All items filed under News
Lorry safety offences fall 49% with stiffer penalties
On February 1, 2011, new rules came into effect for lorries transporting workers. There were also increased penalties. In the eight months following (Feb to Sep 2011), the number of employers caught flouting safety rules was 1,329, said Minister of State for Transport Josephine Teo, in a statement to Parliament,
Do more to promote best-sourcing: Labour MPs
During a parliamentary sitting this week, four members of parliament urged the government to do more to promote "best sourcing". The term is used to mean judging contract bids on more than price, and including criteria such as offering fair wages to workers. Mr Zainudin Nordin (Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC) started
Foreign workers roped in to queue for bak kwa
The Straits Times spotted about ten foreign workers among about 150 people in a queue to buy bak kwa at a popular shop in Chinatown. Bak kwa is the local name for honeyed barbecued pork, a traditional delicacy around Chinese New Year. In its report, the newspaper identified one of
Chinese worker, who climbed scaffolding to protest, jailed for criminal trespass
A Chinese construction worker was jailed ten weeks by a judge, January 13, 2012, for criminal trespass, committed when he staged a one-man protest at a worksite. On October 19, 2011, Ai Yong Li went up seven floors of an incomplete block of apartments and climbed out onto the scaffold,
TWC2 featured in NTUC Lifestyle magazine
NTUC Lifestyle magazine had a four-page feature on Transient Workers Count Too in their recent monthly issue. With a circulation of 294,000 this should give TWC2's message a considerable boost. You can read the story in pdf format by clicking the icon at right. The magazine's reporter interviewed TWC2 treasurer
HDB construction workers to rise from 18,000 to 45,000, so will worker problems
Media Release 13 January 2012 For immediate release Minister for National Development Mr Khaw Boon Wan told Parliament, in response to a question from a member of parliament on 9 December 2012, that with the Housing and Development Board (HDB) accelerating its building programme, the number of construction workers involved
HDB building programme up, more construction workers needed
A brief report in the Straits Times, January 10, 2012, mentioned that Minister for National Development Khaw Boon Wan told parliament the day before that with the Housing and Development Board (HDB) cranking up its building programme, the number of construction workers involved in HDB's public housing projects will increase
Badluck Rafiq
Seldom does a single worker get featured in the news twice. Rafiq Miah has that dubious distinction. He was first mentioned in the New Paper in August 2011 after suffering a foot injury in April, and then got hurt in a fire that broke out at a restaurant. He was
No country for fishermen
The death on the high seas of Eril Morales Andrade was featured in The Online Citizen's story, dated January 9, 2012. The case of this Filipino, recruited by a Singapore company, Step Up Marine, to work aboard a Taiwanese fishing vessel, has been monitored closely by TWC2 executive committee member
Jakarta plans to stop sending maids by 2017
In a story datelined Jakarta, January 5, 2012, the Straits Times reported plans afoot in Indonesia to ban sending maids abroad by 2017 unless the receiving country recognises them as formal workers. Under the Domestic Worker Roadmap 2017, it wants to ensure maids are treated like other workers when they