Tackling age discrimination in employment in Singapore

In a country with an ageing work-force, a decline in the number of new entrants to the labour market and an acute labour shortage, it would be reasonable to assume that employers would encourage older workers to remain in employment for as long as possible. In the case of Singapore, however, private sector employers often retired employees at age 55 and hired younger workers in their place. In many cases older workers re-hired had to accept lower pay and lower grade jobs. In an attempt to tackle this sort of age discrimination in employment, the government passed the Retirement Age Act in 1993. Prior to its enactment, the government urged employers to raise the retirement age voluntarily, but the response was poor, especially in the non-unionized sector. This paper argues that employers resisted the extension of the retirement age because they perceived older workers in stereotypical terms. The main issues which gave rise to the Retirement Age legislation are discussed. So also is the possible impact of the legislation on some HRM practices. The paper also proposes some future directions for research on older workers in Singapore.     

Claims of employment discrimination and worker voice

Using the U.S. National Study of the Changing Workforce survey, we show that claims of racial and gender discrimination emerge less frequently in workplaces with established worker voice mechanisms. This result accords with the hypothesis that participation enhances perceptions of workplace fairness. We show that while having a supervisor of the same race or gender is associated with reduced discrimination claims, the role of voice tends to be larger when the race or gender of the supervisor is different from that of the worker. This suggests that voice may be particularly important in heterogeneous workplaces.     

Law commentary: discrimination in union influenced employment recruitment

This article examines union influenced employers’ recruitment practices in the light of a recent Court of Appeal case. It argues that unions need to acknowledge traditional practices can, even unintentionally, be racist and sexist and that in order to defend union influence, those practices must change.     

The interaction of residential segregation and employment discrimination

This paper seeks to disentangle the impact of residential segregation from that of employment discrimination in determining black employment share. The major finding is that distance of a workplace from the main ghetto is one of the strongest and most significant determinants of both changes over time and levels of the racial composition of the workforce. This paper presents evidence of more heterogeneous micro labor supply within SMSAs than has usually been recognized for policy purposes. Comparing Chicago with Los Angeles, we find that distance from the ghetto has a stronger impact in Chicago, and that this effect increased during the late 1970s. By contrast, residential segregation is relatively less important in determining workplace demographics in Los Angeles, despite its rudimentary public transit system and prototypical job dispersion. In both cities, residential segregation strongly influences black employment patterns and limits the efficacy of efforts to integrate the workplace.     

刍议大学生就业歧视现状及解决途径

文章从大学生就业歧视的现状入手,就性别歧视从传统观念影响、现实生理差异、劳动力市场、教育引导、法律法规以及政府监管等方面,分析了问题产生的客观与主观因素,并对缓解大学生就业性别歧视提出了具体建议和改进措施,对就业歧视的解决具有一定的教育指导意义。     

Behavioural responses to employment discrimination: a study of Hong Kong workers

This study examines the behavioural responses of Hong Kong workers to employment discrimination. Based on the exit-voice framework proposed by Hirschman, five possible responses (i.e. neglect, quit, internal voice, external voice and litigation) are identified. The effects of certain personal attributes and work-related factors on these responses are evaluated. Two different data sets, focusing on gender discrimination and family status discrimination, are analysed. The results of logistic regression indicate that workers with higher levels of education and sensitivity to discrimination are more likely to complain and less likely to neglect their work or resign. Additionally, men and women respond differently to sex-based discrimination. Work-related factors such as employment sector, job tenure and employer size are also found to exert significant effects. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Pregnancy and maternity leave: employment law as a family friend?

Law seeking to provide protection for pregnant workers has proved to be complex and uncertain. This article aims to examine the legislation — recently amended — and case law and to assess their effectiveness. The conclusion is that a coherent scheme is emerging but that the level of maternity pay remains problematic.     

The Tories and employment law in Northern Ireland: seeing unions in a different light?

This article examines changes in Northern Ireland employment law in the last decade, with a view to establishing whether the unions there were handled more gently by government than at national level. It concludes that in 1992 ideological orthodoxy finally overwhelmed any feeling of benignity which may have survived from an earlier period.     

