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Director jailed over ‘phantom workers’

December 15th, 2011|

Lim Seong Ong, director of Asia Link Marine Industries, was sentenced to eight weeks' imprisonment for inflating the number of local employees he had, in order to secure a larger number of work permits for foreign workers. The number of foreign workers a company can hire is linked to the

Advertising intern does good famously

December 15th, 2011|

Challenging themselves to "do good famously", three interns from British advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty Limited (BBH) came up with the idea of having one of them, Ian Napier, live and work as a migrant worker for a short while, and report on what it feels like to be one

Settling-in Programme to replace English language test in mid-2012 for foreign domestic workers

December 6th, 2011|

Starting in mid-2012, foreign workers taking on domestic work in Singapore will have to undergo a course known as the Settling-in Programme (SIP), announced Minister of State for Manpower, Tan Chuan-jin.  The ministry's press release on this matter can be found here. The SIP will incorporate the existing Safety Awareness

New bank scheme for Indonesian maids

December 1st, 2011|

The Indonesian government is launching a scheme to help Indonesian domestic workers in Singapore with salaries during their first few months here. The scheme, known as People Business Credit for Indonesian Migrant Workers, will be managed by Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) and overseen by the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs

Judge: Bosses who ill-treat foreign workers will go to jail

November 28th, 2011|

Dismissing an appeal against a jail sentence imposed by a District Court, Judge of Appeal Justice V K Rajah said that employers who fail to pay their foreign workers on time or house them in acceptable quarters can expect to spend time in jail. Lee Chiang Theng now has to

Average of 20 workers go missing each month

November 21st, 2011|

Straits Times, November 21, 2011 : Fewer than 250 foreign workers went missing each year between 2008 and last year, which worked out to an average of about 20 workers a month. Most were eventually found and repatriated, said a Ministry of Manpower (MOM) spokesman, who added that not all

Wanted posters for missing foreign workers

November 21st, 2011|

Some employers are experimenting with public posters offering a reward to anyone who can help located a missing worker rather than turn to repatriation companies, reported the Straits Times, November 21, 2011. James Ng, a construction firm manager, is one of them, offering $2,000 as reward. Two of his workers

Average of five foreign workers go missing each week in S’pore

November 20th, 2011|

Channel NewsAsia carried an eye-witness report of an employer handing over to the police a worker who had gone missing and was later caught presumably by private security agents. The employer Mr Ng told the reporter that employers are liable for missing workers, and they may face legal repercussions, if

Minister accompanies raids on two foreign worker quarters

November 11th, 2011|

One location that was housing foreign workers was " abysmal"  while the other was " over-crowded",  wrote Minister of State for Manpower Tan Chuan-jin on his Facebook wall after being with two raids on migrant worker quarters. Dated and clocked in the early hours of Thursday, November 10, 2011, the