Manpower Ministry takes 8 companies to task for employment law violations

Eight companies have been charged for different violations under the Employment Act (EA) and Employment of Foreign Manpower Act (EFMA). 

Construction company Techcom Construction & Trading Pte Ltd and its main contractor Sunway Concrete Products (s) Pte Ltd were charged with defaulting salary payments to its workers. 

Techcom faces a total of 59 charges under the EA for failing to pay its workers salaries on time.

The company and its director, one Lim Siew Hiong, face another 37 charges relating to the collection of 'kickbacks' under the EFMA. 

Techcom's main contractor, Sunway, faces 54 charges under the EFMA for breaching the work pass condition in relation to the timely payment of workers' salaries. 

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said it initiated investigations into Techcom and Sunway after it received claims by a large number of foreign workers from those companies that they had not been paid their salaries since November 2011. 

MOM's investigations revealed that the salaries of these foreign workers for the period between September 2011 and December 2011 had not been paid. The salaries owed to these workers ranged from $3,250 to $7,400. Following MOM's intervention, all outstanding salaries owed to the affected workers were settled. 

Techcom and its director Lim Siew Hiong were charged with receiving a sum of $300 or $500 each from Techcom's foreign employees for renewing their work permits. 

Lim was also charged with intentionally aiding Sunway, in her capacity as director of Techcom, to contravene work pass conditions. Sunway's foreign employees were required to pay a sum of $300 or $500 each for the renewal of their work permits as a condition for continuing to employ them. 

Another construction company, Amxon Steel Pte Ltd faces a total of 70 charges under the EA. 10 charges relate to the failure to pay salaries within 7 days after the last day of the salary period and 60 charges for excessive working hours. 

A fourth construction company Sunyu Décor & Construction Pte Ltd faces 3 charges under the EA for deploying its worker to work for more than 72 hours of overtime a month. 

Casper Lim Ming Seng, Director of L&W Marine Pte Ltd, a marine company, faces 10 charges under the EA for failure to pay salary within 7 days after the last day of the salary period. 

Cleaning company Andrew Cleaning Services Pte Ltd faces 60 charges under the EA, with 49 charges for deploying its workers to work beyond 12 hours in a single day, 9 charges for failure to provide at least one whole rest day in a week and 2 charges for short payment of overtime work. 

Two security companies, G2 Asset Protection Pte Ltd and King's Security and Safety Management Pte Ltd, were charged for excessive working hours. 

G2 Asset Protection Pte Ltd faced 36 charges under the EA for deploying its workers to work excessive hours. 

King's Security and Safety Management Pte Ltd faces 17 charges under the EA for excessive working hours . 

This company was previously convicted by the MOM for the same offences in November 2007 and October 2009.