More measures for newly arrived foreign workers: MOM

ALL newly arrived work permit and S Pass workers in construction, marine and process sectors from higher-risk countries or regions will be subjected to an additional seven-day testing post-stay-home notice (SHN) starting Feb 5, MOM said in a statement on Wednesday.

Foreign domestic workers (FDWs) and confinement nannies that have travelled to higher-risk countries or regions recently will also have to go through an additional serology test on arrival, on top of the mandatory Polymerase Chain Reaction test.

MOM said that the additional test will help to identify FDWs who have recovered from an old Covid-19 infection and can therefore be released early from SHN in Singapore.

The seven-day testing regime will apply to workers who have not completed their 14-day SHN by Feb 5, as well as all new arrivals.

The ministry had previously mandated that all foreign workers headed to dormitories be subject to the additional seven-day testing, starting Jan 5.

Director of Beng Khim Construction Thomas Ong said the new measures did not affect his employees much, as most of his foreign workers were already staying in the dormitories.

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He said: "There's not much of a difference, since most of the foreign workers live in domitories and have been observing the three weeks (of SHN and testing) since January."

However, other employers were concerned that the additional seven days would incur a higher downtime for their business.

Hooi Yu Koh, executive chairman and chief executive officer of Kori Holdings, said: "This additional measure will have an impact on subsequent hiring, especially for supervisory or other higher positions."

He added that his team had anticipated the move from MOM and were prepared for it, but have not yet encountered difficulties since the company has not been hiring S Pass workers since January.