Help is being given to construction, marine and process companies that are affected by Covid-19 restrictions limiting the inflow of migrant workers, Second Minister for Manpower Tan See Leng said in Parliament yesterday.
They will receive higher foreign worker levy rebates, and can use these to bring in workers from countries such as China, where the workers are typically higher-skilled but also command higher wages, said Dr Tan.
Restrictions on new migrant workers coming to Singapore from countries with high numbers of Covid-19 infections are likely to remain for some time, he said.
"We can increase these inflows only when the situation in these countries improves, because this is the only way we can ensure the safe inflow of the workers," he said.
The Government will continue to engage companies in the affected sectors and review the situation to see if additional measures are needed to help these sectors, he added.
"In the meantime, we encourage businesses to retain their existing migrant workers and tap other workers that are already here in Singapore," said Dr Tan, in response to Ms Jessica Tan (East Coast GRC), who asked about measures to mitigate the impact of border closures on businesses.
To alleviate the manpower crunch, entry into Singapore was granted to an average of 5,100 S pass and work permit holders a month from last November to last month, said Dr Tan.
Non-Constituency MP Leong Mun Wai asked why non-residents who lost their jobs last year were not required to leave Singapore immediately.
Dr Tan said, in response, that work pass holders are typically required to leave Singapore within two to four weeks after their passes expire or are cancelled, to give their employers time to arrange repatriation and for the workers to settle their personal affairs, such as closing bank accounts.
Each year, about 30 per cent of all pass holders do not continue employment with their original employer, and their passes expire or are cancelled, he said.
"If the pass holder is able to find new employment before repatriation, there's no reason for us to... force these workers to return to (the) home country," he said.
If the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) had insisted on workers leaving Singapore even after finding a new employer, it would have had to allow the entry of nearly double the number of workers last year, adding further strain to the Republic's stay-home notice facilities and compounding the manpower difficulties currently faced by businesses, he said.
Dr Tan also responded to Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh on whether MOM would continue to extend the validity of its in-principle approvals (IPAs) for companies to bring migrant workers to Singapore.
A company that wishes to bring in a migrant worker has to first submit a work permit application to MOM, which will grant an IPA if the application is successful.
The company then has to apply for entry approval for the migrant worker to enter Singapore - a separate process that was introduced in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr Singh said he had heard of some companies having to apply for entry approvals for their workers "30, 40, almost sometimes 50 times for one IPA".
In response, Dr Tan said that entry approvals are dependent on Singapore's risk quota, prevailing border restrictions and the availability of facilities for the workers to serve their stay-home notice.
The backlog of applications for entry approvals was building up significantly even before the latest set of travel restrictions, Education Minister Lawrence Wong said in his ministerial speech on the Covid-19 situation yesterday.
Given this, said Dr Tan in response to Mr Singh, any further extensions of IPAs would not make sense, given the uncertainty amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
MOM is considering refunding companies for their IPA applications if they are repeatedly unable to obtain entry approvals for workers, as well as the possibility of bringing in migrant workers from non-traditional sources, but this will take time, said Dr Tan.
