Singapore firms bypass proper rules to recruit RI workers

Singapore firms bypass proper rules to recruit RI workers

JAKARTA (JP): Local manpower supply companies are complaining
that Singapore employment agencies have been recruiting
Indonesian workers directly from rural areas, bypassing standard
procedures.

KINAS, the association of manpower supply companies with
markets in Singapore and Malaysia, said such practices have hurt
their traditional business. The local firms are demanding that
the government take actions to stop the Singaporeans.

"We recently found that many Singaporeans, in cooperation with
local companies, have come to Cilacap, Malang and other small
towns in Java to directly recruit Indonesian workers," KINAS
Chairman Anthon Sihombing told a press conference yesterday.

"This is in violation of the immigration law and represents a
breach of an agreement KINAS signed with Singapore employment
agencies," Anthon said.

He said he had the names of Singapore companies which are
indulging in such practices and would give them to the
government.

Not members

The Singapore companies collaborate with local manpower supply
companies, which are not members of KINAS, to help them send the
workers their agents have personally picked in the villages.

He warned that workers recruited this way usually have weak
bargaining power and tend to be underpaid when they work in
Singapore.

KINAS has set a monthly minimum wage of S$220 for Indonesian
workers employed in Singapore, and all of its members are obliged
to provide a two-month training course in English and in some
vocational skill.

Anthon said KINAS and similar Singapore organizations would
hold a meeting here next month to find ways to solve the
Indonesian labor problem.

He said the meeting is expected to recommend that their two
governments limit the number of Indonesian companies supplying
workers to Singapore and Malaysia and the number of employment
agencies in Singapore allowed to handle Indonesian workers. (rms)