Contracting - recruitment agency sponsorship?

[azreal8888]

hi all,

i heard that large recruitment agencies sponsor workers as their employees then sub-contract them out (for a fee) for contracting roles to get around the employer sponsorship issues.

has anyone heard of this? i've heard it's common practice but not heard of it myself.

can anyone with some knowledge of this weigh in?

[beppi]

I heard of this at WP level, but not EP.

[sundaymorningstaple]

We used to do it at S pass level as well, but I got out of the manpower supply business 9 years ago, so don't know about today. Most of my guys were on long term contracts to the refineries and banks. (O&G & IT programmers)

[Wd40]

I am not sure what the OP is hinting at thats why I didnt respond. Every large MNC has lots of people of 3rd party payrolls. Some have 75% of staff on 3rd party payrolls. But I am not sure what OP means by employer sponsorship issues. Can you please elaborate more on that and why did you bring up this question?

[sundaymorningstaple]

That's easy. MNC already at Quota (for S pass for instance - normally S or WP) so they go to a manpower supplier (recruitment agency usually do both). The manpower supplier applies for the sponsorship under their own payroll and subcons them out to their clients. All above board but allows the MNC to appear that they have way too many foreigners so that allows the whinging locals to holler that they are hiring more than they are allowed, without knowing all the facts. What to do?

[sabretooth1975]

Yes, it is possible, I am a contractor in finance projects in Singapore. This is how it works. I work for Resource Solutions (a sister company to Robert Walters) who in turn contract out my services to Barclays. BUT BEWARE Contracting in Singapore is NOT the same as the UK

1) you get a salary similar to being permanent e.g. SGD10k per month
2) you get holiday pay (minimum is 7 days per year)
3) you get sick pay

However, you get NO uplift like the UK. In fact, you are more likely to be let go as contractors are used to fill in and are let go as soon as budgets are cut. You may or may not get medical insurance as medical cover is expensive.

I moved to Singapore in 2011 working as a contractor for RBS with the intention to go permanent over the course of 1-2 years. Because of budget cuts, I was let go after 20 months. I then moved to Barclays at the beginning of 2013, as I had a local girlfriend.

Unfortunately, Barclays is now restructuring many of its Projects departments. I have just been told than my contract cannot be extended in September as my project is being off shored to India.

I would recommend that you think very hard about coming here to contract. I am actually considering moving back to the UK, especially if I can't get a permeant role in the next 3-6 months.

If you decided to come, you need to apply for the PEP, Personal Employment Pass before you come. However, you need to earn around SGD144k pa to get this pass now.

[Wd40]

There is bloodbath going on in Barclays Singapore at the moment. Atleast a 1000 have been let off since Jan/will be let off over the next couple of months. The market is full of CVs of Barclays employees. So then next few months there are lots of desperate people out there looking for jobs and it wont be until quite sometime that the demand/supply situation will correct.

[sabretooth1975]

Yes, I understand that it employed 4,700 employees in August 2012, 3,500 by August 2013, so around 2,500 by August 2014 seems about right.

[dicymoon]

Hi, Yes same is happening with me. The recruiting agency is applying for EP for me thought the client is a bank who keeps ppl for long term. Though I am not very interested to that bank for long time. I want to change job after completion of my contract.I am not sure if EP is beneficial or not. My salary is just 4800 S$ only.

[Brah]

I heard of this at WP level, but not EP.

EP as well