“Don’t mind me asking, are you Chinese?”

A Singaporean man was so frustrated with job interviews requiring him to speak Mandarin that he made a Facebook video about it:

The catch is, Muniandy could speak some Mandarin -- he just wasn't ethnic Chinese.

According to him, the potential employer had ended their phone conversation with, “Sorry, we’re looking for Chinese-speaking people.”

At time of writing, Muniandy's video had more than 1,500 shares.

TAFEP getting involved

The incident, which occurred on March 13, has caught the attention of TAFEP (Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices), which promotes fair employment practices in Singapore.

Speaking to Mothership.sg, a TAFEP spokesperson revealed that it has sent Muniandy a private message on March 16, so that he may provide more details of the interview.

TAFEP aims to work with the Ministry of Manpower to investigate the incident.

Employers who breach TAFEP's guidelines will face sanctions imposed by MOM, including stern warnings and curtailment of work pass privileges.

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This is TAFEP's statement in full:

“TAFEP is very concerned to hear that Mr Tharenii Muniandy had an encounter with a potential employer who rejected his job application as he was not Chinese.

We have sent Mr Tharenni a private message on 16 March 2018 to contact us and provide more details about his phone interview, so that TAFEP can work with MOM to investigate the situation.

TAFEP examines complaints of workplace discrimination, including those that happen in the pre-employment stage, such as during interviews. Under the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices, employers are expected to select and recruit fairly. Those who breach the Guidelines will face sanctions imposed by MOM, upon receiving reports from TAFEP. Sanctions that were imposed in such cases include stern warnings and curtailment of work pass privileges.

We strongly encourage those who have encountered workplace discrimination to come forward to report the matter to TAFEP (tafep.sg) so that we can address the discriminatory behaviour immediately. It would also allow us to help employers better their employment practices so that all job seekers and their employees are considered fairly on merit. This is the outcome TAFEP wants, and we believe all job seekers and employees would desire.”

[Update on Mar. 23, 10.29am: TAFEP is unable to look further into the case as Muniandy has yet to respond to them with information on the employer's identity.]