New sourcing ideas for maids, workers

By Amelia Tan, The Straits Times, 2 Jan 2013

EMPLOYERS and agents are stepping up the recruitment of foreign construction workers and maids from existing source countries, as well as exploring new options, to ease a supply crunch.

The Association of Employment Agencies (Singapore) or AEAS is hoping to start hiring maids from Cambodia, while ramping up recruitment in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) has stepped in to help employers recruit workers from Sri Lanka and the Philippines to cope with the construction boom here.

AEAS said it has submitted a proposal to the Manpower Ministry to approve Cambodia as a new source country for maids. Its president K. Jayaprema said she is also working closely with the Cambodian Labour Ministry on this. "I hope to hear good news soon," she told The Straits Times.

The group is also hoping to recruit more maids from the less frequently tapped approved sources, such as Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

The association, which led a delegation of 30 Singapore maid agents to Sri Lanka last month, is working with the local authorities to bring in between 500 and 1,000 maids in March. This is an increase from the 100 to 200 Sri Lankan maids a month who currently arrive here.

It will also revive previously shelved talks with the Bangladeshi government to bring in more maids. The talks were postponed as Dhaka was not ready to work with Singapore and because of uncertainty over whether the women would be able to adjust to life here.

With only about 200 Bangladeshi maids here, there is potential for their numbers to grow by several times, said Ms Jayaprema.

Most of the 208,400 maids in Singapore are from Indonesia and the Philippines. But Singapore is now grappling with a shortfall in Indonesian maids because of a change in policy regarding recruitment costs, introduced last year by Jakarta. Previously, more than 3,000 of them headed to Singapore each month but agents estimate that numbers have dwindled to about 2,000.

Agents say they are confident employers will take to Sri Lankan maids who speak good conversational English. Jeweller Eileen Tjandra, 42, said she is open to hiring maids from Sri Lanka and Cambodia. But "they must have some training and speak some English or Chinese dialects. If not, it will be frustrating for both the employers and the maids".

Meanwhile, the BCA has appointed companies to set up test centres in Sri Lanka and the Philippines to help employers source for construction workers. The centres, which will be set up soon, will hold a six-month training course and a skills certification test for potential hires. All new foreign construction workers must pass the test to work in Singapore.

Employers welcome the move because workers from China and India are now more reluctant to work here as they have plenty of job opportunities in their home countries.

BCA to source for workers from Sri Lanka, Philippines
By Saifulbahri Ismail, Channel NewsAsia, 1 Jan 2013

Sri Lanka and the Philippines have been identified as new source countries for construction workers.

The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) told MediaCorp that two test centres will be set up in Sri Lanka.

Approval is also being sought from the Philippine authorities to establish test centres there.

The BCA hopes to bring in skilled construction workers from Sri Lanka and Philippines to boost supply and diversify the source for foreign labour.

The main sources of foreign construction workers in Singapore are from China, India and Bangladesh. The authorities want to be less reliant on these countries.

Mr Neo Choon Keong, BCA's group director of manpower and strategies policy, said: "What we are seeing now is that the major sources like China, India, because of the fast development the number of workers is actually coming down over time, because there are plenty of jobs there.

"So for resilience perspective, we are working with the industry to open up new sources to locate skilled workers, notwithstanding our efforts to reduce the numbers of foreign workers overall through the adoption of technology as well as better building designs."

Demand for foreign construction workers in Singapore is expected to remain strong in the years ahead, as the government is ramping up infrastructure development such as expanding the rail network and building more flats and health-care facilities.

In a recent report, the National Population and Talent Division expects the demand for foreign construction workers on low-skilled work permit holders to increase from some 250,000 in 2011 to about 280,000 in the next two to three years.

The BCA said most workers in Sri Lanka and Philippines speak English and this will help improve communication on the construction site.

Construction workers who want to work in Singapore have to go through a rigorous training regime in their country.

They have to stay in the training centre and undergo a full-time programme lasting between three and six months.

