A letter circulating online, purportedly sent by Ng Yek Meng, the president of the Singapore Contractors Association Ltd (SCAL), appears to be asking the government to bear the costs of Covid-19 tests for migrant workers on behalf of construction companies.

SCAL is the trade association that represents the construction industry. It has around 3,000 members.

If genuine, the letter was apparently addressed to Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, who is also the Finance Minister, and dated May 23, 2020.

A copy of this letter was shared by All Singapore Stuff and also on HardwareZone Forum, although the ASS post has been taken down.

It began by referring to an earlier letter sent on May 11, which supposedly asked for support for the construction industry during the post-Covid-19 period.

Construction industry "caught by surprise", costs of S$120 million per month

The letter said that the industry was "caught by surprise" by a government media release, which said that construction work would resume after June 1 and a Straits Times report, which quoted National Development Minister Lawrence Wong as saying that migrant workers must be tested before returning to work.

Wong had said during a press conference: "This will be a new regulatory requirement on top of all the other safe distancing measures that we have put in place that we are talking about, that contractors will now have to uphold, so I have no doubt, as with all regulatory requirements, the principle must be that the company must bear the cost."

According to Ng, each Covid-19 test costs S$200.

With about 300,000 migrant construction workers in the country, this would apparently translate into costs S$120 million per month, although Ng did not elaborate on how he arrived at that figure.

Huge burden to contractors, "100,000 livelihoods" at risk

Ng added that this cost is not priced into existing contracts and the contractor's tenders.

He wrote: "Hence, this will be an added huge burden to contractors, many of whom are SMEs already under deep financial stress."

Ng also said that the association is concerned that many companies may "collapse" and affect the livelihood of about 100,000 local employees in the construction industry.

He also expressed concerns that the capabilities, skills and experience built up by these companies would be lost, and said that the SMEs play a "key role" in supporting Multi-National Corporations (MNCs).

If they are lost, the bigger players cannot easily fill the gap left behind, warned Ng.

Ng said that because the impact of Covid-19 was a "national health concern" that affects the "general population", employers in the construction industry should not have to bear the testing costs.

Ng also appealed to the government to help construction companies to stay afloat.

Mothership reached out to SCAL, who responded: "We have many letters to ministers which are private and confidential. We have no comments."

BCA: Government will waive cost of swab tests until August

On May 27, Today reported that the government will waive the costs of swab tests for construction workers until August 2020, according to BCA.

This applies to workers involved in construction work allowed to resume before August 2020.

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Top image from BCA's Facebook page.