Taken from The New Paper:
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THE job advertisements made her mad.
Indian housewife R Mages, 32, was looking for a clerical job in the
classified ads six months ago.
'Every time, every day, you just go to the admin jobs section and
there'll be some ads with Chinese as a requirement.'
Even when she called companies that didn't ask for Mandarin
proficiency, she would be told Mandarin speakers were needed.
'We are a multi-cultural society, we should not just be going for
one race,' she said.
But is it a race or language issue?
One Indian who can speak some Mandarin said that it helped her in
her predominantly Chinese office.
The manufacturing engineer who wanted to only be known as Ms Salma,
28, said: 'There's a wall that's removed. You're more approachable
in work situations.'
Speaking the language got her through the door. Making friends was
a different matter.
She said: 'On virtue of not being Chinese, of not sharing the same
sociological viewpoints, I was still left out.'
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong warned employers last month not to
discriminate against non-Chinese by setting Mandarin as a
requirement when it's not needed.
Similarly, Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng said recently that
if Chinese employers were to discriminate by race, the situation
could potentially be a 'time bomb' if the jobless felt
marginalised.
When you have many employers advertising for Mandarin speakers,
does it make it more difficult for ethnic minorities here?
Madam Halimah Yacob, NTUC assistant secretary-general, 51, said:
'Yes, it does, if speaking Mandarin is not necessary in order to
perform the job.
'But we also have to be realistic. Not all failures on the part of
a non-Chinese to get a job is because of discrimination...
'Skills and experience are still the predominant factors.'
Guidelines were set in March 1999 by the Ministry of Manpower,
National Trades Union Congress and the Singapore National Employers
Federation, that job advertisements cannot use race as a
criterion.
But Madam Halimah said: 'It is only a guideline and does not have
the force of law.
'The other problem is investigations are done quietly and the
outcome is not shared with the public.'
The Ministry of Manpower said it received 29 cases of feedback or
complaints from job seekers last year.
They were mainly on job advertisements that stipulated proficiency
in Mandarin or bilingualism in English and Mandarin as
requirements.
