Reader’s Letter to the MOM:
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Dear Ministry of Manpower,
As a true blue Singaporean, I would like to suggest to the MOM and the Government of Singapore to take immediate action by not allowing foreigners like the Phillippines to come to Singapore as a tourist and apply for a jobs in the service industry and approving their work pass to be able to stay on till whatever their contract expired. In this sense , its common sense that they are taking away our rice bowl.
(1) By allowing this people to work here and telling their friends how easy to get jobs in Singapore, Singapore will be invested by Manila.
(2) Singaporeans will lose out on this jobs and would become dependent on the Government.
(3) Instead of increasing low wage salary worker, the Government has to get rid of this foreign workers taking up our jobs, common sense can tell you that if the primary step is not been ensured then this illegal employer who employed this slavery and cheap staff are not willing to employ Singapore staff. If not Singaporean will end up like first world Indonesia. Am I right?
(4) Agent get rich to recruit this workers, employers get rich by paying low salary and also cheating the IRAS by reporting wrong income tax return. Doesn’t the Government care about this? Maybe not?
(5) Staff get paid cash in hand $1,100 but IRAS or MOM E Pass/S Pass, was $2,800 to $3,000. So if the Government adds 1+1 = 3 then something is wrong with the brains.
(6) The government also making multi-millions per month on the levy at $350*500,000 heads = $175,000,000 monthly.
I am writing this to you hoping to have an immediate stop to this importing of tourists investing our Singaporeans job force. Thank you.
Johnny Tan
Reply from the MOM:
Dear Johnny,
We refer to your email dated 25th May 2012.
We understand your sentiment about foreign employees and we recognised that the issue of foreign employees is a controversial yet essential factor in the Singapore economy. The Government has to adopt a balance approach towards this issue and has given assurances to Singaporeans that the influx of foreigners will be increasingly controlled and limited, and measures to tighten the foreign workforce have been phased in since July 2010.
For example, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has introduced, including raising the foreign worker levy and tightening the levy tiers significantly, in phases, up to July 2013. In addition, the minimum qualifying salary and other criteria for S Pass and Employment Pass holders were raised to ensure S Pass and EP holders recruited are of good calibre, are able to contribute effectively to our economy, and to preserve a level playing field for Singaporeans.
Nevertheless, the Ministry of Manpower will continue to monitor the situation, and will further calibrate foreign manpower access if necessary, in future.
Any abuses of our work pass framework will also be investigated and errant employers dealt with seriously. As I can recall, your feedback on alleged abuses by employers are also being looked into. If the employers are found to have infringed the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act, they will be dealt with accordingly.
Once again, thank you for your feedback.
Ong Liang Peng
Deputy Head, Customer Responsiveness Branch
Foreign Manpower Management Division
Ministry of Manpower