Over-charging of Placement Fees for Foreign Domestic Workers

Ms Mary Liew asked the Minister for Manpower (a) in the last three years, how many complaints has the Ministry received from Foreign Domestic Workers (FDWs) who are made to pay placement fees to employment agencies that exceed the cap of one month's salary per year of service; and (b) how many employment agencies have been taken to task for collecting more than the one-month salary per year of service from FDWs in placement fees.

Madam, MOM is concerned about the possibility of FDWs having to pay high agency fees to seek employment in Singapore. Therefore, we stipulate in the Employment Agencies Act that Singapore Employment Agencies are allowed to collect no more than one month of the worker's salary for each year of service, capped at two months' salary.

We do not believe that the charging of excessive placement fees by our local employment agencies is prevalent. However, where this happens in Singapore, we will act.

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Over the last three years, MOM looked into six complaints from FDWs pertaining to the collection of placement fees above the stipulated cap by employment agencies. MOM also investigated another 15 cases uncovered in the course of proactive audits or investigation. Three of these cases are still under investigation. MOM took action in eight cases. For the remaining cases, there was no evidence that the employment agencies had committed an offence.

In instances where we find excessive charging happening overseas and where our laws cannot apply, we will inform the Embassies or High Commissions of the relevant countries so that action can be taken at source.