TWC2’s case officer (left) explains the salary claim process to one of the seven workers (right).
Seven workers with salary claims get the right to look for transfer jobs. For three of them, this right would be meaningless. We explain why.
Seven workers went to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) on 9 June 2025 to complain that their employers had not paid them their proper salaries since February 2025. In this four-month period, the employers only provided them between $100 to $200 each, which was meant for food, not wages. Ten days later, the group came to TWC2 for help and advice.
They were employed by two related companies. Three men were with Joy Engineering and Construction Pte Ltd, the other four were employed by Joy Construction and Engineering Pte Ltd.
What was unusual about this group of seven was that all of them had been hired on S-Passes, but during the course of their employment, four of them were downgraded to Work Permits. We have written in detail about one of them, Husaib, in Boss made worker accept salary reduction of 85 percent.
This somewhat unusual history had implications for the men when it came to looking for new jobs – the topic of this article.
The Change of Employer (COE) letter
It’s one of the few markers of progress that it has become relatively routine in recent years for salary claimants who had been on Work Permits to be given permission to seek new jobs. This permission is given by the unit in MOM that handles salary claims, and it takes the form of a Change of Employer (COE) letter. However, the rule that such workers should only be seeking new jobs in the same industry sector as before (in this case: Construction) continues to apply.
Salary claimants who had been on S-Passes would not immediately need COE letters; they get the right to remain in Singapore for 30 days after their S-Passes have been cancelled, during which time they are free to look for new jobs. If the claim remains unresolved after 30 days (as almost always the case), they are put on Special Passes, and then (we believe) they will need COE letters to continue looking for new jobs. It’s not entirely clear to us what the process is, or even what exactly the policy is. Parliamentary statements on this subject tend to refer to “foreign workers” or “migrant workers” without making a distinction between Work Permit and S-Pass holders. Our guess is that this absence of distinction means the Special Pass holders who used to be S-Pass holders would also get COEs.
So, the mix of S-Pass and Work Permit holders in this batch focussed our minds on this question. Unfortunately, there were several other complications in terms of the men’s job histories, so the outcomes still didn’t throw much light on the issue.
Profiles of the seven men
It may be helpful to list all seven men and their profiles in a table, otherwise the story may become confusing further down. We have used pseudonyms instead of their real names.
For all of the men, this was their first job in Singapore. Moreover, none of them had gone through a basic skills training course prior to joining the company, even though they were in the construction sector. Because it is mandatory for Work Permit holders in the construction sector to first have basic skill certificates (also known as SEC(K) certificates), this may explain why they were hired on S-Passes (no need for basic skills certificates) rather than Work Permits.
After joining the company, four of the seven guys signed up for a basic skills course in metal scaffolding in the later part of 2024. Training was conducted at a centre in Woodlands, and each paid $1,300 for the course and the exam (they all passed). The employer supported and encouraged them, giving them time off to attend training.
The “reward” for going for training was, within a few months, to be downgraded from S-Pass (with salaries $4,000 or higher) to Work Permit ($600), since these guys now had the basic skills certificates! Naturally, no one was happy about it. Even the three who had not (yet) been downgraded were quite certain they would be next.
However, this was also the same period when salaries weren’t even paid at all. So there was more than one reason to be disgruntled.
Looking for new jobs
We heard from the group’s spokesman that all of them had been given Change of Employer letters (COEs) by MOM, but this got us thinking. It was not realistic for these men to be looking for S-Pass jobs with S-Pass level of salaries since none of them had any diploma in engineering, only four of them had newly-minted basic skill certificates. These four, although unlucky to be downgraded to Work Permits soon after, were now in the more fortunate position: they were eligible for Work Permit jobs in the construction sector and had realistic chances of finding new jobs.
What about the three who didn’t go for the basic skills course? They had not been downgraded, but now, despite having COEs in hand, they were not eligible for construction sector Work Permit jobs. Their COEs were meaningless.
Not eligible for skills exam despite having lots of time on their hands
It occurred to us that the best way forward was for these guys to quickly sign up for a basic skills course at the same training centre in Woodlands; it would also be a productive way of using idle time while their salary case crept forward. However, there seems to be a rule that only holders of valid work passes could sign up or take the skill exam. For these three men, this avenue was closed because after filing their salary claims, their S-Passes were cancelled, replaced by Special Passes (which are not work passes).
It’s a silly rule. Working workers often complain that their bosses would not let them take time off to attend upskilling courses. It’s hard to achieve the kind of productivity improvement that our government often goes on about when the biggest barrier is the employer. We heard from an employment agent recently that employers resist supporting workers for upskilling because they fear that the workers would either expect salary increments or they would quit altogether.
The Building and Construction Authority should let Special Pass holders take the basic skills exam; upgrade skills while these workers have time to do so.
Yet, at any given time, there are hundreds (if not thousands) of construction workers on Special Passes, usually because of salary claims, who have all the time in the world to attend training classes. Why not let them do so?
Separately, we continued to wonder why they were hired on S-Passes at $4,000 salaries in the first place. We sat down with the one who had the best English to get a rundown of what happened at the recruitment stage. In Part 2 we will get into this.
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