This is an AI-generated image. Any resemblance to any person is unintended.

At the start of the interview with Husaib (name changed), I thought this would be a straightforward story of a salary claim. It turned out to be a more complicated ride through loopholes and grey areas.

This was Husaib’s first time working in Singapore, arriving in March 2024 to join a company installing fire protection systems. He stayed on the job for about 15 months until June this year when he and six coworkers filed salary claims at the Ministry of Manpower (MOM). All seven men had not been paid for the previous four months. Even before that, there were many red flags. Salary payments had never been consistent – some months he was paid through bank transfers, some months in cash. Salary payments were also often late and in partial amounts. Nor was he issued pay slips, the lack of which made it hard to track if salary calculations were accurate.

So far, so good – at least as far as the narrative is concerned; not good for the poor guys, though. Depressing though it may sound, such complaints are very commonly heard from migrant workers. They don’t make Husaib’s story unusual.

Then he mentions, almost in passing, that he was first hired on an S-Pass with a monthly base salary of $4,000, and in the next exasperated breath, that he was downgraded to a Work Permit at a $600 salary. Our ears perk up.

We frown: this is not how things are supposed to work.

Official salary reduced by 85%

Singapore’s migrant labour system has different categories of permits or passes for different skill levels. As of mid 2025, the minimum salary for S-Pass employees, a category intended for employees with technical skills and qualifications, is $3,300 a month. Work Permits are for lower-skilled workers, and there is no minimum salary for them. As a worker gains experience and skills, he can step up from Work Permit to S-Pass. But, descending from S-Pass to Work Permit? It’s a “tell me more” moment.

About eleven months after joining the company, his S-Pass was due for renewal. Instead, the boss said his pass was going to be downgraded to a Work Permit, and even presented a new MOM document (called the In-Principle Approval or IPA) for him to sign. Husaib noticed the reduced salary and protested but the boss assured him that although the document stated that his new official salary would be $600 month, in practice he would still be paid $4,000 monthly. Without much of a choice – taking a stand and losing the job altogether was not a realistic option – he signed it.

Why was it not a realistic option? Because he had paid about $9,000 to the boss’ family back in Bangladesh in order to get the job. That was the asking price. Husaib could not afford to fall into unemployment so soon after getting the job. There’s a wife and two young children depending on him.

But even the $600 salary was nowhere to be found. Salary payments had stopped altogether from February 2025 onwards – which was even before the conversion to Work Permit was effected (1 April 2025). After hoping futilely for four months for the situation to improve, Husaib and six coworkers marched off to MOM to file salary claims on 9 June 2025. A week or so later, they came to TWC2 to ask what else they could do.

“This will be complicated”

Husaib seems to say that he intends to claim on the basis of his S-Pass salary, as he feels that he had been unfairly pressured to accept the Work Permit IPA. I ask a senior volunteer at TWC2 about this. His immediate reaction: “This will be complicated.”

The change from S-Pass to Work Permit, based on Husaib’s own account, seems to be properly documented even if Husaib felt he had been coerced. While he is entitled to his S-Pass salary for the months of February and March, it’s hard to make the case that the base salary of $4,000 a month remained in effect for April and May (the Work Permit took effect on 1 April). Husaib is relying on the oral assurances that the employer gave that the higher salary would apply even though the Work Permit IPA stated $600.

“In order for such a claim to be validated,” adds the senior volunteer, “he will have to present evidence and an airtight argument to prove that there was deception at that point.” The volunteer was referring to the point in time when the boss asked Husaib to agree to a downgrade to a Work Permit,

There’s a family to feed

“What are your plans moving forward?” we ask Husaib.

His main focus is to have the case resolved quickly so that he can go back to Bangladesh, he says. He also wants to look for a new job in Singapore. With two young children back home, the pressure is mounting to provide financially for them. Although he should be getting permission from MOM to transfer to any new job he can find without first having to go home, Husaib says going back home before looking for a new job will be the most viable route for him. He hasn’t seen his family for over a year. Not allowed to work for now because the case is pending, the monotony of his hours waiting for news on the case, eating, and going back to sleep, is getting to him.

Learning of the salary claims filed against him, the employer claimed that he had “no money” to compensate his workers. It appears that he was working with a very generous definition of the phrase. Husaib tells us that the company still has ongoing projects and other employees on the job. The company should have cashflow. It makes us wonder if the employer simply wants to play for time and avoid coughing up the owed salaries.

In late July, about a month after our interview, the boss offered a payout of $6,000 and a ticket home. This amount is not quite half of the nearly $13,000 that Husaib was owed for the four months of work, February to end-May. Sick of this whole affair, Husaib chose to accept it to put the matter behind him and not prolong the worry. That’s totally understandable, but in the final analysis, it’s hard to say things turned out fairly – both in terms of the virtually enforced downgrade to Work Permit with its much lower salary, and the outcome wherein Husaib gives up about $7,000 worth of unpaid salary. If the system is so easily manipulated by employers for nefarious means with such impunity, it is time we examine who the system is protecting and who it is leaving behind.

16412