20.07.09 Job-hopping foreigners
SOME employers of foreign workers say they are grappling with a problem of job-hopping China workers.
Three out of five employers contacted by The Straits Times said they had workers who got themselves released from their contracts by claiming they had not been paid.
The workers then went home, only to return to Singapore soon after to work for other companies.
The employers interviewed said that China workers were more likely than other foreigners to try to end their work contracts early in order to take up new job offers.
\'Some of my workers have seen their ex-colleagues on the streets here barely a month after they settled their claims with us and went back to China,\' said a contractor who did not want to be named.
Job-hopping by work permit holders is frowned on by the Manpower Ministry (MOM), which said last Friday that \'workers should not breach their contractual obligations and then turn to MOM in a bid to overturn those obligations, claim extra monies from their employer and job-hop to another employer in Singapore\'.
The employers accused other companies here of poaching their workers brazenly, with offers of bigger pay.
For example, some offer to pay $8 per hour, twice what the workers earn, said one contractor. China workers tend to earn slightly over $1,000 a month, including overtime.
Some companies\' poaching efforts are said to include going to workers\' dormitories to distribute flyers advertising better pay or work conditions.
The director of one company claimed that more than 20 of her workers were poached last year.
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05.08.10
