Migrant workers stuck overseas amid border constraints; contractors struggle with labour crunch
06 December, 2020
Bangladeshi MD Rayhan, who worked in Singapore for seven years, has been trapped in his village in Bhola district since March.
He returned to see his family group after leaving his previous task and was due to go back to Singapore on Mar 21 to get started on utilize a new employer.
But on Mar 18, the Ministry of Manpower (Mother) announced that both existing and new function move holders had to initially get its acceptance before going to Singapore. This is implemented in line with additional border constraints put in place as Singapore battled a rise in imported COVID-19 cases.
Mr Rayhan said his different employer, O2r Fire Systems, has repeatedly - and unsuccessfully - applied for him to enter Singapore. His in-principle authorization will expire on Dec 31.
An in-basic principle approval is issued whenever a work permit is accepted, and employers have to bring the employees in through the validity period mentioned on the document.
“My bad luck,” Mr Rayhan told CNA over the telephone.
“(It’s) hard to live right now,” he added, explaining that he provides wiped out about S$4,200 on savings and borrowed another S$3,000 from a pal to support his family of seven - his parents, 3 sisters, his wife and himself.
He said there are no jobs found in his hometown right now.
For some workers like Mr Matharan Subbiah, who worked in Singapore for 16 years, his do the job permit expired in November while looking forward to months to come back to his job here.
He previously travelled to India in February for a good break - having not seen his family in 2 yrs - and booked a good ticket back to Singapore in April. With the expiry of his do the job permit, he is no longer officially considered a worker of Kongsberg Technology, the contractor he performed for.
While Mr Subbiah found function supporting his neighbours build their houses in a Tamil Nadu district, he earns only 400 rupees (S$7.25) a day, significantly less than a tenth of what he used to earn as a task coordinator in Singapore.
The money, together with the S$2,000 he borrowed from his brother, is enough to support his mom, wife and three-year-old daughter, he said, but life is still “very difficult”.
His former company, Mr Sim Kian Eng, is merely as anxious for him to return to Singapore and strategies to rehire him once the ability arises. Like various other contractors, the general supervisor of Kongsberg Technology is definitely in desperate need to have of workers.
Construction companies are facing a backlog of projects given that they were permitted to fully resume activities in August following the COVID-19 “circuit breaker”. Firms are under great pressure to meet up project deadlines or deal with costly fines.
Apart from employees stuck overseas after heading home for a break, new workers have been slow to enter aswell due to border restrictions.
FUTILE SEEK OUT WORKERS
Mr Sim has 35 staff in Singapore and another six overseas, including those whose do the job passes have expired. He said he wants another eight to 10 workers.
He has requested for staff through a recruitment firm and the Singapore Contractors Association Limited’s (SCAL) Building Manpower Exchange, a system for companies to hire personnel who already are in Singapore. He has not received any confident responses.
To handle the manpower crunch, his employees have been working longer time with overtime pay.
“The strain isn’t there yet”, Mr Sin said, but his company is expecting “some big projects” to start out early next year.
O2r Fire System’s founder Chan Chi Lon, who's Mr Rayhan’s company, said he had to drop a project recently because he had not been able to meet up with the client’s price.
Costs have risen as he has had to activate more sub-contractors to focus on his projects. Before the COVID-19 restrictions, he could just hire more workers.
Mr Chan has 18 do the job permit and S Move personnel in Singapore, but he really wants to double that number.
The plan for 2020 was to scale up the two-year-old business. Instead, he can only undertake enough assignments to sustain it, in particular when the months in advance remain uncertain, he said.
Without persons like Mr Rayhan - who was simply supposed to start are a safety supervisor - Mr Chan is seeking to companies specialising safely do the job to ask if they can allow a few of their employees to debate on an interim basis. But he is not hopeful as others are also facing the same issue.
One silver lining, he noted, is that none of his workers has left his enterprise - perhaps because he didn't cut their salaries during the circuit breaker, he said.
He has heard of workers moving to another job that claims to give a higher salary. Under current rules, workers whose job permits are between 21 and 40 days of expiring can transfer to some other organization without consent from their existing company.
Mother GRADUALLY RESUMING PROCESSING APPLICATIONS
Both Mother and SCAL have acknowledged the problem. In an October circular, the engineering body said several customers have told them in regards to a growing number of staff “seeking transfer to others without knowledge or consent of the existing employer, requesting for bigger salaries”.
In November, MOM delivered a notice to contractors saying it really is alert to the labour constraints.
It advised companies to hold their existing personnel by working out “mutually acceptable terms early on” and reminded them that they could renew do the job passes as soon as 8 weeks before expiry.
In a joint statement to CNA, MOM and the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) said that Singapore limited entry approvals for do the job pass holders to lessen the risk of imported COVID-19 cases and defend public health.
Given the current labour supply problems, MOM has slowly but surely resumed processing new job move applications from countries with lower health threats such as China, said the statement. Authorities as well noted that companies might use SCAL's transfer programme.
"We will continue steadily to adapt our border measures considering feedback from the market about their need for new foreign employees and as the global circumstances evolves," they said.
India and Bangladesh, where many of Singapore’s migrant staff come from, remain struggling to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.
The ministry and BCA didn't respond to queries how many work permit holders' entry applications are approved daily.
WORKERS LOOKING FOR HIGHER PAY
After four employees were poached by other employers during the past two months, CHC Construction’s founder Laurence Liau quickly renewed the others of his workers’ job passes a lot more than 40 days before their expiry date.
During those 8 weeks, he said a further five or six persons had requested to keep after their operate passes ended.
To motivate the rest to remain, Mr Liau said he increased the income of about 90 personnel by approximately 20 per cent, which arises to a five-digit sum on a monthly basis.
He in addition has rejected eight projects up to now, afraid of liquidated damages if his current team cannot handle all of them, unless he can get hold of another 20 to 30 workers.
If labour supply continues to run brief, Mr Liau said he could have no choice but to let go of staff members in management positions.
Mr Danny Gay, the director of recruitment organization MCI Consulting, said usually, he and his workforce are the ones calling contractors up to provide their offerings. But since September, he possesses been inundated with requests for employees and has decided to help about 50 companies search for 200 workers altogether.
He added that each week, about 20 personnel approach his enterprise requesting to transfer to some other employer. But only less than 10 are found to be suited, he said. The others have either not sought consent from their bosses or insist on an exceptionally high salary.
Workers also have taken the opportunity to discount with their new employers for better pay for, Mr Gay said. Prior to the pandemic, their normal salaries had been between S$550 and S$600. Today, it is between S$750 and S$800.
Sadly, he said, there is normally “nothing much employer(s) may do” to ease the burden.
“Every day, when contractors are assembly one another, we’ll be asking: ‘You got worker?’ Everybody (is normally) asking the same problem,” Mr Liau lamented. “There is no solution.”
Source: www.channelnewsasia.com
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