Complaints against Employers for Overinflating Employees’ Salaries

Dr Intan Azura Mokhtar asked the Minister for Manpower over the past five years (a) how many workers have lodged a complaint against their employers for overinflating their salaries where the actual amount they receive as salary is actually lower than that declared to the Ministry or stated on their pay slip; and (b) among those who complained, how many are (i) workers above the age of 60, (ii) blue collar workers, (iii) PMEs and (iv) foreign workers respectively.

In the past five years, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) received an average of around 8,300 claims annually from employees that they received a lower salary than the rightful amount due. They constitute 0.2% of the workforce. Fewer than one in 10 were above 60 years old. More than eight in 10 were rank-and-file workers, while the remaining were professionals, managers and executives (PMEs). Slightly over half of the claimants were foreign workers.

Since its inception in 2017, the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM) has handled salary-related disputes of both local and foreign employees. In 2017, about eight in 10 cases were settled amicably through mediation. The remaining cases were forwarded to the Employment Claims Tribunals (ECT) for adjudication. To date, TADM and ECT have helped about 90% of employees with salary claims recover their salaries in full.

In the course of mediating a salary claim or through proactive inspections, MOM may uncover evidence that the employer has falsely declared inflated salaries so as to enjoy foreign work pass privileges. MOM will not hesitate to take action against such employers under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act. Since 2013, about 70 employers have been dealt with annually, with penalties ranging from imprisonment, fines, administrative financial penalties to warnings.