• Yang Wenhui was unable to pay one foreign labourer his salary as his business was not making any money
• He allowed the worker to look for work elsewhere on the condition that the worker paid him S$1,000 each month
• Yang also failed to pay the rent for four construction workers, which resulted in them being evicted from their dormitories

SINGAPORE — The owner of a construction company was fined S$64,000 on Thursday (Oct 8) for taking kickbacks from a foreign worker to ensure his continued employment, and failing to arrange accommodation for four others.

Yang Wenhui, 55, the sole proprietor of Sin Wang Construction, admitted to two charges of deducting the salary of a foreign worker as a condition for continued employment, and four charges of not ensuring his foreign employees had acceptable accommodation.

Fourteen other similar charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

Court documents showed that Yang, a Singaporean, is also the sole director of the general contracting company Xing Wang.

Sometime in September 2015, Yang had employed an S Pass holder, Mr Xu Jun Cheng, to work as a carpenter at Sin Wang Construction.

However, as there was not much work for the construction company, Yang found himself owing Mr Xu a total of S$6,000 in salary between April and June 2016.

Mr Xu asked if he could look for work elsewhere while holding onto his S Pass to work for Sin Wang Construction.

Yang agreed, but on the condition that Mr Xu paid him a monthly sum of S$1,000.

Under this arrangement, Mr Xu was able to work as a construction worker at various construction sites with different employers, without a valid work pass.

As a result, Yang received S$2,000 from Mr Xu for the months of July and August in 2016.

Yang also agreed that he would call upon Mr Xu to continue working with Sin Wang Construction if there was work to be done.

While it was not stated what happened in the following months, court documents showed that Yang eventually cancelled Mr Xu’s work pass in May 2017 when Mr Xu could not be contacted from March that year.

So far, no restitution has been made to Mr Xu.

LEFT IN THE LURCH

In two other incidents in 2018, Yang contravened the conditions of the work passes issued to four foreign construction workers.

Two of the men, Mr Chinnasamy Rajendran and Mr Luo Fuqiang, were employed by Sin Wang Construction. The others, Mr Zhang Honglin and Mr Rahman Medul, were employed by Xing Wang.

At the time of the two incidents, the men’s work passes were subject to a condition under the Employment of Foreign Manpower (Work Passes) Regulations 2012 that stated that an employer must ensure that their foreign employees have acceptable accommodation.

Yang did not do so in either of the cases.

The work passes of the four men were revoked and cancelled on June 1 in 2018 due to a default of levy payment.

They were later issued Special Passes on June 27, but were evicted from their dormitories shortly after on July 1 because Yang did not pay for their rent.

As Yang had left the country on June 16, the men were left without any accommodation.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and non-governmental organisation Migrant Workers’ Centre stepped in to assist in rehousing the men on July 12.

The ages and nationalities of the five foreign workers involved in Yang’s hearing were not stated.

MOM prosecutor Jason Chua, who sought the fine imposed, said that the penalty was fair and justified based on the facts of the case.

In the matter involving Mr Xu, Mr Chua said that allowing a foreign employee to seek employment elsewhere, apart from where his work pass permits, cannot be condoned.

He explained that should any accidents happen in such a scenario, these workers may find themselves without any recourse, such as insurance coverage.

As for the other cases, Mr Chua pointed out that they involved vulnerable foreign employees in need of protection, but were left without accommodation for 11 days.

He emphasised that the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act mandates that employers provide maintenance and upkeep for their workers.

“Far from taking ownership and being accountable to them… (Yang) took the easy way out by leaving Singapore, leaving the men stranded and without accommodation.”

For each charge of deducting any salary owed to Mr Xu as a condition for continued employment, Yang could have been fined up to S$30,000 or jailed for up to two years, or both.

For each charge for failing to provide accommodation for his workers, Yang could have been fined up to S$10,000 or jailed for up to 12 months, or both.