All items filed under News
No dormitory case of Covid-19 in month of March 2021
In September 2020, we had 801 Covid-19 cases from the dorms. From October, there has been a dramatic improvement.
US State Dept’s 2020 human rights report on Singapore
Among the issues touched on are indications of forced labor, restrictions of workers' movement during Covid-19, arrests of foreign workers on terrorism grounds.
Losing the TADM plot
Our volunteer recounts a salary case wherein we felt the TADM mediator to be delivering poor customer service and exceeding his powers.
Give domestic workers a break
For all the wringing of hands over abuse of domestic workers, one key solution has still not been implemented despite TWC2 proposing it nearly two decades ago.
Employers claw back cost of stay-home period from arriving workers
MOM says employers must bear the full cost of newly-arriving workers' quarantine stay. Without victim protection, our policy-makers are whistling in the wind.
How did 5,000 salary claims a year become 1,400 over five years?
In 2018 and 2019, over 60% of all salary claims were filed by foreign employees. Even digging these basic figures out involved sleuthing. Many things still opaque.
97 percent of employers of dorm-based workers now pay through bank
This represents good improvement, but to be meaningful, more needs to be disclosed as to how this figure was arrived at and what monitoring system is in place.
Straits Times’ Migrant Burden: background and commentary
A good video highlighting one of the critical issues in the exploitation of migrant workers -- recruitment costs This article adds more information surrounding it.
Domestic worker dies from abuse and starvation, commentary 2
Baying for blood is easy. Looking unflinchingly at how regulatory policies and priorities contributed to the torture and killing of a domestic worker would be more positive.
Domestic worker dies from abuse and starvation, commentary 1
The killing of a domestic worker behind closed doors must compel us to reckon with the concept of live-in domestic help. Live-out arrangements have many benefits.