“Yeshwan” going through his hospital and other papers

This writer is waiting for a worker to come in to our office so that he could be interviewed for a story. “Is the guy here yet?” your writer asks the case officer handling this particular case.

“Which guy?” the case officer asks in return.

“The guy who was beaten up by his boss.”

A case volunteer, then assisting another worker, pipes up. “He’s here,” pointing to the chap seated at his desk.

“No, he’s not the one,” says the first case officer. “My guy is a different guy. He’s not here yet.”

“Wait,” says your writer. “How many workers do we have who have been beaten up by their bosses? Do we have two today? Isn’t one bad enough?”

Bosses getting aggressively physical with their employees is shockingly common among the cases we see. We don’t mean that it is rampant or that it happens every day, but for something that should never happen in the first place, to receive even a handful of reports each month is pretty unacceptable. Since not all cases come to us for help, there are probably many more such instances in Singapore that we do not know about.

Stomped on the chest five times

On Friday, 24 May 2024, at about 10am, construction worker Yeshman (name changed) and his co-workers – there were about 16 of them – went to the company office to ask the boss for their salaries. Yeshwan had not been paid for two months and was owed roughly $3,000; he believes his coworkers had similar arrears.

Yeshwan made clear to the boss that he was done working with this company. He said he intended to resign.

The boss said he was free to resign but that wouldn’t mean he would get his owed salary immediately. Instead, the boss murmured something about sending him the money after he had returned to his home country. Yeshwan, with little reason to trust his boss, said the proposal was unacceptable. There should not be further delay in paying him what he was owed.

Suddenly, the boss lunged at him, hit him on the side of the head, causing him to fall to the floor. The boss then kicked and stomped his foot on Yeshwan’s right chest five times.

With the help of the coworkers, the police were called. When they arrived, they advised Yeshwan to get to a hospital for a check-up and treatment. Yeshwan made his way there in a taxi and was treated from 9pm that evening and discharged at 6am the next morning. Fortunately, Yeshwan didn’t have any ribs broken.

Over the following two months, he made a few more visits to the doctor and was given a total of 39 days of medical leave, which only shows that while the injuries were not severe or life-threatening, they nonetheless were bad enough to need time for recovery.

Robbed

The second case of the day turned out not to be as serious the first. Water-proofing worker Rubatullah (name changed) wasn’t hit to the ground like Yeshwan. But this devout Muslim with a pious red beard still faced the wrath of his boss in other ways.

The trigger factor in Rubatullah’s case was not salary, though he was also owed salary. What led to the assault was a work injury that occurred on 7 January 2025 in which he hurt his left leg, back and left shoulder. After some visits to doctors, it seemed serious enough to warrant filing an injury compensation claim, which he did on or around 10 February 2025. That move incensed his boss.

The boss personally showed up at the dormitory and demanded that Rubatullah follow him down to his car. There, the boss swiped at his head, snatching his Muslim skullcap and throwing it to the ground. He then pulled at Rubatullah’s beard, yanking his head quite forcefully. Fortunately, the boss went no further, but continued to berate him for filing an injury claim.

Rubatullah would not be intimidated. He was not going to withdraw the claim. In fact, he also filed a salary claim for about $10,000 in unpaid salary.

Not long after, on 28 February 2025, when he returned to his dormitory from prayers at a mosque, he found all his possessions gone. His locker had been broken into and all his things removed – his clothes, his prayer rug, his phone charger and other basic essentials. Thankfully, Rubatullah had had his wallet and phone on him when he went to the mosque. Rubatullah quickly informed the dorm management who retrieved a closed-circuit TV recording of the entrance gate of the dormitory. Watching the recording, Rubatullah recognised two coworkers removing items he could clearly recognise as his property such as his suitcase and a paint pail that contained his eating utensils.

CCTV footage of Rubatullah’s co-workers leaving the dormitory with his belongings (video at x2 speed).

These two coworkers had never had any beef with Rubatullah and the only reason why they did what they did must have been that they were acting on the boss’ instructions. In fact, that was what was revealed after Rubatullah made a police report. Apparently, the boss didn’t deny instigating the two coworkers to raid Rubatullah’s locker, though he brazenly told the police that all the items had since been thrown away and despite the police’s request, was in no position to return them.

The case is ongoing as at the time of writing. We don’t know what action the authorities are going to take, or how effective those actions will be.

The chicken company

We do know, however, that the Ministry of Manpower is taking Yeshwan’s case very seriously. They have opened an investigation, though it’s too early to say what their findings will be or what penalty the boss will eventually face. At least, Yeshwan’s $3,000 salary claim was settled some months after the incident in which he was attacked. He thinks his coworkers also got satisfaction; in fact most of them have moved on to new jobs in other companies since.

MOM put Yeshwan on the Temporary Job Scheme (TJS) while their investigation proceeded. He found a TJS job at a frozen chicken packing plant at a salary somewhat better than his construction job (with the bad boss). And yet, when we ask him about the chicken job, he tells us another horror story.

“Every day, I work until 10pm,” Yeshwan says, “so every day I work five or six hours OT.”

Migrant workers say “OT” rather than “overtime”.

“What about Sundays?” we ask him, half-expecting the worst.

“Sunday also have work,” he replies matter-of-factly, with no hint of frustration at such inhumane demands. “Every month have four Sunday, right? Four Sunday also I work.”

At least the chicken company paid his salary promptly and correctly. He wasn’t complaining; the money’s good.

Is this the Singapore way of treating migrant workers? We overwork them, we don’t pay their salaries, we beat them, and we throw away their belongings. Frankly, this writer is too speechless to find a closing statement for this story!

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