By Ang Chuan Heng
This first appeared as a comment in response to the article, “No agent fees, no job for you“
The government adopts a laissez-faire approach to bring in the foreign workers (FWs). It tacitly allows the existence of middlemen to charge $4200 for bringing in one worker.
In the name of discouraging the industry to rely too much on the FWs, a monthly levy of at least $300 per head is charged. The levy collected is over several billion a year. This is revenue obtained with very little effort. If we condemn the middlemen as blood suckers, then the government is the biggest of them all.
In view of the riot in Little India, the so called broader issues are to be considered and the government has to do something to improve the lots of the FWs and to show people that indeed it is really concerned about them and would like to give them all possible humanitarian assistance.
Firstly the government should try to get rid of the middlemen, and secondly to provide the required safety nets for the workers.
1. If the process of getting a FW from overseas to work here is very simple and no red tape, then middlemen would not come into play.
Let anyone from the traditional sources of FWs to come like a tourist. So long as they have a valid passport, there is no need to apply for visa or permit to come here and work, provided more workers are still needed. They will be given a temporary work permit (WP) valid for 3 months on entry and they will be housed in a transitional dormitory (TD) with free meals and lodging provided. A TD can be regarded as a reception center or a welcome center for the FWs.
All companies that are short of workers are to get them from the TD instead of through middlemen or agents. The companies are not required to pay levy for these FWs during this period. The FWs are used as if they are on probation. If their performances are satisfactory, the companies can apply for them work permits. By the end of 3 months, those do not have WP will have to leave and will not be allowed to return to Singapore to look for a job. Those that have obtained the WP will move out from TD and join the regular work force.
As PM promised to double the number of dormitories, the new dormitories to be added could be used as TDs for holding the new comers.
To prevent these temporary workers from being exploited, the companies have to pay daily rate of $27 to TD for each worker picked up, and they have to pay additional $13 when a worker works overtime and return late at night. When the FWs are working with the company, their food and drinks are to be provided free. The money collected from the companies will be used to defray the expenses and to make the running of TD sustainable. The surplus could be returned to the workers.
This arrangement will make small and medium industries or contractors to get workers immediately at substantially low cost while WP can be applied simultaneously. Companies that repeatedly use the workers in TD without applying WP for them will be fined.
2. Once a worker becomes a regular worker, the levy collected from the employers will be used by the government to pay for the medical insurance and the insolvent insurance for the workers. The insolvent insurance is used to ensure the workers still can get their pay in the event the contractors go bankrupt.
The government is well known for its efficiency in generating revenue, from Certificate of Entitlement (COE) and Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) to privatization of hospitals and transportation. But one thing it should avoid is never to be perceived as profiteering from the import of FWs. It certainly can do more for the FWs if it is not too obsessed in making money. Implementing the measures suggested above will be quite likely to make the fate and lives of FW less miserable.
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