SINGAPORE, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's Ministry of Manpower on Monday encouraged migrant workers to "come forward early" and report kickback practices, following a recent case where a contracting company collected illegal fees as a condition for work pass renewals.

"Workers with valid claims will be allowed a change of employment if they wish to continue working in Singapore," the ministry said in a Facebook post.

The ministry highlighted a case involving Lian Cheng Contracting Pte Ltd, where a former operations manager collected kickbacks totaling 396,440 Singapore dollars (about 289,400 U.S. dollars) from 57 migrant workers between 2014 and 2020. These payments were required for their continued employment or work pass renewal.

Adrian Quek, divisional director at the ministry's Foreign Manpower Management Division, described this as one of the largest kickback cases investigated by the ministry to date.

Singapore relies on a workforce of more than 1.5 million foreign workers as of last June, according to the ministry's latest data. Enditem

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