Among the different kinds of work Bissek had to do was the installing of solar panels
Bissek and Proddi, both Bangladeshi workers (names changed to protect them from retaliation), are employed by the same company, but report to different bosses. The company is one of three that seem to be associated with each other. In November and December 2025, well over a hundred workers from these three companies came to TWC2 over salary non-payment. We first mentioned these three companies in the article How to make a million dollars and get away with it.
We had an opportunity to sit down with Bissek and Proddi for a longer interview, in which they also shared their stories of how their respective bosses tried to cover up the non-payment.
What Bissek’s boss tried to do is the subject of this story. Proddi’s boss had a different trick; it’s in the next upcoming story.
On Wednesday, 26 November 2025, Bissek and two coworkers were told by their boss Ashok that “today hotel change”. The three guys had been staying in a kind of rooming house in the Rochor area, and Bissek refers to his accommodation as a hotel rather than as a dormitory. The three men then spent the morning packing their things in readiness for the move.
Around midday, the company’s lorry driver picked them up. When asked which new place of residence they would be going to, the driver said he knew nothing of any change of residence. Instead, he had been instructed to drive them to the company office in Jurong East. What was management up to, one might wonder.
At the office, boss Ashok was waiting. He had prepared their wages – Bissek had not received his for nearly three months – in cash. The boss handed each of the three workers the money, made them sign and thumbprint payment vouchers, all the while video-ing the activity.
Once the camera was switched off, the boss said that the cash should be handed back to the company later that evening. The driver, who at that point in time was not in the room, would be the one collecting it. Instead, the men’s salaries would be credited to their bank accounts the next day. Handing back the cash was not optional, the boss stressed. If they failed to do so, he would cancel their Work Permits and send them home.
Again, one has to wonder, what was the boss up to?
“Why didn’t you quickly deposit the cash into your bank accounts?” we ask Bissek.
He was waiting all afternoon in the office, he explained. The driver was supposed to return to pick them up but did not do so. It also seemed from his further comments that the men were induced to wait rather than make their own way out of the place. It wasn’t until nearly 8pm when the three guys gave up and “then we no choice must take MRT back to Rochor.” MRT is Singapore’s metro system.
It was nearly 1am when the driver finally showed up at the boarding house. He repeated the boss’ instructions: hand back the cash and your proper salaries would be creditted into your bank accounts the next day. The men asked why. The driver mumbled something about “Singapore rules” – something about how workers shouldn’t be paid in cash but through their bank accounts. Bissek’s tone of voice when he recounts being given this explanation strongly suggests that he was beyond sceptical.
Thursday, 27 November 2025: the men checked their bank accounts. No salaries were deposited into them. Maybe the driver had not yet handed the cash back to the boss; after all, he came back really late last night.
Friday, 28 November 2025: Still nothing in their bank accounts. Why are we not surprised?
The next working day, Monday, 1 December 2025: Bissek went to lodge a complaint at the Ministry of Manpower (MOM). One or two days later, his Work Permit was cancelled.
Hoping that “insurance” will cover the salary arrears
Bissek’s case is ongoing at the time of our interview. He has heard that if the company is unable to pay up, he should be able to get some or all of the claim amount through “insurance” – a reference to the Security Bond. We tell him this is not guaranteed, though in TWC2’s view, it should be. More about the Security Bond is discussed in the earlier article How to make a million dollars and get away with it.
The non-payment of salary was not the only financial injustice facing Bissek. He and his family had paid ten lakh taka (a little over $10,000) as the recruitment fee. It was paid through an agent in Bangladesh, but Bissek seems to know that the money was funnelled to boss Ashok or his partners. This amount is almost surely irrecoverable.
The International Labour Organisation treats recruitment fees borne by workers as an indicator of forced labour. See page 23 of the 2025 version of ILO’s information booklet. Despite not being paid his salary, Bissek felt unable to quit the job; he needed to stay on the job if he was to have any hope at all of earning enough to recover what he had paid as his recruitment fee (when eventually salary comes around, as hoped). Even when, for a few hours, this salary in cash was in his hands, he felt coerced into handing back the cash as required by the boss, because the boss threatened to cancel his Work Permit if he did not do so. This little element of the story tells us that economic and psychological coercion is real and seriously constrains workers’ actions. For precisely this reason, ILO’s booklet says, in bold print: “No recruitment fees or related costs should be charged to, or otherwise borne by, workers or jobseekers”. One can argue that Bissek was in a forced labour situation.
Like all his co-workers, he was a “supply worker”, seconded to various other companies to do all sorts of odd jobs. There was a month when he was installing solar panels, then another month when he was sent to work in Changi Airport’s Terminal 4, installing luggage conveyor belts. We don’t think Changi Airport and other state infrastructure projects wish to be tainted with forced labour, but the fact remains that, even if indirectly, they are.
As our interview reaches its conclusion, Bissek remembers something he is eager to share. Described with appropriate irony in his tone of voice, he says, “That driver, that Tamil man driver…”
“The one who helped your boss take back the cash that had been given to you?” we ask, to be sure.
“Yes, that driver. He also not get salary.” We see an evil grin flash across his face.
“Has he filed a salary claim too?”
“I think, yes, maybe.”
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