Foreigners' job history to be made available
- TODAY (03 June 2011) : Foreigners' job history to be made available
- TODAY (28 May 2011) : Employers might use threat of ban against workers
- TODAY (25 May 2011) : If we had known his employment history…
Foreigners' job history to be made available
- TODAY, 03 June 2011
1. We thank Mr Matthew Chua and Mr Ebenezer Jeyara for their feedback and suggestions (TODAY, 25 and 28 May 2011) to provide employers information on the employment history of foreign workers. We have also contacted Mr Chua directly to follow up with him.
2. We agree that the interests of employers should be protected. Currently, if a complaint has been lodged against a foreign domestic worker (FDW) or foreign worker, MOM will alert a prospective employer and will seek the complainant’s consent to be contacted by the prospective employer for more details.
3. In order to safeguard the integrity of information provided, the employment history made available to prospective employers is limited to information that can be verified, such as the number of previous employers and employment periods.
4. Prospective employers can already view an FDW's employment history via the Work Permit Online (WPOL) on the MOM website. Plans are underway to extend such information to prospective employers of foreign workers next year, as we recognise that it would help them make better informed decisions.
Employers might use threat of ban against workers
- TODAY, 28 May 2011
I refer to the letter "If we had known his employment history..." (May 25) by Matthew Chua.
A properly qualified and experienced HR professional should be able to do a proper background check on the candidate, be it local talent or foreign talent. Especially if the candidate is a foreigner, it can be easily verified from the passport whether the candidate has worked before in Singapore.
When applying for a work permit from the Manpower Ministry, the candidate's employment history should be provided: MOM would easily be able to track with the passport/FIN number and false declarations are easily discovered.
A good employer should not insist on banning an employee from working in Singapore again when the employee has not been convicted of any offence.
Empowering employers to put in a request to ban a foreign worker would give some employers an opportunity to use it as a threat against their employees.
In any case, the issues highlighted by the writer also apply when hiring local talent.
If the concern is really about hiring the right talent (whether local or foreign) and the company lacks expertise to do background checks, there are several professional organisations that specialise in doing background checks on the candidates.
As for candidates that have changed employers several times, in this competitive world, unless companies maintain good retention policies and meet the genuine needs of employees, the latter job-hop until they find the right place.
If we had known his employment history…
- TODAY, 25 May 2011
I refer to the report, "Two dormitory operators fined by MOM" (May 24). This, coupled with upcoming changes to the issue of work permits, serve to protect foreign workers. There is no doubt their interests need to be taken care of, but the Ministry Of Manpower can do more to help protect employers' interests too.
Firstly, when employers apply for work permits for new workers, they should be able to view the person's employment history. Vital data such as name of company, occupation and duration of work are extremely important in determining whether a person should be hired or not.
We once hired someone who quit three weeks later. We wasted our time and money training this person, only to find out he had lied about his employment history. He had claimed this was the first time he was working in Singapore, but when he resigned, he revealed this was his fourth job in six months.
Had such information been available to employers, we would not have proceeded to recruit him.
When we hire a Singaporean, we can't always check if this person has lied about his employment history. But in the case of a foreigner, the information is sitting with the Manpower Ministry. If it wants to improve productivity, helping employers recruit the right kind of candidate would be a good way to go about it.
My other concern is with regards to additional information that employers might want to share with each other. One of our employees was sacked after a month. He was perpetually late, constantly took smoking breaks and often disappeared for up to half an hour. The final straw came when he stole money from our customer's car.
It is obvious such a candidate should never be granted an opportunity to work in Singapore again. However, the current work permit administrative system does not allow the employer to key in extra information, nor does it say whether the worker resigned or was sacked from his previous job here.
When I called the MOM and persisted with my feedback, I was told they would send me a form to complete in order for them to consider "blocking" this person from seeking employment here again. With a new minister at its head, perhaps this is a good time for the ministry to look into improving the system.