We wish this wasn’t happening, but it seems like it is, once again.
We learned on Thursday that the Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa Resort & Spa denied employment to a lady because she wears a hijab — the reason: “we have a strict grooming code”.
The lady originally took to Facebook to share her experience in a public post that she later took down.
In it, she explained that she applied for a part-time Kids’ Club assistant position, went through the job scope with the hiring manager and confirmed that her availability matched the period she was required.
“… everything was okay except for the fact that I cover myself,” she wrote.
Here’s a screenshot of what she wrote, which we’re sharing with her permission:
“that thing on your head”
As if this situation wasn’t bad enough, she said the staff referred to her headscarf as “that thing on (her) head”.
Following her post, a person claiming to be an employee of the resort’s kids’ club shared it, with the following comment:
For the best of both world [sic] — we’re not sure the lady benefited in any way from this experience, though.
A spokesperson from the Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa Resort confirmed that this did happen in an email to Mothership.sg, with the following:
“We confirm that we interviewed a part time applicant for the position of Kids Club Assistant.
We could not offer her the position as she was not able to meet our grooming and uniform guidelines.
In addition, we pride ourselves in embracing fair employment practices in our resort.”
What do the authorities say about this?
Earlier this year, a Today article quoted TAFEP (Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices) on this issue, after another lady was told she would not be allowed to wear a hijab at an administrative role.
Here’s what they said:
“… while employers may prescribe a dress code, such dress code requirements should not be differentiated by an employee’s race or religion.
Rather, the dress code should be suited to the nature of work, taking into account business, operational and safety considerations.”
According to TAFEP’s job advertisement guidelines stated in its fair employment practices handbook,
“Employers who advertise a position requiring a specific attribute which may be viewed as discriminatory should ensure it is indeed a requirement of the job and state the reason for the requirement in the advertisement…
Race should not be a criterion for the selection of job candidates as multiracialism is a fundamental principle in Singapore. Selection based on race is unacceptable and job advertisements should not feature statements like ‘Chinese preferred’ or ‘Malay preferred’.
Religion is unacceptable as a criterion for recruitment except in cases where employees have to perform religious functions as part of the job requirement. In such cases, the requirements should be clearly and objectively presented”.
We’ll let you decide if Shangri-La met the hiring guidelines as stipulated by TAFEP, which you can find here, as well as their employment guidelines here.
Source: http://mothership.sg
