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Twenty-nine Foreign Workers Jailed for Providing False Information

Employment practices Foreign manpower Skills, training and development
Twenty-nine foreign workers were sentenced to two weeks imprisonment for providing false information to officers from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM). The workers from three companies, San's Marine Engineering (14 workers), Han's Marine Pte Ltd (3 workers) and K7 Engineering Pte Ltd (12 workers), had complained that they did not have enough work and were deployed to work in other areas.

Background

 

2.   In late September 2008, the workers had given statements to Employment Inspectors that they were illegally deployed as construction workers and HDB conservancy cleaners. They also claimed they have not been paid their salaries.

3.   The Ministry's investigations found their complaints to be unfounded. The companies had valid work contracts with the shipyards. There were, however, intermittent periods during which some workers were not deployed to work. These workers were either undergoing training to prepare them for skills tests or being sent for re-training because their work standards did not meet the shipyards' requirements.

4.   The workers later admitted to furnishing false information to Employment Inspectors in the hope of receiving Special Passes from the Ministry to enable them to continue to remain in Singapore.

Providing False Information is an Offence

5.   "The accused persons cynically abused the investigation process. They have also wasted the time and resources of MOM, which could have been deployed to help workers in genuine need. We will not hesitate to prosecute false claimants.” warned Aw Kum Cheong, Divisional Director, Foreign Manpower Management Division.

6.   Under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act, any person who makes any statement or furnishes any information to the Controller or an employment inspector which he knows or ought reasonably to know is false in any material particular or is misleading by reason of the omission of any material particular is punishable with a fine of up to $15,000, or 12 months imprisonment, or both.