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24 Jul 2012, 2.27PM

16 comments & replies |by Guest | Mind and Body

As an employer, I find it ridiculous that I have to pay for foreign worker (those on Work Permit) insurance mandated by MOM.

Foreign worker changes and hops on different companies as frequent as they can trying to clinch who pays them better or for whatever reasons they may have for quiting.

I would strongly recommended to MOM that these foreign workers from Malaysia should have a portable insurance paid by them. It will benefit them and give them a sense of personal responsibility to their own health while in Singapore.

At the present, most foreign workers dont care about the cost incurred for their insurance that is being paid for by the company, thus, they can quit any time but employer has to foot the bill for every foreign workers.

Please help to lower the operating cost of SME.

635 views | 16 comments & replies |

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Guest

24 Jul 2012, 3.16PM

Let's be humane .. FT are human and they will fall sick .. the premium for such insurance is rather low ... there other costs which you can consider asking the govt to reduce e.g. levy ... not this small sum insurance premium .. if given choice, these FT will not want to work in Singapore away from their families .. let have pity on them

Guest

24 Jul 2012, 5.56PM

If you said the premium is low, then, lets the Work permit holders pay for the insurance and make it portable, thus, they can switch to different companies and still be insured.

All companies paid foreign workers insurance but these workers sometimes only worked for few months, thus, premium paid are wasted. The worker then job hop to another company and again premium will be paid by another company for this same worker twice or trice in a year depending on the number of companies he/she changed!

I can understand if the kind of works are accident prone, but I am referring for retails and services workers. There isnt much danger and usually every year nothing is claim to the insurance company but employers are wasting money to insure these 'safe-environment' workers.

MOM should not have a blanket mandate but rather she should look into sectors. Different sectors which poses more dangerous environment while others do not. Why need to enrich the insurance companies?

Yes, it may only a small premium but it adds up.

This is one of the obstacles that many do not want to be entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs have to pay for high rent, high levy, high salary, no workers, demanding workers, MC King workers, tight labor marker, insurance for foreign workers, skill development levy, high electricity bill, water bill etc etc and you ended up very little profit.

Guest

24 Jul 2012, 6.25PM

You can negotiate with your insurance companies to pay premium based on average number of employees during the year and in this way .. you will not be subject to such "hoping" of jobs .. The insurance mentioned here is for sickness other than work injury related .. work injuring costs are covered by your Workmen Compensation Insurance ... look at other costs .. lobby the govt the levy rather than asking yout FT to pay for thios .. in any case, the current law do not allow you to do so ...

Guest

24 Jul 2012, 6.50PM

hahaha, good luck talking or negotiating with any insurance company. The foreign worker medical insurance is mandatory for each and every foreign worker. Company MUST foot the bill.

Workmen compensation insurance is different, so at most times these two insurance overlaps.

Yes, agree, levy need to come down. Why need to increase levy and make it really hard and difficult for company to run in Singapore? All companies try to do an honest living and help the Singapore economy, their family lot and themselves, why penalize the employers when all they want is to have workers to and for them to operate? Can any company grow successfully with one man operation?

Passing the premium to work permit workers and make it portable for these workers while working in Singapore will help in big and small ways of bringing the cost of operating a business in Singapore.

Guest

25 Jul 2012, 6.05AM

If you ask FTs to buy their own insurance .. how about asking the locals to do the same? You will save more ... why double standard ..

Guest

29 Jul 2012, 10.12PM

@ 6:05am

Everywhere in the world, there will be Double and Triple Standards. USA, Japn, HK, Australia . . .etc are all the same. In HK, without a HK parent, PRCS canno0t delivery in HK, like it or not. If you cannot accept it, then you better go back to your home country. And dun ever come back.

Guest

25 Jul 2012, 6.16AM

I have 100 foreign workers and manage to negotiate ... have you tried????

Guest

25 Jul 2012, 12.04PM

some of you are missing the point of what the writer is trying to bring across.

singaporean have medisave, medishield etc etc

it is not about nego with the insurance company but portability of insurance coverage when FTs (Malaysian) are in sg as they change jobs fast. I dont know about EP but Work Permit holders from Malaysia do change jobs frequent. Companies forget to cancel their insurance coverage after FT quited and the FT ended up unknowingly that he has 2 or 3 insurance coverages from different companies from previous and current company.

Guest

25 Jul 2012, 1.31PM

If you forget to cancell the insurance cover when the FT resigns .. who to blame? You as an employer as you do not a good administrative procedure to track ...

If you are SME with at leats 30% local shareholding .. SPRING has a lot grants to assist you to deploy technology to track this .. have you considered this? SPRING funding is rather generous and in combination with PIC and give your company is paying taxes .. your investment in this technology is vdetually zero...

Guest

26 Jul 2012, 12.31PM

called Spring, then they asked me to look into the catergory I would like to par take, then call the listed companies . Did that. But the companies asked me back questions which I find it puzzling, if i knew the answer to my problem, I wont be calling for help, wont I?

Guest

26 Jul 2012, 8.39PM

But the companies asked me back questions which I find it puzzling, if i knew the answer to my problem,..

Simply paraphase and request for clarifications to improve interactions or avoid misunderstandings on the factors and procedures. This is effective interpersonal communications 101.

Guest

27 Jul 2012, 6.33AM

It looks like you need COMMUNICATION 101 personally ... do not understand what you are trying to convey

Guest

28 Jul 2012, 11.41PM

SIMPLE. . .then dun recruit foreigners.

Or else state in your contract that ALL foreigners ( including SPRs and those from China) must have their own valid LIFE and Hospital Insurance before they can work in Singapore.

Anyway, it is EMPLOYERS like yourself who do not want to recruit locals, then without 50k potential business, in turn had to hire foreigners to save cost.

SOLVE the cyclical problem yourself. Otherwise, curse Ma Bo Tan for rising the rental with stoopid policies and poor management.

Guest

29 Jul 2012, 4.49PM

So .. you should also do the same for locals .. do not provide insurance cover so that you can save more .. why double standard ...

Guest

29 Jul 2012, 7.58PM

Sinple- the government Double Standards when they enforce discipline. So we can also be like them.

Guest

29 Jul 2012, 9.39AM

Let face the REALTY .. we are living in a gloabal viollage and not in a tiny island called SINGAPORE whenit comes to JOBS .. if our salaries are uncompetitive, business will not be in Singapore. Regardles whether it is FT or locals .. salaries must be competitive ..

If locals in Singapore expect higher salries than what the "global village" can pay .. jobs will NOT be in Singapore . these jobs will go elsewhere .. so .. locals still do not have jobs ...

Govt do not create jobs..unless you work for the civil service .. business do .. so why blame the govt if you cannot find a job and expect higher salaries than FTs?