Dear TRS,
I want to share my story with you of the lack of compassion of MOM and their hastiness to charge business owners with offences that they have little proof of in the first place.
I can understand the frustrations of many Singaporeans. I was born in this country but grew up in London. I have been back since I was 16, am 37 now.
I'm a single parent, I do not claim child support from my ex as he's and arsehole who only wants to make life difficult for me. So no child support no visitation, my kids don't want to see him anyway. So yes life is tough.
I managed to open an employment agency, wasn't easy . Security bond deposit to the government alone is 20k. I had a helper under my name who was working part time for other employers, even the ministry of manpower. Do u know what they did? They fined me 2k as she was found working for two other employers, 1k each additional employer she worked for.
MoM officers told me I had no choice I had to sign those fines. I've never been in any trouble with the law so I wasn't sure what to do, I asked the MoM officer if I pay this fine, will the case be closed? You are not going to take away my licence or give the agency any demerit points. The reason I asked this was because they were charging me as an agent until I refused to talk to them until the charge was amended to a charge against me as an employer.
You see I applied for this helper under my name not using my agency. U know what they did? Despite reassuring me that the charge was under my name as am employer and not my agency, they revoked my agency licence anyway.
A crime I didn't commit, what was the demerit points system if MOM doesn't use it and instead jus revokes licenses straight away? U fined me as an employer, why take my license? Isn't this charging me twice already?
When I asked why my licence was revoked nobody in MOM knew why. It is true under the agencies act, mom is allowed to revoke an agency license and need not give any reason. So basically I can never own an agency and I can't work for any agency ever. I'm 37 with 3 kids, all boys who will end up serving ns, is it fair that the government treat their citizens this way? There is no compassion at all.
Anyway, I refused to pay the fine. I engaged Lawyer Peter Low to represent me in a court case which is going on now. When the MOM officer was cross examined by my lawyers, we found that investigations were not done properly. The helper is not in Singapore she lied in all her statements yet MOM went ahead and revoked my license based on her statements alone. A little harsh don't you think?
Why has the government given agencies like mom and hdb so much of power? They do what they like with nobody checking them. If this didn't go to court we wouldn't have know the extent of the lack of their investigations. How many agents plead guilty and just pay the fines because they have no money to engage lawyers to fight for them. I know some agencies are horrible but it is not fair to paint us all with the same brush. Some of us are just trying to make a living and trying to do the right thing.
U know the funny thing is, the prosecution had two witnesses. One employer says she has never met me, doesn't know me but spoke to a person over part time on my phone. The other employer I know. He said he spoke to me over the phone about part time but doesn't recognize the helper in question.
I was the one that informed MOM she was doing part time, I also told them as I run the agency alone and it gets busy many girls including my helper answers my calls for me. This is Singapore for you, so at 37 I am jobless sent my CV everywhere but nobody wants to hire me. They want people with experience and the only experience I have is working in an employment agency because before this I was staying at home taking care of my kids. If the government won't support their own citizens and I can't afford to live in this country. My kids and I will give them back our passports and go back to London where we are more welcomed.
Annoyed TRS reader
TRS Contributor