As per any foreign workers that are employed by Singapore
employers in the construction industry, they are daily rated. I
think for China foreign workers, they are being paid around $25 to
$27 per day. Malaysian workers in construction industry are also
daily rated, its around $27 to $28 per day. However, for any
Malaysians who wish to work in the construction industry in
Singapore, they must at least have a SPM
certificate which is equivalent to Singapore G.C.E ‘O’ Level
certificate or at least a welding certificate that they have
successfully attained in Singapore. If the Malaysian workers have
none of those certificate, they are not allowed to work in the
construction industry at all. Whereas for China construction
workers, they do not have to produce any educational certificate
while the company applied for their work permits. The companies
that employed China construction workers, they have to pay high
monthly levy to the Singapore Government and prior to the China
construction workers arrival to Singapore, the Singapore employers
must secured a $5000 Security Bond if not the foreign workers from
China would be refuse from entering Singapore.
As for Malaysian construction workers, the Singapore employers
do not have to secure any bonds when they work in Singapore but the
companies have to pay quite a high monthly levy for employing
Malaysian workers.
In the recent years, many Singapore employers prefer to hire
foreign workers who are not Malaysians due to the fact that they
are not only cheap labour but its rather too far for them to run
and return to their own country; and further they are bonded.
Unlike Malaysian workers in Singapore, there are many cases when
they are not happy with their management, they could simply run
back into JB-Malaysia by bus.
