SINGAPORE – Who would you retrench at the workplace? A forty-year-old Indian man whose wife is dying of cancer, or a talented man with several years of service and is a homosexual? Or maybe someone who was formerly a member of the Workers’ Party?
In an exercise on getting consensus at the workplace, participants of a Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) course on effective communication were asked to deliberate on who, out of 10 people described, should be retrenched.
Instead of telling participants to consider how well these people are doing in their jobs, the course material asked for a decision to be made using information like how one man is a supporter of the People’s Action Party and how a woman is working two jobs to support invalid parents.
A photograph of the questionable material was posted on Facebook on June 10 and has already been shared more than 80 times. It was temporarily removed on Monday (June 13) morning.
One Facebook user who saw the post called the material the “holy grail” of workplace discrimination.
The netizen who posted the photo had said that a friend attended the WSQ course and was “appalled” by the material. The course instructor decided to “fail” his friend when he decided not to participate in the discussion, the poster claimed.
From the photo, the course is listed as “Communicate & relate effectively at the workplace“, a “softskill course” conducted by external course coordinator Eagle Infotech Consultants under the WSQ Employability Skills Framework.
The course was last conducted on June 7 and 8, according to information found online.
Eagle Infotech told AsiaOne on Monday that the material was taken “out of context” in the post. In fact, participants would have just learnt about diversity at the workplace and respect for people of different backgrounds before embarking on the exercise.
The assessment exercise would thus have been about respecting diversity and about being objective – the direct opposite of what it has been accused of – even though the information provided in the course material is insufficient for participants to make judgement calls on who to let go based on company needs and work performance.
Eagle Infotech also said that the participant who allegedly complained about the exercise had actually taken part in the assessment, contrary to what was claimed in the Facebook post, and had “passed”, meaning the instructor deemed him having learnt the core lessons of this exercise.
It added that it has conducted the course for years, and has not received a complaint before this.
The Singapore Workforce Development Agency, which manages the WSQ system, has said that it will respond to media queries later on Monday.
sinsh@sph.com.sg
