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Saturday, July 18, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Four Prosecuted for Kickback Offences in Relation to 22 Workers
16 July 2009
Three employers and an employment agent have been prosecuted for kickback offences. In the first prosecution for kickback offences, three employers were charged for recovering employment-related costs1 from their foreign workers. The employment agent was charged for paying inducements to employers to hire foreign workers through her agency. The four cases involved 22 workers.
2. The prosecutions follow new regulations introduced by the Ministry of Manpower in July 2008. Under the regulations, Work Permit and S Pass conditions prohibit employers from receiving payment as consideration for employing foreign workers, and recovering employment-related costs from foreign workers. Similarly, the Employment Agency Licence Condition also prohibits employment agencies from offering payment (whether monetary or in kind) to employers, in exchange for hiring foreign workers through them.
3. Ong Gim Chua, manager of Meeting Point Pub & Lounge was charged today (16 July) and faces 10 charges for abetting the employer to recover levy and security deposit costs from 10 foreign workers. Ke Koon Seng, director of Seng System Engineering Pte Ltd, was charged for making salary deductions from his foreign worker as a consideration for employment.
4. The third employer and the employment agent were earlier charged on 25 June 2009. Wong Seng Kiong of Guo Tai Mei Trading, faces seven counts of recovering levy from foreign workers. Sun Bao Hua of Starseas Consulting Services Pte Ltd faces four counts of abetting representatives of four bus companies to receive benefits by paying them to hire foreign workers through her agency.
Engaging in such malpractices is an offence
5. Aw Kum Cheong, Divisional Director, Foreign Manpower Management Division, MOM, said, "Kickbacks undermine the integrity of the employment agency industry, and distorts the market for foreign labour. Our foreign worker policies are intended to help companies to meet their legitimate need for foreign workers. Foreign workers should not be brought into Singapore in order to collect fees from them. Such exploitative behaviour will not be tolerated."
6. Under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act, employers who breach Work Permit conditions can be fined up to $5,000 and/or imprisoned for up to six months. They will also be barred from employing foreign workers in the future. Employment agencies that breach the Employment Agency licence conditions will have their licenses revoked and security deposit of $20,000 forfeited.
7. Anyone with specific information on kickback offences should contact MOM at (65) 6438 5122 or email at mom_fmmd@mom.gov.sg.
Three employers and an employment agent have been prosecuted for kickback offences. In the first prosecution for kickback offences, three employers were charged for recovering employment-related costs1 from their foreign workers. The employment agent was charged for paying inducements to employers to hire foreign workers through her agency. The four cases involved 22 workers.
2. The prosecutions follow new regulations introduced by the Ministry of Manpower in July 2008. Under the regulations, Work Permit and S Pass conditions prohibit employers from receiving payment as consideration for employing foreign workers, and recovering employment-related costs from foreign workers. Similarly, the Employment Agency Licence Condition also prohibits employment agencies from offering payment (whether monetary or in kind) to employers, in exchange for hiring foreign workers through them.
3. Ong Gim Chua, manager of Meeting Point Pub & Lounge was charged today (16 July) and faces 10 charges for abetting the employer to recover levy and security deposit costs from 10 foreign workers. Ke Koon Seng, director of Seng System Engineering Pte Ltd, was charged for making salary deductions from his foreign worker as a consideration for employment.
4. The third employer and the employment agent were earlier charged on 25 June 2009. Wong Seng Kiong of Guo Tai Mei Trading, faces seven counts of recovering levy from foreign workers. Sun Bao Hua of Starseas Consulting Services Pte Ltd faces four counts of abetting representatives of four bus companies to receive benefits by paying them to hire foreign workers through her agency.
Engaging in such malpractices is an offence
5. Aw Kum Cheong, Divisional Director, Foreign Manpower Management Division, MOM, said, "Kickbacks undermine the integrity of the employment agency industry, and distorts the market for foreign labour. Our foreign worker policies are intended to help companies to meet their legitimate need for foreign workers. Foreign workers should not be brought into Singapore in order to collect fees from them. Such exploitative behaviour will not be tolerated."
6. Under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act, employers who breach Work Permit conditions can be fined up to $5,000 and/or imprisoned for up to six months. They will also be barred from employing foreign workers in the future. Employment agencies that breach the Employment Agency licence conditions will have their licenses revoked and security deposit of $20,000 forfeited.
7. Anyone with specific information on kickback offences should contact MOM at (65) 6438 5122 or email at mom_fmmd@mom.gov.sg.
