As the economy recovers from the ravages of COVID-19, businesses are starting to increase their hiring. Against this backdrop, Minister of Manpower Dr Tan See Leng announced in his Committee of Supply 2022 speech on 4 March 2022 that Singapore would be making several key changes to strengthen the complementarity and diversity of its foreign workforce, as well as provide greater clarity and certainty to businesses on foreign workforce policies.
Apart from the Minister’s speech, there have been other recent announcements by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) relating to Singapore’s foreign workforce policies, as well as additional measures to advance the well-being of lower-wage workers.
In this Update, we cover the following developments:
- Changes to requirements for Employment Passes (“EP“)
a. Benchmarking of the minimum qualifying salary for EP holders; and
b. Introduction of the new Complementarity Assessment Framework (COMPASS). - Changes to requirements for S Passes
a. Benchmarking of the cost of hiring an S Pass holder with reference to the qualifying salary and levy rates. - Changes to restrictions in hiring foreign employees
a. Updates to foreign workforce policies for the construction and process sectors, including phasing out the Man-Year Entitlement (MYE) framework;
b. Introduction of the new Non-Traditional Source (NTS) Occupation List for the services and manufacturing sectors to allow businesses to hire S Pass holders on Work Permits; and
c. Launch of the Manpower for Strategic Economic Priorities (M-SEP) scheme to allow qualifying firms some flexibility in hiring S Pass and Work Permit Holders (“WPHs“). - Other changes
a. Enhanced coverage of mandatory medical insurance for S Pass and WPHs to better protect employers, who are liable for their employees’ medical bills; and
b. Introduction of the Progressive Wage Mark accreditation to support local lower-wage workers.
For more information, click here to read the full Legal Update.
