ILLEGAL WORKERS

Mr Thomas Thomas asked the Minister for Manpower what steps the Government is taking or will take to prevent unscrupulous employment agents from bringing in illegal workers on false promises of work in Singapore.

Dr Lee Boon Yang: My Ministry is aware that some unscrupulous employment agents and employers exploit the ignorance of foreign workers to bring them here without real jobs for them. This malpractice is most often seen in the construction sector where large numbers of foreign workers are brought into Singapore under construction work permits but are then redeployed to work illegally in other sectors.

As licensed employment agents are regulated by my Ministry and are liable to lose their licences and security deposit should they breach the regulations or conditions of their licences, it is likely that many of the unscrupulous agents bringing in illegal workers on false promises of work in Singapore are unlicensed agents operating illegally. The penalties for operating an unlicensed employment agency are $5,000 for the first offence, and $10,000 for second or subsequent offences with a possible jail term of up to 6 months. My Ministry will not hesitate to prosecute such illegal employment agents.

A more effective and substantive measure against such exploitation is to be more selective in allowing the entry of foreign workers, both in terms of numbers and skills levels. This would reduce opportunities for unscrupulous agents from bringing in foreign workers illegally in the first place. To this end, my Ministry has adopted a two-pronged approach: a)

Review of the Work Permit Allocation System

First, we have tightened the Work Permit Allocation system in the construction sector by introducing a system of Man-year Entitlements, which are allocated to the main contractors based on the project size and actual manpower requirement. The main contractors will be responsible for distributing these entitlements to their subcontractors. The main contractors will also be held responsible for the upkeep and welfare of the foreign workers of their subcontractors should these workers be abandoned. It is thus in the interest of the main contractors to ensure that the entitlement goes to genuine sub-contractors who will do his work. This will result in less opportunity for unscrupulous sub-contractors to apply for excessive number of work permits.

My Ministry has been monitoring the new Work Permit Allocation system carefully. Our findings suggest that main contractors have indeed become more circumspect in allocating their work permit entitlements to their subcontractors. So far, for projects that have been completed, about 55% of total work permit entitlements given out have been used. This system had resulted in fewer work permit applications.

The longer term objective as spelt out under the Construction 21 report is to reduce the number of foreign workers in the Construction sector by 50% over a period of 10 years, that is, from the current 200,000 foreign workers to around 100,000 workers. We may be able to speed up the process by reviewing and tightening the allocation formula. b)

Ensuring Better Quality and Higher Skilled Foreign Workers

The second approach is to ensure that the foreign workers brought in are of better quality with higher skills level. We have found that skilled workers are less likely to be exploited or abused by the employment agents or employers. They are also less susceptible to scams by unscrupulous employment agents, both local as well as foreign, and employers. Hence with effect from 1st April 2000, all new non-traditional source foreign workers employed in the construction industry have to pass the Basic Skills Certificate (BSC) test in their home countries. This is the first step in raising the skills requirement.

In the longer-term, as stated in the Construction 21 Report, we hope to have 45% of the construction workforce as skilled workers by 2005 and 60% by 2010. Skilled construction workers refer to those who can meet our NTC-2 (practical) requirements.

Conclusion

My Ministry's two-pronged approach will minimize opportunities for fraudulent practices by local employment agents and employers. However, we would not be able to control unscrupulous agents in foreign countries. What we can and will do is to ensure that foreigners taking the Basic Skills Certificate tests in their home countries are made aware of the Work Permit regulations covering their employment in Singapore before they come here.