Singapore employers warned

SINGAPORE (AFP) — Singaporean employers risked legal action if they were caught cheating their foreign workers, a minister said in remarks published in the Sunday Times.

"We will take punitive action against those who continue to abuse the system," Ng Eng Hen, minister of state for education and manpower, told local media.

"If you want to exploit them, you will face the full wrath of the law if you get caught," he said.

The minister also urged foreign workers to lodge reports with the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) immediately if they had not been paid for two months.

"They cannot wait too long because ... if something happens to the contractor, then it’s too late for the MOM to try to help them recover the money," Ng said.

Ng’s remarks came after a Singaporean money-changer faced 1,154 charges of cheating Chinese workers of nearly 9.0 million Singapore dollars ($5.0 million).

The Chinese workers have accused Lam Chen Fong of failing to remit earnings they had intended to send home through the Wen Long Money Changer.

Tens of thousands of construction workers and maids from Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, the Philippines and other poor countries work in affluent Singapore and send wages home through money changing agencies.