Agency owner fined $8,500 for bringing in underage maids
The owner of an employment agency was fined $8,500 yesterday for bringing in two underage girls from Myanmar to work as maids here.
Sherlyn Tay Li Wen, 43, the sole proprietor of AG Employment Agency, pleaded guilty to two counts of breach of employment licensing conditions in court yesterday, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said.
According to court documents, Tay failed to ensure the girls, 15 and 18, met the minimum age requirement for foreign domestic workers, which is 23.
Investigations by the MOM revealed the girls had asked an agent in Myanmar to help them look for work here sometime in June and October this year.
The agent in Myanmar then took a video of each girl, instructing them to say they were 24 and arranged for new passports for them with false dates of birth.
After receiving the videos and finding prospective employers for both girls, Tay applied for them to be employed as foreign domestic workers, and did not interview them when they arrived in Singapore on Nov 5.
They were discovered to be underage after they attended the Settling-In Programme, a one-day mandatory orientation course for first-time maids, on Nov 7.- KOK YUFENG
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