Singapore tightens employment criteria for foreigners

The Singapore government today announced details of employment pass (EP) framework, a move to control foreigners, including Indians, in the lower and mid-level professional and skilled jobs, and create a level-playing field for Singaporeans.

The Manpower Ministry said the move would also ensure that local workers, whose salaries would rise going forward, would not be disadvantaged by employment pass holders who were coming in at lower wages.

The city state's EP holders come from around the world, but are mostly Asian, including Indians.

Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who is also the Manpower Minister, said the new EP criteria and tightening measures were aimed at creating a more level-playing field between foreigners and locals vying for white collar jobs.

He, however, underlined that Singapore would continue to remain open and attractive to foreign talent, while the government wanted to ensure that Singaporeans remain the core of the workforce, especially at the professional, managerial and executive level.

The ministry said the demand for EP for employing foreigners, which has increased rapidly since the economic recovery in 2010, was likely to keep growing.

It added that it educational qualifying requirements would be tightened so that only those from good quality institutions would be eligible for the EP.

Under the revised measures, the qualifying salary for single EP would be raised to SGD 3,000 per month from SGD 2,800.