 said today (26 Jan) that in the last two years, fines worth more than $1 million were handed out){kind=link}
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said today (26 Jan) that in the last two years, fines worth more than $1 million were handed out to 175 companies for failing to update the residential addresses of their workers who are work pass holders.
The amount handed out for each of these fines ranged from between $500 and $2,000 for each worker and there were a total of about 960 workers in MOM’s database whose addresses were not kept updated.
The fines issued totalled an amount of almost $1.1million.
MOM sent reminders to companies
MOM added that despite reminding the companies through repeated calling and emailing, the companies chose not to keep the addresses updated.
The Employment of Foreign Manpower Regulations (EFMR) states that employers must always keep MOM updated and informed about the residential addresses of their work pass holders.
If the work pass holder change their place of residence, MOM should also be informed of their change of addresses and employers should update the new addresses within five days of their work pass holders moving to the new address.
MOM added that there is a need for the residential addresses of the work pass holders to be accurate as this is critical if there is a need to send correspondence to the work pass holders in times of emergencies such as public health emergencies and for contact tracing purposes in these emergencies.
Penalties for non-compliance
The Manpower law in Singapore states that under the Foreign Manpower Act, non-compliance may subject the employer to a fine of up to $10,000 and/or a jail term of up to 12 months for each individual charge.
Employers are once again reminded to do their part to update the addresses of their work pass holders whenever required to avoid breaking the law and risk getting fined or imprisonment.
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