8. Section 5 of the principal Act is amended —
(a)
(b)
by deleting the words “foreign worker” in subsections (2) and (3) and in the section heading and substituting in each case the words “foreign employee”;
(c)
by deleting the words “work permit” in subsection (2) and in the section heading and substituting in each case the words “work pass”;
(d)
by deleting the words “the work permit” in subsection (3) and substituting the words “the foreign employee’s work pass”;
(e)
by deleting the word “worker” wherever it appears in subsections (4) and (5) and substituting in each case the word “employee”;
(f)
by deleting subsection (6) and substituting the following subsections:
“(6) Any person who contravenes subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence and shall —
(a)
be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $15,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both; and
(b)
on a second or subsequent conviction —
(i)
in the case of an individual, be punished with imprisonment for a term of not less than one month and not more than 12 months and also be liable to a fine not exceeding $15,000; and
(ii)
in the case of a body corporate, be punished with a fine not exceeding $30,000.
(6A) Where a court has convicted a person for the contravention of subsection (1), the court shall, in addition to imposing on that person any other punishment, order the payment by him of a sum which is equal to the levy which would have been payable if any work pass had been issued for the period during which any foreign employee was employed by the person in contravention of subsection (1), and any such payment ordered shall be recoverable as a fine.”;
(g)
(h)
by deleting subsection (8) and substituting the following subsection:
“(8) For the purposes of this section —
(a)
the levy payable shall be determined using the lowest applicable monthly rate of levy as specified in an order made by the Minister under section 11 in respect of the trade or type of occupation of the foreign employee at the date when he was first employed by the defendant without a valid work pass, and a certificate issued by the Controller and tendered in court shall be prima facie evidence of such rate;
(b)
for the avoidance of doubt, where a person has been convicted of an offence under subsection (6), and he has on a previous occasion been convicted for contravening section 5(1) of the Employment of Foreign Workers Act in force immediately before the date of commencement of the Employment of Foreign Workers (Amendment) Act 2007, the first-mentioned conviction shall be considered a second or subsequent conviction under subsection (6); and
(c)
all convictions against the same person for the contravention of subsection (1) at one and the same trial shall be deemed to be one conviction.”.