Neglected under the law: A typology of stigmatization and effective employment protections

Some groups more commonly experience negative effects from biases in the workplace than others, in part, from a lack of universal anti-discrimination protections. While strong protections exist for some groups, others are often left to rely on a patchwork of legal protections and corporate policies to guard against bias. This article draws from social identity, stigmatization, and intersectionality theories to bring attention to susceptible classes, or those individuals who are stigmatized by society but not effectively shielded against discrimination by workplace protections. This article advances the Employment Protections and Stigmatization Classification Model typology. This model provides categorization based on the level of stigmatization individuals face and the degree to which employment protections provided by various entities are effective in reducing workplace bias and discrimination. Further, it allows for consideration and comparison of stigmatized groups across time, jurisdictions, and organizations. Three stigmatized classes are offered as examples to advance further understanding of the model.     

Changes in public employment and the provision of public services: the implications for labour law

Workers in the public sector have commonly been subject to a more restrictive labour law regime than their private sector counterparts. This article argues that this has become anachronistic and proposes a more sophisticated model for according differential treatment to particular groups of workers.     

Believing in employment discrimination: The case of Forrest Mims,Scientific American,and title VII protection

This article reviews the law regarding Title VII employment discrimination protection from religious discrimination. The issues surrounding the principal legal protection in this regard are explored in the context of a recent controversial case in which an author, Forrest Mims, was not hired as a regular contributor forScientific American magazine, ostensibly because of his belief in the theory of creation over the theory of evolution. The definition of what constitutes a protected religious belief or practice is seen to have expanded over time. However, a belief in creationism is not necessarily seen as being tantamount to a religious belief under present legal interpretation of Title VII. The implications of this finding for future needed Title VII revision are discussed.     

Industrial relations law,employment security and collective bargaining in India: myths,realities and hopes

This article examines the debate on reforms in industrial relations law in India, needed to support its economic liberalisation programme. Analysing a distinctively Indian experience of state intervention in industrial relations, it concludes that the thrust of the reform should be towards entrusting union recognition and promotion of dispute settlement to an authority that is independent of the state executive.     

Age discrimination: Potential for adverse impact and differential prediction related to age

The proportion of workers in their 50s, 60s, and 70s is larger than ever before. Current workforce trends indicate global increases in retirement ages and that many individuals are working until later ages than in decades past, and older people are applying for jobs and at later ages. Research to date on age discrimination in selection has focused primarily on disparate treatment or intentional discrimination. However, based on accumulated knowledge about age-related changes in cognitive and physical abilities as well as changes in personality and work motivation across the life course, we suggest that more attention be paid to the possibility of age-based subgroup differences on selection procedures, manifested as adverse impact and differential prediction. We provide recommendations to guide future human resource management research and practice.     

Professionals in two employment systems

This article reports the results of a cross national study of how professional employees experience two very different employment systems: the ‘individualist’ of America and the ‘collectivist’ one of Poland. The authors conclude that further research and development of the concept of employment systems should focus on the degree of congruence between employment policies and cultural attitudes of employees.     

中低层灵活就业群体就业意愿与就业环境的整合研究——以对3120名中低层灵活就业人员的调查为例

灵活就业是我国需要大力发展的一种就业形式,它对于缓解就业压力具有重要的作用,对于中低层就业群体来说更有着重要的意义.目前灵活就业在数量上得到了一定的发展,但是否能得到内在的可持续性发展还是一个值得关注的问题.本文从中低层灵活就业群体就业意愿和就业环境主客观两方面进行评述,并从两者的整合来探讨灵活就业如何得以持续的发展.     

Designing employment subsidies

The paper examines the relative effectiveness of two policy proposals in reducing unemployment and working poverty: hiring subsidies and wage subsidies. The hiring subsidies are targeted exclusively at the unemployed and are provided only for a limited period of time. The wage subsidies, on the other hand, are granted to all low-wage earners regardless of their employment history and are of limitless duration. Our analysis indicates that the relative effectiveness of the two policies depends on workers' prospective wage growth. The more upwardly mobile workers are (i.e. the more their wages rise with employment duration), the more effective will unemployment vouchers be relative to low-wage subsidies. Conversely, the greater the danger that workers come to be trapped in dead-end jobs with flat wage profiles, the more effective will low-wage subsidies be relative to unemployment vouchers.