preferences tied to protected characteristics in an advertisement can itself indicate discriminatory intent, so employers are expected to review advertisement wording as part of complying with the Act.

What about discrimination that happens during a retrenchment exercise?

Retrenchment decisions are a form of adverse employment action, and if a protected characteristic rather than genuine business or performance reasons is shown to be the basis for who is selected for retrenchment, this can potentially fall within the scope of the Act.

When exactly does the Workplace Fairness Act come into force?

The Act was passed in January 2025 but is being implemented in phases alongside its companion law on dispute resolution, with full commencement expected later, so it is worth checking the current commencement status rather than assuming every provision is already in force.