Sharp jump in employers taken to task for underpaying foreign staff in recent years: MOM data
About 190 employers were taken to task every year between 2015 and 2019 for underpaying their foreign employees — more than triple the yearly average in the previous five years.
SINGAPORE — About 190 employers were taken to task every year between 2015 and 2019 for underpaying their foreign employees — more than triple the yearly average in the previous five years — Manpower Minister Josephine Teo said on Tuesday (Feb 2).
Sixty employers were dealt with, on average, each year between 2010 and 2014, Mrs Teo said in a written parliamentary reply to questions from Mr Faisal Manap, Member of Parliament (MP) for Aljunied Group Representation Constituency, and Non-Constituency MP Leong Mun Wai.
Mr Faisal and Mr Leong asked how many such cases had been detected in the past five to 10 years. Mr Leong also wished to find out about the main methods used in such cases and whether employment agencies were embroiled in these violations.
Mrs Teo said that the reason for the rise in such cases being taken to task was that the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) had improved its detection capabilities and increased education to encourage foreign employees to report salary irregularities.
In some cases, the firms underpaid the wages simply by paying their foreign employees a lower salary. Some tried to avoid leaving a paper trail by crediting full declared salaries to the employees, then requiring them to return a portion of their wages.
Most cases of underpayment did not involve employment agencies but, from 2010 to 2019, enforcement action was taken against six licensed employment agencies.
Mrs Teo’s response comes as homegrown bakery chain Twelve Cupcakes and its founders — ex-radio deejay Daniel Ong and his ex-wife, actress Jaime Teo — have been beset with legal troubles over the issue.
Last month, the bakery, which was sold to an Indian tea company in 2017, was fined S$119,500 for underpaying eight foreign employees from 2017 to 2019.
It was found to have disguised its actions by paying its foreign staff members the correct amounts, then asking them to return part of their salaries.
Ong, 45, and Teo, 43, are accused of multiple counts of contravening rules under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act by underpaying their employees from 2012 to 2016.
Under the Act, it is an offence for employers not to pay foreign employees their contractual fixed monthly salaries or inflate the salaries of their foreign employees, with no intention of paying them the amount declared to MOM.
Mrs Josephine Teo said that her ministry would continue to surveil and take strong enforcement against errant employers and other parties who abet the offences.
“There is no excuse for underpayment of any employee, foreign or local,” she said.
