Rescinding an accepted job offer could be an expensive exercise, with employers told to be sure before inviting their prospect to sign on the dotted line.

Most employees in Singapore commence their employment with a probationary period of three to six months, after which they are made permanent.

Employers are entitled to terminate the employment contract before the probationary period comes to an end, by providing notice of usually 1-2 weeks or as stated in the contract, or by paying salary in lieu of notice.

However, HR teams have been advised to be aware of their responsibilities as soon as their employee signs their name on an employment contract.

Law firm David Lim & Partners LLP’s litigation department head Doris Chia told HRD Singapore that a job offer is the same as any other offer – it has to first be accepted by the employee in order for it to be binding on the employer.

“If the job offer was made but not yet accepted, then there is no binding contract which can be breached by the retraction of the job offer,” she explained.

However, if an employee has indeed been given a contract to sign, it is not as easy for a HR manager to go back on the offer and change their mind.

“A revocation of the job offer will cause the employer to be in breach of contract and it will be liable for any damage which may be suffered by the employee,” Chia told HRD.

For example, Chia said if the potential employee had resigned from his or her old job as a result of the job offer this could result in liability, particularly if any new job they find ends up paying less and disadvantaging them financially.

“The loss will be the difference between what the employer would have paid him and what he was earning in the previous position or in the new ‘second choice job’,” Chia said. “However, such compensation must be reasonable and depends on the circumstances of each case.”

Employees in Singapore are governed by the Employment Act or the terms of their employment contract, and employers and HR staff are obliged to follow legal obligations under contracts, including probationary periods.

There are a number of reasons employers can choose to terminate employees under the Employment Act. They include unsatisfactory probation performance, breach of contract by an employee, employee dismissal on grounds of misconduct, employee dismissal on grounds other than misconduct, employee transfers, employee retirement and employee retrenchment.

Have you ever asked a job applicant on their plans to have children, their religious denomination, or whether they drink or smoke?

All of the above are unlawful in Singapore.

But if you have, you’re not alone – a CareerBuilder survey released this month showed that one in five employers has unknowingly asked an illegal interview question, with at least one in three employers unsure about the legality of certain interview questions.

The following questions are definitely off the cards:

– What is your religious affiliation?
– Are you pregnant?
– What is your political affiliation?
– What is your race, colour or ethnicity?
– How old are you?
– Are you disabled?
– Are you married?
– Do you have children or plan to?
– Are you in debt?
– Do you socially drink or smoke?

Leading Singapore employment lawyer Susan de Silva, partner at ATMD Bird & Bird, told HRD Singapore the above questions are contrary to the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices.

“The first principle of such Fair Employment Practices is that employers should recruit and select employees on the basis of merit (such as skills, experience or ability to perform the job), and regardless of age, race, gender, religion, marital status and family responsibilities, or disability.

“These questions fall into the “regardless” group of considerations, and are inappropriate.”

An employer also runs the risk of breaching the Personal Data Protection Act with such questions, de Silva said.

“Singapore’s data privacy laws [require] organisations to ask only for personal data which is reasonably necessary for the purpose for which the data is being collected. These questions [above] are not evidently necessary for the purpose of evaluating a person’s ability to do the job.”

Companies with discriminatory hiring practices can expect to be subject to additional scrutiny by the Ministry of Manpower and, in serious cases, may have their work pass privileges for hiring foreign employees curtailed by MOM, she said.

de Silva provided some tips for employers around structuring interviews:

• Have a list of selection criteria to be applied consistently to all candidates.
• Prepare a list of interview questions directly related to the selection criteria identified and review whether these questions are relevant to the job.
• Should questions which may be perceived as discriminatory be asked, the reasons for asking such information should be made known to the candidate to prevent misunderstanding.
• Undertake interviews with more than one interviewer, if possible, and ensure that interviewers are familiar with the principles of fair employment.

Areas of law employers need to be aware of when interviewing applicants include:

Singapore firms will come up against stricter laws for foreign employee recruitment from 1 October 2015 according to the immigration attorneys at Berry Appleman & Leiden (BAL).

Ministry of Manpower (MOM) changes to the Fair Consideration Framework (FCF) will affect the FCF’s advertising requirements with firms expected to “publish the salary range of the job vacancy in the Jobs Bank”. Failure to comply will result in the employment pass application being rejected. This is expected to “make the job terms clearer to Singaporean job seekers and improve labour market transparency” according to a recent MOM press release.

There is also the possibility of further scrutiny of local firms by MOM especially with regards to hiring professionals, managers and executives (PMEs). Those with a “weaker Singaporean core of PMEs” may find themselves having to submit more information during recruitment. BAL reports that this “may increase processing times” and create more challenges for firms looking for foreign PMEs to fill positions already affected by the country’s talent shortages. These additional requirements may include providing details of:

• The number of Singaporean applications received
• Proof that these local PMEs were interviewed
• The company’s present employee statistics

This move is in line with current trends for foreign workers announced on 14 July by the Minister of Manpower. With growth rates slowing from 19% to 3% year-on-year from 2007–14, the need to focus back on the local workforce is something the ministry takes seriously. “Employers and Singaporean PMEs have important roles to play. Employers should support the development of Singaporean PMEs and consider them fairly for career opportunities,” MOM stated. “The ministry is actively encouraging employers to transfer expertise from foreign workers to Singaporeans,” BAL adds.

Masan Group, one of Vietnam’s largest private companies, has appointed Michael Hung Nguyen as chief financial officer, in addition to his role as deputy CEO and head of business development.

Nguyen has been with Masan for nearly seven years, overseeing the group’s merger and acquisition deals and capital raising transactions, as well as supporting Masan Group’s overall strategy.

Having graduated from Harvard University, he worked for JP Morgan in New York and Vietnam, where he used to provide structured solutions to multinational clients, before he joined Masan Group.

At Masan Group, he assisted the CEO in executing the transformation of the company from a food firm into a leading private sector group. Nguyen has contributed substantially to the build out of the transaction and business execution platform by helping to raise over $1.5 billion in capital for the company, Masan Group said.

The company, under the direct supervision of Nguyen, has seen the acquisition of controlling stakes in Vietnam French Cattle Feed JSC and Agro Nutrition Company – to help form Vietnam’s second largest animal feed platform.

In addition, its subsidiary Masan Resources will list shares on the Hanoi Stock Exchange and aim to become one of the largest listed stocks on the bourse.

The establishment of the animal feed unit has helped Masan Group’s sales in the first quarter. They have increased by 52 per cent year-on-year to VND10.4 trillion ($479.26 million). Its profit after tax reached VND673 billion, while in the same period of 2014, it reported a loss of VND44 billion.