All items filed under News

Slow start to male domestic workers

May 12th, 2013|

The Sunday Times featured a newly-hired male domestic worker from Myanmar on its 12 May 2013 edition. 31-year-old Lum Hkawng comes from Kachin state in northern Myanmar. The former steel welder, who speaks Mandarin, is working for a partially-handicapped man in his 50s who was injured in a traffic accident.

Response to complaint about our ‘demonise’ article

May 6th, 2013|

Transient Workers Count Too received a complaint about a post on this website about Singapore mums using blogs to vent about their maids. The blogger, Expat Bostonians, has written a rebuttal here. Her point was that she never intended to demonise domestic helpers and that it was unfair to her

Company fined $8,000 for late salary payments

May 3rd, 2013|

The newspaper Today reported on 26 April 2013 that construction company Zhong Jiang (Singapore) International was fined $8,000 for failing to pay salaries on time to ten workers, between last October and December. The salaries that were paid late came up to more than S$44,400, and were for the months of September to November.

A year and a half since the accident, Mahadi still stuck in Singapore

April 4th, 2013|

Volunteer Christine Pelly flipped Mahadi's dinner card over and noticed that the date of accident recorded on it was more than one year ago. She directed the young man to your writer, who this evening was interested in the stories of those with prolonged cases. Visibly, there was no obvious

New exco for 2013 to 2015

March 26th, 2013|

New TWC2 Executive Committee At the Annual General Meeting on Sunday, 24 March 2013, the following were elected un-opposed to the nine-member Executive Committee: President: Russell Heng Hiang Khng Vice President: Alex Au Waipang Secretary: Bashir Basalamah Treasurer: Noorashikin Abdul Rahman The other 5 members of the committee are: Deborah

Minister acknowledges need to reduce churning, but . . .

March 17th, 2013|

"We all are aware of how certain sectors do practice churning and I will be looking at clamping down on that through the EFMA (Employment of Foreign Manpower Act) measures,"said Acting Minister for Manpower, Tan Chuan-jin, in parliament on 14 March 2013 during the budget debate. However, the specific change

Worker killed as lorry tips over after collision

March 17th, 2013|

Magalingam Rajesh, 29, a construction worker from India, was killed slightly after 7am on Friday, 15 March 2013, when the lorry he was riding in tipped over onto its side. He was among eight workers seated  on the lorry's flatbed. The Straits Times reported that he had been working in

Minister hints at legislating mandatory payslips

March 16th, 2013|

"A proposal that has received wide public support is on legislating mandatory payslips and salary records for all employees," said Acting Minister for Manpower, Tan Chuan-jin, in parliament on 14 March 2013.  "Some MPs also raised this and we are supportive." He didn't mention that TWC2 has been pressing his

Two anniversaries in March 2013

March 4th, 2013|

For immediate release Two anniversaries are taking place in March 2013: On 9th March, it will be ten years since the launch of The Working Committee Two at a forum in the courtyard of the old National Library building. It was from this ad-hoc group that Transient Workers Count Too