Higher foreign worker quotas in tourism, aviation only on case-by-case basis

SELECT tourism-related businesses grappling with a staff crunch will be able to hire more foreign workers temporarily – but only on a case-by-case basis, with the allowances varying across companies, The Business Times has learnt.

Companies are assessed by government agencies on factors such as their commitment to local employment and “the progress of each company’s transformation journey”, a Ministry of Manpower (MOM) spokesperson told BT.

This flexibility was first disclosed in Parliament on Monday (May 9) by Manpower Minister Tan See Leng, who said that the authorities are working on “targeted support for the tourism and aviation industries with additional foreign worker quotas on a time-limited basis”.