Speaking at the 2021 National Day Rally on Sunday (29 Aug), Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong continues to talk about tightening the criteria for foreign work pass holders to get jobs in Singapore.
“First, we must assure Singaporeans that Employment Pass and S Pass holders are of the right standard. A practical and reasonable indication of quality is how much the employer is prepared to pay for the work pass holder. This is why to qualify for an EP or S Pass, there are salary cut-offs,” he said.
“We will continue to tighten the criteria for EP and S passes over time. Not suddenly or sharply, which would hurt businesses, but gradually and progressively.”
He assured that Singapore won’t be “flooded with more than we can absorb”.
This is, however, not the first time PM Lee has talked about tightening the inflow of foreign PMETs working here.
At the 2011 National Day Rally a decade ago, he also talked about tightening up salary requirement for foreign professionals.
“We have tightened up on foreigners progressively,” he said at the time. “The ‘S’ pass we have pushed from $1,800 to $2,000, that is of some help to the poly diploma holders and people who are at that level and therefore we have protected Singaporean workers.”
He also assured that Singapore needs to “tighten a little bit further” with regard to the employment criteria for EP holders. “We need to raise the salary requirement for the employment pass holders, tighten up the educational qualifications, make sure they come with real skills valuable to us and this is something MOM has worked on and will announce details soon,” he said on 14 Aug 2011.
“MOM will also work with tripartite partners, so as to develop guidelines for fair employment practices and responsible recruitment practices so that when you have a Singaporean working side by side with a foreigner, they both feel fairly treated and nobody feels that he is at a disadvantage.”
But 10 years later, even MPs from his own party are pushing to “toughen up TAFEP”, leading his government to look into enacting new anti-discrimination laws, an upgrade from TAFEP guidelines.
It’s not known if PM Lee would still be talking about tightening the criteria for foreign work pass holders or TAFEP in future rallies.