Only seven out of 10 of these workers would eventually pass the test.

After the training, potential workers have to go through a five-hour practical test on essential craft skills as well as a one-hour theory test on trade knowledge.

Currently, there are 26 overseas testing centres in China, India, Bangladesh, Thailand and Myanmar.

Potential workers can choose to be tested in 29 construction skills.

Construction company Progressive Builders will be operating one of the two new test centres in Sri Lanka.

Its managing director Ng Yek Meng said for a start, workers will be tested in 12 construction skills such as steel reinforcement work, tiling and plastering.

He said these tests are to ensure workers coming to Singapore are of a certain standard and quality, and could in turn help raise productivity.

Mr Ng said: "Some of the workers, especially if they come from agriculture (background), don't even know how to operate certain equipment. The test is quite stringent not only in Sri Lanka but for all source countries. Whoever can pass the test, I think they are of a certain quality. So this is how we can sieve the good ones and the bad ones."

The test centres in Sri Lanka are expected to be operational in six months' time.

Besides bringing in better quality construction foreign workers, the BCA also has a comprehensive training framework to continuously upgrade them.

Some 12,000 foreign construction foreign workers have upgraded their skills through these various programmes.

Low pay may deter foreign workers

Hard to recruit new construction workers if they're paid more elsewhere

By Amelia Tan and Maryam Mokhtar, The Straits Times, 3 Jan 2013

SINGAPORE will find it difficult to recruit foreign construction workers even from newer markets like Sri Lanka and the Philippines if it does not match salaries that employers elsewhere are offering.

This is the view of agents, employers and migrant rights activists who were reacting to the news that Singapore employers are stepping up recruitment of workers from these two countries to cope with the construction boom here.

The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) said it is helping to set up test centres in these two places to screen and train potential hires.

Experts, however, pointed out that Singapore faces strong competition from the Middle East and Cyprus, which have been employing Sri Lankan and Filipino construction workers for several years now, and pay them more than $1,000 a month.

In contrast, construction workers here, such as those from India and Bangladesh, are paid as low as $700 a month.

Association of Employment Agencies (Singapore) president K. Jayaprema said the salaries of construction workers here have stagnated in the past decade.

This is because employers feel that "the workers are still earning more here than what they earn at home" and do not want to raise salaries.

She pointed out that construction workers also spend $1,000 to $2,000 on courses, and to take the test to come to Singapore to work.

They save on this money when they go to places like the Middle East, which do not have such requirements.

Ms Jayaprema, who owns an agency recruiting Indian and Bangladeshi workers, said: "Workers see this as a cost in coming here and they want to recoup the cost with good salaries."

Ms Bridget Tan, chief executive of Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (Home), said Singapore must contend with the fact that fewer Sri Lankans and Filipinos will come over the years, as the economic situation in their home improves and job opportunities grow.

This has been the case for Chinese and Indian nationals who used to come to Singapore in droves in the 1990s.

But they are staying away because of better job prospects back home.

Agents said Indian construction workers can earn about $600 working at home, which is not far from the $700 they fetch in Singapore.

Chinese construction workers can earn close to $1,000 at home which is near the average of $1,200 they draw here.

While Sri Lanka and the Philippines can help to meet some demand, experts expect India, China and Bangladesh to continue to be top draws because employers have become used to working with them.

Singapore has 277,600 construction workers and the bulk of them come from India, China and Bangladesh.

Beyond raising salaries, the construction sector should also take a longer-term view at raising productivity to wean itself off foreign labour, said Mr Neo Choon Keong, BCA's group director of manpower and strategic policy.

He said: "We no longer expect to have such a large supply of workers in the future.

"We're investing in technology to improve productivity so the number of workers will be contained even as development ramps up here."

Approved sources

Approved source countries and territories for construction workers in Singapore:

- Malaysia

- China

- India

- Sri Lanka

- Thailand

- Bangladesh

- Myanmar

- The Philippines

- Hong Kong

- Macau

- South Korea

- Taiwan