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SINGAPORE – It is not unthinkable to impose quotas on high-level foreign professionals in Employment Passes (EPs), but such a move would probably be unwise, Human Resources Minister Josephine Teo said on Tuesday (September 1).
It is far better to use salary requirements to ensure that companies can access foreign professionals of the right quality while committing to developing their local staff over time, he told parliament.
“Without that flexibility, many of the high-quality investments would have been lost to our competitors and the job opportunities along with them,” he said.
Economic agencies also need flexibility when competing for the most advanced investments and the most sophisticated activities to move to Singapore, he added.
Ms. Teo was responding to deputies in the parliamentary debate on the president’s speech, and outlined the government’s considerations in managing the foreign workforce here, as well as its efforts to support professionals, managers, executives, and technicians. Singapore (PMET), especially those in their 40s. and 50.
“Therefore, we must not lose the forest for the trees, focusing strictly on keeping foreigners out and missing the bigger picture of cultivating the pie and giving Singaporeans a chance for the best slice,” he said.
Patrick Tay (Pioneer) and Foo Mee Har (West Coast GRC) suggested on Monday introducing tiered fees for PE holders based on different pay levels or industries, which would limit the proportion of a company’s employees who can be in PE.
Ms. Teo said that at the level of work permits, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) uses levies in addition to quotas to regulate demand because the number of workers is large: 737,200 last December, not including female employees. domestic.
There are also fees for foreigners in S Passes, which are those who earn at least $ 2,400 per month.
But at the EP level, where the numbers are not that big (there were 190,000 working here in June), the ministry’s key goal is to regulate quality, Ms Teo said.
As of Tuesday, the minimum qualifying salary for new EP applications is $ 4,500, up from $ 3,900. The change affects pass renewals starting in May next year.
Increasing salary requirements over time pushes PE holders at the lower end to the S Pass level, where they are subject to the quota, something that taxes do not, Ms Teo said, adding that in All previous adjustments to the PE salary requirements, quite a few were downgraded to S Passes.
As for employers who falsely report wages to meet the higher bar and then recover money from foreign employees under the table, Ms Teo said the response must be to strengthen enforcement.
In the past five years, the ministry has taken action on more than 1,200 cases of false statements or bribery, which led to almost 388 convictions through prosecution, he said.
She noted the anxiety and increased sense of insecurity about jobs, amid the severe impact of Covid-19.
Although unemployment has not reached the highs of past recessions, it is not a fact that it will continue to be, he said.
In the last severe economic recession of the 2009 global financial crisis, Singapore’s GDP still managed to grow 0.1% after the Government launched the $ 20.5 billion Resilience Package and achieved double-digit growth for the year. following.
This year, the Government has already introduced four support budgets worth close to $ 100 billion, including wage support under the Employment Support Plan of up to 75%, compared to 12% under the Plan credit for employment in 2009.
Said Ms Teo: “We are still in the middle of a storm, and it will be some time before we see ‘green shoots’.”
With Covid-19, the number of EP and S pass holders has dropped by 22,000 between January and July this year.
In fact, in the last five years, the growth in the number of locals in PMET jobs outpaced the growth in the number of EP and S Pass holders. For every new EP or S Pass holder added in that period, approximately four more locations accepted PMET jobs.
This is not due to an increase in permanent residents, as some have suggested, Ms Teo said. The PR population has been stable for the past five years, at around 500,000.
Still, the minister said, in this period of great uncertainty, middle-aged local PMETs are especially concerned about two main things: If layoffs are unavoidable, will they be targeted by employers because of their age and higher wages, especially compared to your younger foreign colleagues? And when applying for jobs, will they be overlooked, especially if employers can hire EP and S pass holders?
Ms Teo said that MOM actively monitors downsizing practices and looks at issues such as whether the employer tried other cost saving measures before considering reductions and whether the core of the company in Singapore weakened as a result of the exercise of reduction.
He noted that older workers sometimes comprise a higher proportion of workers laid off by a company because their skills are less relevant to core functions.
But overall there has been no weakening of Singapore’s core in the cases seen by the ministry, he said. For example, when Resorts World Sentosa laid off workers in July, foreign employees had to meet a higher performance standard than locals to be retained.
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