The recent report on a company's illegal actions in securing work passes shows how far it was prepared to go to hire lower-wage foreigners over Singaporean workers (Firm fined $52k for falsely declaring workers' salaries to MOM, Aug 21).

The article detailed how 7Star Restaurant deceptively secured work passes for its foreign workers and systematically clawed back a significant portion of their salaries.

In 2018, Mustafa Centre was reported as being investigated by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) for similar illegal hiring practices. What action has been taken?

The question is how extensive, and for how long such illegal practices have been undertaken by employers?

Such illegal practices clearly have an adverse impact on the hiring opportunities for Singaporeans, who are already finding it tough to secure jobs in today's employment landscape. We need to come down hard on such errant employers.

Tan Soon Hock