Errant Employers Detected

The Straits Times ran this story on 24 April 2009:

Errant employers detected
By Melissa Sim

THE Manpower Ministry's taskforce to detect errant employers early has turned up at least 48 companies since it was set up in January.

Five of the companies came to light this week when the media found out that more than 800 of their workers had had their work permits cancelled abruptly.

The taskforce was set up to detect employer malpractice early, before salary arrears accumulate and workers are stranded without work or proper accommodation.

It monitors employers who default on foreign worker levies and housing rents, indications of cash-flow problems. It also analyses information from inspections and intelligence received.

The creation of the taskforce came in the wake of numerous media reports late last year about foreign workers, especially those in the marine industry, who were left without work as business began drying up, or had not been paid salaries.

The two cases which surfaced this week shared similar characteristics.

On Thursday, more than 800 workers from three construction companies - Hokh Contract Services, Raffles Contractors and Neo-Built - gathered outside the building of their agent's office and complained that their work permits had been cancelled.

On Friday, the Chinese workers were at Mactech Industrial Building in Kallang Pudding Road again, trying to claim about $5,700 worth of fees they had paid for their passage to Singapore. Some said they had been here less than a month.

The second case involves 80 foreign workers from construction-related firms Alva Engineering and ACS Builders Construction, who told The Straits Times on Sunday that their permits had also been abruptly cancelled. These Bangladeshi workers had been in Singapore no longer than six months and many claimed they had not been paid for the little work - one to two months' worth - they had done.