Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday (March 3) during the committee of supply debates, Manpower Minister Josephine Teo outlined some of the measures the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) will implement to help ensure fair hiring and competition. While providing fair opportunities and support.

Teo stated that they were particularly watchful about discrimination against locals.

Fair hiring

While employers are already required to advertise for at least 14 days on MyCareersFuture.sg before submitting Employment Pass applications, this is to ensure fair hiring and guard against job openings being restricted to “closed circles of friends”, the new measures will target the pre-existing salary requirements.

Employers are currently required to advertise if they have at least 10 employees and for job positions paying a fixed monthly salary of less than S$15,000.

The new measures will require companies with at least 10 employees and job positions paying a fixed monthly salary of less than S$20,000.

Teo also reiterated that employers should not treat the advertising requirement as a paper exercise. She also stated that MOM has started to use data analytics to scrutinise EP applications.

Under the Fair Consideration Framework Watchlist. MOM has scrutinised about 1,000 firms, and to date, a total of 3,000 EP applications have been rejected or withheld by MOM, or withdrawn by employers.

In addition, firms under the Fair Consideration Framework (FCF) have hired more than 4,400 Singaporean PMETs over the same period.

They have also reached out to another 350 employers with workforce profiles that gave MOM cause for concern, so these employers can take steps to strengthen local hiring.

MOM will also prosecute employers and key personnel who make false declarations on fair consideration.

MOM also proactively identifies employers suspected of nationality-bias in their hiring.

They look out for employers with exceptionally high share of foreign PMETs compared to their industry peers, or high concentrations of single nationalities.

These employers are put on an FCF Watchlist where all of the EP applications will be scrutinised or withheld.

Discrimination not just based on nationality

Teo acknowledged that nationality discrimination was only one form of discrimination, Teo had earlier announced stiffer penalties for discrimination by age, gender, nationality or mental health condition.

Employers that violate the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices will be barred from hiring new foreign workers or renewing existing ones for a minimum of 12 months, up to a maximum of 24 months.

Fair Competition

Teo also touched on the topic of fair competition. She acknowledged that fair-minded Singaporeans do not expect to be given a free pass, but do expect fair competition.

Increase in minimum EP salary

The current EP minimum qualifying salary is S$3,600 per month.

The minimum qualifying salary was last raised in 2017, from S$3,300 to S$3,600.

The new minimum qualifying salary will now be S$3,900 per month and will apply to new EP applicants from May 1, 2020.

For EP renewals, the measures will kick in on May 1, 2021. The staggered approach is meant to moderate the impact on businesses.

The qualifying salaries for older, more experienced EP candidates will also be raised in tandem.

This means an EP applicant in his 40s will need to earn around double the new minimum qualifying salary.

This is to ensure a level playing field for experienced local PMETs in their 40s and 50s.

Employers can use the Self-Assessment Tool (SAT), which will be updated on April 2020, on the MOM website to assess if their EP candidates will meet the new salary criteria.

Changes to S Pass quota

Changes will also be made to the S Pass quota for Construction, Marine Shipyard, and Process sectors. This was first announced by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat during the budget.

The S Pass quota will be reduced in two steps over three years to give more time for affected businesses to adjust.

From the start of 2021, companies in these industries will have to ensure their S Pass quota does not exceed 18 per cent.

From the start of 2023, that number will further drop to 15 per cent.

The current threshold is at 20 per cent.

Raise LQS threshold for calculation of foreign worker quota

The Local Qualifying Salary (LQS) threshold determines the number of locals that can be used to calculate a firm’s quota to hire S Pass and Work Permit holders.

Currently, a local worker who earns a monthly salary of S$1,300 counts towards a firm’s quota.

Two locals who earn at least half the LQS but below the LQS threshold (i.e. two locals with a gross monthly salary of between S$650 and S$1,300) can be counted as one local for the purposes of the quota computation.

The LQS has been raised to S$1,400 a month while the half-LQS threshold will correspondingly be adjusted from S$650 to S$700.

This is to ensure local workers are employed meaningfully, rather than being employed on token salaries to allow the employer access to foreign workers.

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