WORK PERMIT DIVISION (Effects of restrictive attitude)

Mr Hwang Soo Jin asked the Minister for Labour and Second Minister for Law and Home Affairs whether he is aware that the more restrictive attitude adopted by the Work Permit Division of the Ministry of Labour in the processing of work permit applications, in respect of both new and renewal cases, is beginning to cause difficulties to many businesses and will he assure the House that, for certain categories of workers where local recruits at economic wages are not available, the Ministry of Labour wilt continue to be flexible in approving applications.

Prof. S. Jayakumar: Mr Speaker, Sir, as all hon. Members are aware, since 1979, the Government has been urging employers to reduce their dependence on foreign workers. The economic, social, political and other reasons for this have been explained on many occasions. As a start, we have gradually phased out unskilled foreign workers from non-traditional sources except those who are required for work in the construction industry, the shipyards and as domestic servants. Most of the non-traditional source workers in the other sectors will have left by the end of this year and the remaining by 1986. Our present plan is to phase out the remaining unskilled foreign workers by 1992 as gradually as economic forces will permit us.

If we are to proceed with reduction of our dependence on unskilled and untrained foreign workers, it is necessary for us to start taking action even now as, otherwise, the transitional difficulty will become even more severe. Obviously, the first measure that we have to take is to control the overall stock and be restrictive on the number of new foreign workers who are being admitted. We have been doing this for some time. However, with the recent pick-up in manufacturing activities because of the world economic recovery and with the accelerated public housing building programme reaching its peak, there has been an unusually heavy demand for workers and for foreign workers during the last few months. To accommodate the demand by these two vital sectors, we have to take a more restrictive policy in processing work permit applications from other sectors in order to hold down the overall number.

My Ministry does appreciate that the more restrictive attitude towards new work permit applications will cause difficulty for some businessmen. However, these are transitional problems which ire less painful when adjustments are made early. Employers who do not make serious efforts to reduce their reliance on foreign workers will find it even more difficult to adjust later. My Ministry, however, will try to be as flexible as possible in processing work permit applications from employers within the constraints of our long-term goal of reducing reliance on unskilled work permit holders and the constraint of ensuring that numbers are kept at manageable levels.

I wish to assure the hon. Member, in this regard, that my Ministry is, for the time being, flexible in allowing employers to renew the permits of their existing foreign workers other than those who are from non-traditional sources and are due for repatriation. Employers should however bear in mind that they will ultimately have even less foreign workers to solve their labour problems. They should therefore make adjustments before it is too late.