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SRC Recruitment fined a total of $78,000 over insensitive advertising of FDWs

SRC Recruitment has been sentenced in Singapore's State Courts on 30 April, after being prosecuted by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) in October 2018 for insensitive advertising of foreign domestic workers (FDWs) on online marketplace Carousell.

The employment agency (EA) was fined a total of S$78,000, for 16 charges for breach of EA Licence Conditions by advertising FDWs insensitively and casting them in an undignified light, as well as another 29 proceeded charges for EAA offences. The remaining 99 charges were taken into consideration for the purposes of sentencing.

The notice of license revocation has been served to SRC.

Case history

Investigations found 49 FDWs being advertised under SRC on Carousell between 1 and 17 September 2018, which per the MOM statement, "likened the FDWs to commodities".

Despite MOM's alerts in July 2014, November 2016 and February 2018 on the EA Licence Condition on responsible advertising, "SRC failed to exercise sensitivity when marketing its services, and breached the said EA Licence Condition," noted the statement.

Commenting on the case, Kevin Teoh, Commissioner for Employment Agencies, said: “MOM does not condone any offensive and insensitive advertising methods that portray FDWs in a negative light. We remind all EAs of the need to uphold professional standards when discharging their duties."

The breach of any EA Licence Condition is an offence, and if convicted, offenders may be fined up to S$5,000, or jailed up to six months, or to both per charge.

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