I used to work at an international school and one of my duties was to process applications for foreigners to work at the school.

In my many years of working there, I never came across the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) rejecting any application for Letter of Consent (LOC), which is required for Dependant's Pass holders to work in Singapore.

Such applications are seemingly approved by the MOM easily and pretty quickly.

To put things in perspective, our staff strength was under 50 and LOC holders made up a quarter of that.

This seems in contrast to the Government's efforts to help the vulnerable segment of professionals, managers, executives and technicians.

Many of the jobs that these LOC holders are doing can easily be filled by the locals and, yet, the MOM seems to approve every application for LOC.

The MOM has tightened the criteria for Employment Pass applications. It is time that the criteria for LOC applications are also reviewed and tightened.

Neo Seok Kian (Ms)