Friday, July 3, 2009
124,500 Workers Sign Up for SPUR in Just Six Months
03 July 2009
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) announced that in just six months since its launch, 124,500 workers have signed up for the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR). This includes 83,500 (67%) workers sent by 1,800 companies, many of which are using SPUR to manage their excess manpower. Another 40,600 (33%) individuals have signed up to upgrade their skills, with 36,200 at the Continuing Education and Training (CET) Centres and 4,400 in courses at our polytechnics and Institutes for Technical Education (ITE). More than 19,000 job seekers have also found jobs through SPUR.
2. Two-thirds of SPUR trainees are rank-and-file workers, while about one-third are Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians (PMETs). Many are taking up Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) or Employability Skills System (ESS1) courses. Close to 60% of the workers (or 67,000) have already commenced or completed their training. About $210 million has been committed thus far.
SAVING JOBS WITH SPUR
3. Companies have responded positively to SPUR, particularly those from sectors more affected by the downturn.
4. Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) too are tapping on the programme. Of the 1,800 companies participating in SPUR, almost two-thirds are smaller companies with less than 200 employees.
FINDNG JOBS WITH SPUR
5. During the six-month period from 1 December 2008 to 31 May 2009, more than 19,000 job seekers have found jobs through the effort of WDA, NTUC's Employment and Employability Institute (e2i), the Community Development Councils (CDCs) and CET Centres. This is a significant increase, compared to the 13,000 job seekers placed2 for the whole of 2008.
6. About 60% of the job seekers placed into employment were aged 40 years and above. 75% of the job seekers placed were lower-skilled workers with secondary or less education. Some of the successful job seekers had undergone SPUR training before their re-employment. In a survey conducted by WDA, six in ten of these jobseekers indicated that the training was useful in helping them secure the jobs. Nine in ten agreed that the training helped improve their skills for better job performance.
BUILDING CAPABILITIES WITH SPUR
7. SPUR courses are selected to ensure relevance to industries after the downturn. Active effort is also being made to build capabilities for the future through SPUR. For example, relevant SPUR courses are being promoted and used as part of a larger effort to improve service levels in Singapore. This includes the introduction of "on-site-bite-size" service and retail courses for tenants at shopping malls. New skills standards and courses are developed and included for emerging sectors. Conversion programmes and traineeships are also carefully selected to ensure that we build manpower capabilities in growth sectors and occupations.
RECENT REFINEMENTS
8. As more PMETs have been affected in this downturn compared to past recessions, the absentee payroll cap has been recently raised from $6.00/$6.80 per hour to $10.00 per hour to encourage more employers to send their PMET employees for SPUR training. Targeted programmes have also been introduced under SPUR to assist PMETs. These include skills conversion programmes which have been doubled to more than 40.
9. In May 2009, the Professional Skills Programme Traineeship (PSPT) was launched under SPUR. The scheme has met with significant interest from employers and potential trainees. There are some 1,200 traineeships now available from more than 100 companies across sectors such as electronics, finance and infocomm. The number of PSP Traineeship positions has since been increased from 2,500 to 3,000 over two years.
10. The SPUR-JOBS scheme, also launched in May, further encourages the recruitment and retention of trainees of SPUR and other CET programmes. To date, 50 companies have sent in their applications to recruit 1,200 local workers. Both programmes are expected to benefit many more companies and jobseekers, including PMETs, in the months ahead.
LOOKING AHEAD
11. Launched as part of the national response to the economic downturn, SPUR helps companies to save jobs, workers to find jobs and industries to build capabilities for the future. The investments made in recent years in building up the CET System and the strong partnership among the tripartite partners has been instrumental in the quick and timely implementation of SPUR.
12. By tapping on these assets and making refinements in response to feedback, SPUR has shown significant impact in its first six months. The tripartite partners will continue to focus on making SPUR more effective in helping companies and workers tackle the downturn while enhancing the long- term employability and competitiveness of our workforce.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 The ESS comprises 10 essential foundation skills portable across all industries and especially relevant to low-skilled workers. The skills include workplace literacy, workplace numeracy, infocomm skills, communications, workplace safety and health, etc.
2 Figure refers to those placed by the CDCs
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) announced that in just six months since its launch, 124,500 workers have signed up for the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR). This includes 83,500 (67%) workers sent by 1,800 companies, many of which are using SPUR to manage their excess manpower. Another 40,600 (33%) individuals have signed up to upgrade their skills, with 36,200 at the Continuing Education and Training (CET) Centres and 4,400 in courses at our polytechnics and Institutes for Technical Education (ITE). More than 19,000 job seekers have also found jobs through SPUR.
