Mr Koh pointed out that there are various ways to deter foreigners from working illegally on delivery platforms.
“We could do it in a way that actually imposes a lot of onerous demand on companies and workers. Or we could do in a way that actually solves the problem without increasing the burden on the stakeholders,” he said.
Only Singaporeans and Permanent Residents can perform platform work. However, platform operators can legitimately outsource delivery jobs to third-party logistics companies. These companies can employ foreigners with a valid work pass and the number of foreigners is capped at the industry’s dependency ratio ceiling.
A “SIDE EFFECT”
In his response to parliamentary questions filed by Workers’ Party chief Mr Singh and Ms Yeo Wan Ling (PAP-Punggol), Mr Koh said MOM has conducted enforcement operations at “hotspots” islandwide over the past few months to detect and deter foreigners from performing illegal platform work.
A total of 644 delivery workers were checked during these operations, with four found to be working illegally. Another 22 foreigners were legitimate work pass holders, he added.
“The intensive action that we took in the last few months … probably gives a more accurate reflection of the realities on the ground because these hotspots are identified by platform workers themselves, who through their observation, seem to observe more foreigners present in these hotspots,” said Mr Koh.
“And even with that intensive operation at hotspots that are identified by workers on the ground, the numbers as I showed earlier is four out of 644.”
