Written Answer to PQ on Stats on companies investigated for circumventing LQS rules

NOTICE PAPER NO. 2075 OF 2023 FOR THE SITTING ON 2 AUGUST 2023
QUESTION NO. 4937 FOR ORAL ANSWER

MP: Ms Yeo Wan Ling

To ask the Minister for Manpower how many companies in the past five years have been investigated for splitting Local Qualifying Salary payments over two related companies to enjoy more foreign worker quotas.

Answer:

Companies are not allowed to split the salaries of its local employees across different business entities for the purpose of obtaining foreign worker quota for each business entity. Those who do so will be investigated for breaching the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act (EFMA) as a form of inflating their foreign worker entitlement.

2 Between 2018 and 2022, MOM investigated about 640 employers for inflating their foreign worker entitlement. Of these, only a small proportion involved employers splitting the salaries of its locals across multiple business entities. MOM does not specifically track whether these business entities are related as it is immaterial to the enforcement outcomes.

3 Of the 640 employers investigated, enforcement actions were eventually taken against about 15% of them. No enforcement action was taken against the remaining employers as investigations showed that they did not hire any foreign workers using the additional quota gained, there were administrative lapses by the companies, or due to insufficient evidence.