Government Oversight of Contracts for Healthcare Workers Recruited for Public Healthcare Institutions through Private Agencies

Ms K Thanaletchimi asked the Minister for Health whether the Ministry monitors and exercises oversight of public healthcare institutions that procure manpower from recruitment agencies with these agencies being the employer of the workers as there are cases where these workers are placed under the agencies' contract terms with perpetual renewal of their contracts without permanent tenure.

Mr Gan Kim Yong: Public healthcare institutions procure manpower from recruitment agencies primarily to meet short-term and temporary manpower needs. In doing so, the public healthcare institutions would typically specify to the recruitment agencies that all mandatory statutory contributions have to be made to the workers. However, other terms and conditions of the employment contract, including the tenure and renewal of the contracts, are negotiated between the recruitment agency and its employees, and are not under the purview of the public healthcare institutions and the Ministry.