Ensuring Food Available to Foreign Workers in Dormitories Is Safe and Nutritious

Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for Manpower whether the employer's obligation to ensure that a foreign worker has access to food when the worker is a resident of a dormitory includes an obligation to ensure that the food is not only safe but also nutritious.

The Employment of Foreign Manpower Act requires employers to ensure that their migrant workers living in dormitories have access to food. Employers can fulfil this obligation by catering food, enabling the purchase of cooked food or providing their workers with facilities to cook their own meals. Most migrant workers prefer to cook or purchase their own meals.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) educates and reminds workers on the importance of good nutrition through the distribution of posters and videos and working with partners, such as doctors and non-governmental organisations. Employers that directly cater food for their workers are required to do so from licensed food caterers, who, in turn, have to adhere to food safety requirements. MOM is also working on how to encourage such employers to provide more nutritious food for their workers.

Migrant workers with food-related issues can approach MOM's Forward Assurance and Support Team (FAST) officers or report the issues via the FWMOMCare mobile application. MOM will follow-up with the employer and/or the dormitory operator to rectify the issues.