Bunks for trainees at the training centre in Dhaka
“No,” Mondol raises his voice slightly as he replies to my question, but also smiles at the foolishness of it. “No talking,” he says.
His agent had told him that the salary for the forthcoming job would be $19.97 per day. Our (foolish) question was whether he queried why it was such a peculiar number.
Mondol’s near laugh gives away his answer: He was in no position to query anything, let alone negotiate. It was take it or leave it.
“My passport, he keeping,” our client explains. “My twelve lakh, he take.”
By this point, Mondol had already paid 1,200,000 Bangladeshi taka, close to $12,000. He was in no position to bargain over anything. Even asking an innocent question about the strangely precise number (97 cents) might be misconstrued as challenge. Best not to risk it.
Such is the lot of a first-time migrant worker, hoping for his career-launching job in Singapore.
Farmworker
Even though Mondol finished school, yet up till age 25, all he could find by way of work was as a farm hand earning just 500 taka (about $5) per day. Partly it has to do with the relatively isolated location of his village, far from jobs and industry – what little there exists in Bangladesh. He adds, “You know my country, not have many work.”
He’s hardly alone in looking abroad for a better life.
“I ask my friends, ‘I go to Singapore, what I do?'” The syntax needs getting used to but we’ll paraphrase it for you: He asked around his social circle as to how he should begin the process of looking for work in Singapore. One friend said he should enroll in a construction skills training centre. Of course, this presupposes that he wants to be a construction worker, but since 90% or more of Singapore job opportunities for Bangladeshis are in the construction sector, it’s actually a no-brainer. Of course he’s headed for the construction sector. That’s just about the only sector they refer to when talking about work in Singapore.
In short order, the friend introduced Mondol to a “teacher” who then gave Mondol a referral letter which got him signed up at South Point Skills Centre located in the capital city Dhaka. Not more than two months later, he made his way there and was inducted into the rhythm of a migrant worker’s life: Nothing happens without payment. “Admission money one lakh sixty thousand, must pay first,” he is quick to add. Cash was handed over.
Nine months
There was some mention that the course – ceiling partition installation – would take about three months, but in fact Mondol would spend the next nine months at the training centre, most of the time simply waiting for an exam slot.
For the ceiling installation course, Mondol was issued this set of tools and equipment
“Why did it take nine months to get an exam slot?” we naturally have to ask.
“One centre only 50 students can take exam every month,” he explains. There’s obviously a backlog of trainees in the queue, and why not? After all, these training centres make money by training. Is there any pressing reason to limit the intake of students to just the number of exam slots? That may unnecessarily limit the business’ sales revenue.
“Your family home is far away from Dhaka, so where did you live during these nine months?”
“At training centre,” Mondol replies. “Have to pay 6,000 taka.”
“Per month?”
“Yes, every month.”
He has a picture of the bunks he and other trainees were housed in. It’s at the top of this article.
Money questions
Mondol paid a total $12,000 in several installments. Always in cash. Most of the money was borrowed from his brother and relatives, but he also took out a three lakh loan (about $3,000) from Brac Bank.
After the exam, which he passed in December 2024, it was assumed that the boss or management of the training centre would then find a job for him. In other words, they would be Mondol’s job-placement agent. Did he have any choice in the matter? Could he have chosen to use the services of another agent, unconnected with the training centre?
Mondol laughs again at yet another foolish question. This was part of the deal from the start; there’s no other way. He reminds me that his passport was being held by the training centre and anyway a prince’s ransom had been handed over.
At least, the training-centre-doubling-as-agent delivered. Within a month or so after the exam, a job was found for him and he was informed that his basic salary would be $19.97 per day. No, he never found out why this mysterious figure.
Mondol arrived in Singapore in March 2025. He joined the company and started work, all ready to apply his newly-minted ceiling installation skills. Reality has a way of turning out differently for Bangladeshi workers. He was instead tasked to bend steel reinforcement bars, something he had not been trained for. He hasn’t been near a ceiling since.
25 months
A lot can be read from just these few numbers. At $19.97 per day basic salary, Mondol’s job would pay $475 per month. To recover his sunk cost of $12,000, Mondol will need to work 25 months – yes, over two years – and devote every dollar he earns from his basic salary to paying back his loans. This is before we even consider interest costs, or for that matter, the need for such essentials as meals, clothes, a dataplan and toothpaste.
No surprise that terms like “debt bondage” or “modern slavery” have been used to describe situations like this.
TWC2 has seen this again and again, in stories from worker after worker. We’ve seen guys trained as plasterers doing glass installation. We’ve seen guys trained as painters put to work doing plumbing and pipework. We’ve even raised it with the Building and Construction Authority of Singapore – they’re the people in charge of the skills training progammes and exams – but nobody seems interested. Workers pay huge sums of money to get training in one skill only to be put to work doing something they’re not trained for. How does that contribute to productivity in our construction industry? How is this not a gargantuan waste of time, money and effort?
We might as well shut down all the training centres and do away with the testing requirement since it serves no purpose.
(Maybe there is a purpose: keeping well-connected people in Bangladesh enriched. But, if so, why is Singapore government policy a party to this?)
Apprenticeship scheme
A simpler, better tailored system would look different. In our proposal, it would be one where new construction workers are recruited on the basis of foundational attributes such as
- Basic educational attainment (at least 10 years of schooling);
- At least conversational English, so that they can understand management instructions and coordinate with fellow workers from other nationalities;
- Enough English reading comprehension to understand safety instructions and manuals;
- Enough physical strength to do a construction job (e.g. at least 60 kg in body weight).
They would first be recruited as apprentices (slightly lower salary?), who attend skills training courses at training centres in Singapore, say two or three days a week, in Singapore after joining the company. The courses should be paid for by the employer. The other days, they do general-worker type jobs such as moving materials or site housekeeping or simple work under the instruction of a more experienced worker.
When they pass the certification exam, they get a raise, and be a fulltime construction worker.
By having the employer pay for training, the employer should be more invested in making sure the skills acquired are relevant to the company’s operations and put to use.
Six months later
Mondol came to TWC2 in August 2025, nearly six months after starting work. He had hurt his back. The doctor put him on medical leave and said he needed to do a CT scan to arrive at a better diagnosis.
“Rebar is heavy work,” Mondol says.
We’ve heard a thousand other Mondols say the same. It’s a detested job. They have to carry heavy steel bars to site and somehow, using a few simple tools, bend them to a required shape. There’s a huge shortage of rebar workers in Singapore, and the word is that employers harvest any kind of worker to do this type of work, skills or no skills. If it were legal to shanghai workers off the streets to fill these jobs, they just might.
Reinforcement steel bars (“rebars”) laid down before concrete is poured to make a pavement. At top left are rebars that have been bent to shape.
The company is supportive of Mondol’s treatment – nothing wrong there. But he has been off work for too long and the company is reaching a point when it must decide whether to keep him on the payroll or find a replacement. It has offered a handshake sum to Mondol to go home. Mondol must now decide.
It’s not a large sum. It barely covers a quarter of the $12,000 in loans he has taken. What’s he going to tell the lenders? Looking down the road, if, after a few months of rest at home, he recovers and starts looking for a new job in Singapore, where is he going to find new funds to pay the next agent?
Ah yes, the rhythm of a migrant worker’s life.
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