Ban Age Discrimination Employment In Singapore

Same as in Japan, Ageism in Singapore happens because the leader of the country doesn't care.

The Prime Ministers & leaders of countries are old men. Why don't Prime Ministers be below 35 years old? All the world's PMs are old. People equate their age with experience & knowledge. Can you trust a PM in his 20s-30s without questioning his ability?

Yet these leaders allow their citizens to be discriminated against based on age. It just means these leaders don't care for their citizens.

In Japan, Ageism has resulted in able & experienced people (from 35 yrs onwards) being dismissed from existence in society, unable to find jobs, unable to pay rent & homeless.No wonder their suicide rate is high.

Age discrimination is no small matter. It destroys people & society.

1) The Singapore government must stop the serializing of identity cards based on year of birth. Many companies & recruiters use the IC number to discriminate applicants soley by age.

Perhaps foreigners don't know it, but there are those who certainly know that the year of birth is visible on a Singaporean's identity card number.

Recruitment persons certainly know it.  In every advertisement, they demand to know the "Age". Sometimes, just "IC number".  The only reason why only the IC number is required when it says nothing about the applicant's ability, is that the number reveals the applicant's age.

2)  It must be made illegal for interviewers to ask for a person's age by any method.  If the interviewer feels that the person is good enough for the job, hire him/her.  There is no need need to disclose age as a number.

After all, salary payment is through bank account transfer, cheque or cash. There is no need to know a person's age.

3) Measures must be in place to prevent companies & interviewers from finding out a person's age. It's no use making age discrimination illegal after the age is already known.

Case in point: Man Man Unagi Japanese Restaurant. 

Despite knowing my age, the manager hired me because staff was needed urgently. However, once hired, I faced age discrimination at the outlets that I was sent to.

Age is supposed to be private information. However...

At another outlet on my 2nd day, the female Japanese manager asked for my IC to take photos to send to the human resource "department". Although I knew she was evil-hearted, I had no choice.

I couldn't avoid giving her my IC. So, I gave & she eagerly took photos with her iphone.

Next day, everybody knew my age. The atmosphere when I stepped in was different from the day before & their reaction was negative. That's how I knew they knew.

The only way they could have known was if the manager showed my IC photo to everybody. I bet even the kitchen guys also knew, even though I talked to nobody.

While I sat with the other staff waiting to start work, one unknown woman (presumably Selina from "human resource") who was hanging around, abruptly called loudly across to me, "Auntie! What shift will you be working at the new outlet?".

I was so stunned by her crudeness & the faux pas that I was speechless for a long while, pissed & waiting for her to apologize.  Of course, her crude stupidity prevented her from realizing there was any mistake & she continued looking at me.

I completely intended to wait all day in the same position I was sitting until she apologised. No hurry.

The malicious-hearted female manager then broke into the silence by calling me by name. So I turned to look at her. The manager repeated the question & I replied coldly.  After that, other staff continued teasing each other's age & playing with age labels "Lau Niang" (old lady) to further make fun of the sensitivity of the matter.

During the work day, the kitchen guy who had a weird habit of looking at me & smiling, abruptly stopped. The server guy who previously talked to me, suddenly ignored me completely as if I wasn't there, even when I asked a question.

When I went over to the new outlet, the kitchen guy from the other outlet was also there. One time, he yelled at me, "Auntie!!" & glared at me with crazy fury over a matter that he had no authority yelling at me over.

Clearly, these are malicious, uneducated people who put down a person using age discrimination to make themselves feel on top. And it's not as if they are children. They themselves are already old.

The kitchen guy is already 25.  Malaysian already married with a young son. In another 5 years, he'll be 30. Yet he looked at me & smiled as if he is still a horny bachelor. Selina, already herself behaving like an auntie, looking around her 30s.

Later in the new outlet, I was forced to write down my IC number on my time card for "human resource department".  I noticed that some other staff didn't bother to write & it was fine.

I noticed the dishwasher was called "uncle" for being old-looking, even though his name is Dave. He has a name, why can't people call him by his name??

Age discrimination.

4) Since Singapore loves campaigns so much,  anti-ageism campaigns should be run to educate people that age discrimination is not acceptable & not tolerated in Singapore.

Asking for a person's age during a job interview is very demeaning for the person. Suddenly, you are reduced to just a number. And what is the point? If a person is 19, so? If a person is 40, so? Why should there be any prejudice that come with someone who wants to work & needs the money?

Who the heck wants to work if the bills can be paid all by themselves?

Whether young or old, the feeling of being discriminated against just because of a number, can be felt.  What these interviewers are doing is very evil. They don't care how the person feels to be rejected just because of the age.