All Articles
From sharks to ice-cream via peace, love and sponsorship
By TK “Wow…… surprise. Very nice place. We will enjoy the place very much,” exclaimed Amir Khan, when he heard that Discover Singapore would be organizing an outing to Sentosa S.E.A. aquarium. Since the launch of Discover Singapore in May 2013, outing destinations have typically been free public spaces such
About 70,000 workers live on construction sites
Manpower minister Tan Chuan-jin told parliament through a written reply that about 70,000 workers (presumably male construction workers) live in temporary housing located at construction sites. Most foreign workers live in purpose-built dormitories but around 20 per cent - or 70,000 - live on construction sites. The figures were released
26 to 40 percent of male workers suffer illegal ‘savings money’ deduction
A new survey of nearly three hundred male migrant workers found that 26 to 40 percent of them suffered a pay deduction commonly known as 'savings money' -- roughly one in three workers. The deduction averaged $50 a month. An earlier survey (see: One third of male migrant workers aren't
Your condition is serious, you must go to hospital, says polyclinic. “I no money,” says Kamal
By Stéphanie Psarski This testimony is a very good and heart warming example of how, to workers, Transient Workers Count Too makes a difference even in the tiniest thing. Injured on his back in July 2012, Kamal Mostafa has been waiting in Singapore for his case to be settled by
Lebanese court rules that employer must return domestic worker’s passport
With permission from The Legal Agenda, TWC2 is pleased to reproduce an article from their English website discussing an important court ruling, recently announced in Beirut, Lebanon. The ruling discusses major issues: challenging the widespread practice of withholding passports the problematic nature of the sponsorship system violation of fundamental right to
Genius Engineering, part 2: Latif’s opinion of Singapore takes a dive
By Isabel Chew “Before I always think Singaporean very good but today I see I cannot take it lah. Because salary don’t give.” As I wrap up my interview with Latif, the morose Bangladeshi worker shares with me his feelings about the seemingly hopeless situation. He has not been paid
Genius Engineering, part 1: the first group comes to TWC2
A large group of workers from Genius Engineering approached TWC2 for help over salary non-payment. Volunteer Meera Rajah meets two of them. By Meera Rajah “Next week… next week… wait”, Rafiqul and Hossain are now – unfortunately – accustomed to this unvarying refrain. It has been three months and four
After an eight-month slog through the Labour Court, Durai wins back his overtime pay
Veluchamy Duraisamy is a happy worker. On or around 4 August 2014, he (more or less) won his case at the Labour Court. He is extremely grateful to TWC2. It might have turned out very differently without us. Durai had to go to the Labour Court eight times to get
The challenge of labour trafficking
On 27 August 2014, The Straits Times published an opinion article by John Gee, immediate past president of TWC2, which the paper titled 'Ensuring better protection for migrant workers'. Here, John has revised the article slightly, elaborating on some points at the same time. By John Gee At the end
Zahir mistakenly happy to have received his ‘MC money’
By Lucas Ho Just as Zahir is getting to the part about MC money halfway through the interview, TWC2 vice-president Alex Au walks by. He overhears Zahir mention a few numbers -- numbers which don't quite make sense to me, but whose significance Alex grasps straight away. In case we