SINGAPORE: Singapore's Parliament is debating amendments to the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act as it aims to enhance the government's ability to ensure the integrity of the work pass framework.
Moving the second reading of the Bill in Parliament on Tuesday, Acting Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin said the amendments will introduce a calibrated and appropriate response to different types of contraventions.
In totality, the changes will allow the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) to step up enforcement action against errant employers, errant foreign workers and syndicates more expeditiously and effectively, thereby enhancing deterrence.
Mr Tan said: "The Bill ultimately bolsters our efforts in creating sustainable and inclusive growth in Singapore and ensuring Singaporeans remain at the core of our workforce. It will do so by ensuring employers pay the true costs of hiring foreign workers and creating a level playing field for law-abiding employers.
"This Bill also seeks to stem the worst abuses against foreign workers. This is in keeping with our values as a society, that we believe all our workers should be treated fairly, decently and with respect regardless of their nationality."
Explaining the rationale for the changes, Mr Tan said employers are by and large responsible, but there are some who seek to profit by circumventing the work pass framework.
Mr Tan said: "As we further tighten the policies on the hiring and retention of foreign manpower, we can expect errant employers to try harder to get around our rules. This is where we are not lacking in creativity.
"For example, we have found some declaring higher salaries than they are actually paying their foreign workers; asking foreign workers to foot their own levies and insurance premiums; contributing CPF to locals that they do not exist or actively employ in order to meet the required ratio of local to foreign workers, and submitting forged certificates to qualify for skilled work passes."
As a result, Mr Tan said Singaporeans ultimately suffer when employers fail to pay the true costs of hiring foreign manpower or hire foreign manpower that they are not entitled to.
And local workers will lose out in employment opportunities.
"Honest employers who play by the rules will be unfairly disadvantaged. Besides errant employers, syndicates also profit from setting up sham operations to illegally import and supply foreign workers who otherwise should not be here," said Mr Tan.
He added: "Syndicates have devised increasingly complex schemes to get around our enforcement approaches. Such operations exploit foreign workers, and they also cost our locals employment opportunities and cost us resources to assist stranded workers."
The amendments are along three broad thrusts.
First, MOM will establish an administrative penalty regime to enforce administrative infringements to complement prosecution efforts.
The ministry will impose significant administrative financial penalties and administrative actions, such as debarment from applying for and renewing work passes.
The purpose is to deter employers from exploiting the work pass framework for financial gain.
Commissioners for Foreign Manpower will be appointed and authorised to administer the new administrative penalty regime.
They will be empowered to impose administrative financial penalties, capped at a maximum of S$20,000 per infringement.
They can also debar employers from applying and renewing work passes, and issue directions for errant employers to comply with.
Such directions include orders to rectify breaches, impose performance bonds to ensure compliance with rules and regulations, and direct that compensation be paid by the employer to make good any sums due to an employee.
Secondly, to enhance deterrence, MOM will introduce new contraventions and increase penalties commensurate with potential profits gained from abuse of the system.
It will now prosecute syndicates that set up shell businesses and illegally import and supply foreign workers.
Mr Tan said: "These syndicates circumvent our immigration laws on employing illegal immigrants. They recruit foreign workers ostensibly on legal work passes, but do not provide actual employment, upkeep or maintenance. Instead, these workers are forced to seek illegal employment on their own.
"Syndicates have also evolved from setting up pure shell businesses to setting up partial-sham businesses that may employ a few local workers for genuine business operations, while on the side recruiting foreign workers on false promise of employment and supplying them out illegally."
MOM will adopt the same penalties for employing illegal immigrants under the Immigration Act and impose them on offenders who illegally import and supply foreign workers.
This will include mandatory caning for offenders that hire more than five foreign workers.
The ministry will also prosecute foreign workers who submit forged educational qualifications to circumvent its criteria for S Pass and Employment Pass holders.
And to facilitate enforcement against common contraventions and increasingly complex syndicate operations, MOM will include new presumption clauses and expand its investigatory powers.
Mr Tan said: "Hence we will now presume that a work pass applicant has knowledge of the information provided in his application, including that of the qualifications which have been submitted. The burden of proof will now be placed on the errant workers.
"My ministry will ensure that enforcement action is targeted at culpable workers. An innocent worker can rebut the presumption by proving that he did not have knowledge of the submission of false qualifications when the declaration was made. For instance, he can prove that the employment agency or employer had submitted the forged certificate on his behalf without his knowledge and this happens."
MOM will also prosecute those including employers, supervisors, HR staff, and sub-contractors, who collect monies as consideration for employment from foreign workers - an act which is termed as employment kickbacks.
Mr Tan said: "We will also introduce a presumption clause to make it easier to enforce against employers who demand employment kickbacks from workers.
"Currently, employers' illegal collection of payments from foreign workers is usually made in cash. There is no paper trail to speak of, which severely constrains enforcement efforts.
"We will presume that any monies collected from foreign workers will be deemed as employment kickbacks, unless the purposes for which they were collected can be properly accounted for. The accused can rebut the presumption by showing that they had legitimate reasons for collecting monies from their workers."
Mr Tan said the amendments will come into force by the end of this year.
- CNA/fa