2. Two-thirds of SPUR trainees are rank-and-file workers, while about one-third are Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians (PMETs). Many are taking up Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) or Employability Skills System (ESS1) courses. Close to 60% of the workers (or 67,000) have already commenced or completed their training. About $210 million has been committed thus far.
SAVING JOBS WITH SPUR
3. Companies have responded positively to SPUR, particularly those from sectors more affected by the downturn.
4. Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) too are tapping on the programme. Of the 1,800 companies participating in SPUR, almost two-thirds are smaller companies with less than 200 employees.
FINDNG JOBS WITH SPUR
5. During the six-month period from 1 December 2008 to 31 May 2009, more than 19,000 job seekers have found jobs through the effort of WDA, NTUC's Employment and Employability Institute (e2i), the Community Development Councils (CDCs) and CET Centres. This is a significant increase, compared to the 13,000 job seekers placed2 for the whole of 2008.
6. About 60% of the job seekers placed into employment were aged 40 years and above. 75% of the job seekers placed were lower-skilled workers with secondary or less education. Some of the successful job seekers had undergone SPUR training before their re-employment. In a survey conducted by WDA, six in ten of these jobseekers indicated that the training was useful in helping them secure the jobs. Nine in ten agreed that the training helped improve their skills for better job performance.
BUILDING CAPABILITIES WITH SPUR
7. SPUR courses are selected to ensure relevance to industries after the downturn. Active effort is also being made to build capabilities for the future through SPUR. For example, relevant SPUR courses are being promoted and used as part of a larger effort to improve service levels in Singapore. This includes the introduction of "on-site-bite-size" service and retail courses for tenants at shopping malls. New skills standards and courses are developed and included for emerging sectors. Conversion programmes and traineeships are also carefully selected to ensure that we build manpower capabilities in growth sectors and occupations.
RECENT REFINEMENTS
8. As more PMETs have been affected in this downturn compared to past recessions, the absentee payroll cap has been recently raised from $6.00/$6.80 per hour to $10.00 per hour to encourage more employers to send their PMET employees for SPUR training. Targeted programmes have also been introduced under SPUR to assist PMETs. These include skills conversion programmes which have been doubled to more than 40.
9. In May 2009, the Professional Skills Programme Traineeship (PSPT) was launched under SPUR. The scheme has met with significant interest from employers and potential trainees. There are some 1,200 traineeships now available from more than 100 companies across sectors such as electronics, finance and infocomm. The number of PSP Traineeship positions has since been increased from 2,500 to 3,000 over two years.
10. The SPUR-JOBS scheme, also launched in May, further encourages the recruitment and retention of trainees of SPUR and other CET programmes. To date, 50 companies have sent in their applications to recruit 1,200 local workers. Both programmes are expected to benefit many more companies and jobseekers, including PMETs, in the months ahead.
LOOKING AHEAD
11. Launched as part of the national response to the economic downturn, SPUR helps companies to save jobs, workers to find jobs and industries to build capabilities for the future. The investments made in recent years in building up the CET System and the strong partnership among the tripartite partners has been instrumental in the quick and timely implementation of SPUR.
12. By tapping on these assets and making refinements in response to feedback, SPUR has shown significant impact in its first six months. The tripartite partners will continue to focus on making SPUR more effective in helping companies and workers tackle the downturn while enhancing the long- term employability and competitiveness of our workforce.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 The ESS comprises 10 essential foundation skills portable across all industries and especially relevant to low-skilled workers. The skills include workplace literacy, workplace numeracy, infocomm skills, communications, workplace safety and health, etc.
2 Figure refers to those placed by the CDCs
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
800 seek internships
01 July 2009
PRODDED by desperate times, 800 jobseekers flocked to the South West CDC Internship Fair on Friday, eager to land stints in industries which have been shunned by many Singaporeans.
The Internship Programme is the first of its kind and allows successful applicants to try out jobs in real working environments for three to five days, before deciding to commit to them.
During the internship, employers will provide on-the-go training. Employees will get a chance to wait on customers, pitch sales, or even learn a thing or two about installing air-conditioners. For their efforts, job seekers will receive an allowance of $4 an hour from the South West CDC.
By Rachel Au-Yong
PRODDED by desperate times, 800 jobseekers flocked to the South West CDC Internship Fair on Friday, eager to land stints in industries which have been shunned by many Singaporeans.
The Internship Programme is the first of its kind and allows successful applicants to try out jobs in real working environments for three to five days, before deciding to commit to them.
During the internship, employers will provide on-the-go training. Employees will get a chance to wait on customers, pitch sales, or even learn a thing or two about installing air-conditioners. For their efforts, job seekers will receive an allowance of $4 an hour from the South West CDC.
By Rachel Au-Yong
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