In Singapore industrial relations is important as Singapore is a hub for global activities, if Singapore were to be an inequitable place to work in, it will result in Singapore being unattractive to people to work in and firms would not be enticed to expand their business in Singapore leading to low job creation. There are various systems in place in Singapore to create an equal playing field in industrial relations. But no system is perfect, in the essay I would be talking about the various policies and issues in Singapore and how the various approaches of social justice, economic rationalism and civil libertarianism and equal employment opportunity make Singapore’s industrial relations equitable
The approaches to equitability
Civil libertarianism and Equal employment opportunity (EEO) is a strain of political thought that emphasizes individual rights and personal freedom over authority. This means that if employees feel that they are unfairly treated, they should have an avenue to seek redress. The HR department of the firm or The Ministry of manpower will look into the complaints of the employees and help to facilitate a compromise between the employers and employees. Without these avenues employers might discriminate workers and might implement unfair practices thus it is necessary for the law to intervene in industrial relationship to make it a level playing field of equal employment opportunities.
Economic rationalists feel that the government should not regulate the market but give free reign to employers, which will in turn self-regulate to make it fair. But the problems persist as there is an unequal power balance which favours the employers. According to Bellows (2009) Singapore is a society which emphasises on meritocracy. Meritocracy is also one of the key principles which enable the approach of economic rationalism to work in any given country.
As for the social justice approach, advocates of this approach feel that industries