THERE has been a recent surge in the number of middlemen offering questionable kickbacks to employers who hire workers from China, according to those who spoke with The Straits Times.

Restaurants and coffee shop owners said that, in the last eight months, they had seen a jump in the number of agents willing to pay them $2,000 to $3,000 for every China worker they hired.

This is a sweet deal for employers, who can then use the money to cover the foreign worker levy, which is between $240 and $450 a month for an unskilled worker.

But some foreign-worker advocates said that foreign nationals were the ones getting the short end of the stick.

Mr Jolovan Wham, the executive director of foreign workers' welfare group Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics, said that it had become common for workers to pay $8,000 to $9,000 in fees to an agent.

This includes their flight to Singapore and a job here. The agents could also possibly use part of this sum to pay employers.

'You could say it's like a transferring of cost to the workers,' said Mr Wham.

This practice seems to occupy a legal grey area. In response to queries from The Straits Times, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) did not say that the kickbacks were illegal.

But it said: 'All employers hiring foreigners on work permits are responsible for their upkeep and maintenance, including the payment of the monthly foreign worker levy.

'Employers are not allowed to pass on these costs to their workers.'

The MOM added that it would take action against employers or intermediaries for practices that exploited foreign workers.

Those in the food and beverage industry said that the kickbacks had been around for a few years, but competition had heated up in the second half of last year.

Now, they said, agents called and faxed coffee shop owners, blatantly offering kickbacks.

The issue came to the fore after a reader wrote to the forum page of Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao last week, saying that he had many friends from China looking for work.

He said that, when he tried calling employers on their behalf, he was immediately asked how much of a 'rebate' he could offer.

He added that some employers would abuse the situation, hiring and firing just to receive the $3,000 fee from agents.

There are also genuine employers like Mr Hong Poh Hin, the chairman of the Singapore Foochow Coffee Restaurant and Bar Merchants Association.

He said that he employed a Chinese national to serve drinks at his coffee shop last year and received $2,000 from an agent.

Mr Hong saw it as an incentive: 'Many workers want to come but demand is not enough, so agents share the agent's fee to keep volume up.'

One agent that The Straits Times called said he was willing to give a $2,500 kickback, while another said he did not give any incentives.

When contacted by The Straits Times, labour MP Halimah Yacob said that 'some clarity on the issue is necessary'.

She said the situation was a tricky one to manage. If foreign workers become cheaper to employ, it 'defeats the purpose of the levy'.

She also said that if workers come to Singapore already in debt, they may have to repay their creditors back home and go without pay for some time.

The MOM said that it would not hesitate to revoke the licences of employment agents or prosecute errant employers under the Employment Act. It would also bar such employers from employing foreigners.

If the collection of rebates by the employer involved a corrupt act, the MOM would refer the matter to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau for investigation.

The MOM encouraged the public to provide information on employers or agents receiving rebates from workers.