Foreign worker fined S$30,000 for illegally acting as employment agent
Published on 22nd January, 2020
SINGAPORE: A foreign worker has been fined S$30,000 for illegally acting as an employment agent for other foreign workers.
In a news release on Wednesday (Nov 22), the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said Bangladeshi Roy Tapon Kumar pleaded guilty to conducting employment agency activities without a valid licence.
Roy also faced two other charges of instigating two foreign workers to make false statements to an employment inspector from MOM, by telling the workers not to reveal that he collected agency fees from them. These two charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.
Investigations found that Roy had acted as an employment agent for 12 Bangladeshi foreign workers between October 2015 and March 2016.
Roy had contacted the foreigners and asked them to send him copies of their passports and personal particulars which he then forwarded to a recruitment company. Once they were hired, he forwarded the In-Principle Approval and security bond letters on behalf of the company to the workers. In addition, Roy also arranged for a foreigner to attend a job interview with the company.
He collected fees of between S$1,800 and S$7,300 from each worker, amounting to a total of S$30,900.
MOM said in its release that work pass holders are not allowed to be involved in illegal employment agent activities. Work pass holders who break the law will have their permits revoked and be barred from employment in Singapore, it added.
From 2015 to the first half of this year, 15 people were convicted for conducting employment agency activities without a valid licence, the ministry said.
First published by Source: CNA/zl