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Woolim, part 2: case vanishes
Continued from Woolim, part 1: How low can a salary get? Early January 2014, Iqbal comes to the office with a group of his co-workers telling us that three of the fifteen men have accepted a settlement offer from the employer Woolim, wherein each of them would receive $2,000. This,
Naidu shared a truck with machinery, his hand paid the price
By Joyce Wong 28 June 2013. Morning. Although he had reported to work, Ravada Gouru Naidu felt a headache coming on, and his supervisor allowed him to go back to the dormitory to rest. He could get a ride back on the company lorry, but since the cab was fully
Migrant workers at writers’ fortnight at United World College
By Pat Meyer and Christine Pelly, photos by Low Yim Kuan Over the course of two days in January, twenty migrant workers from Bangladesh and India talked about their lives with just over 200 students from over 40 different countries. The students were 14- and 15-year-olds from an international school
Five years on, Junnuri still waiting for injury pay-out
Junnuri Subrahmanyam's flight was booked for the evening. He wanted a day off on his last day in Singapore so he could go downtown to buy gifts for this family. He had been working four years with Sin Hong Thai Engineering and was looking forward to going home. But instead
Law students’ reflections 4: Crossing a road
By Charmaine Yap On the very first day of our 3-week internship at TWC2, Alex told us most emphatically that we would need to “step out of our middle class mindset and assumptions”. That thought particularly stuck with me. Thinking back now, I doubt I had really understood then what
Workplace injuries and migrant workers
By John Gee The annual report for 2012 of the Occupational Safety and Health Division (link to Part 1, Part 2), released in March 2013, ("OSHD Report") showed that the number of workplace deaths had fallen to 56, its lowest level in nine years. However, the total number of injuries
Esan comes back to a new job
By Keith W He waves to me while I am standing in the ATM line. He looks familiar but I can't place him. Guessing that I am having some difficulty remembering him, he approaches me to re-introduce himself. "You not remember me? My name Esan*," he says. "Last time I
Dulal put to lie-detector test
Continued from Dulal faced problems on all fronts, none of his own making Laymen think that polygraph tests can reliably establish the veracity of a person’s statement and detect his lies. Perhaps those old movies of the polygraph pen gyrating wildly on the chart and the suspect shouting out his confession,
Dulal faced problems on all fronts, none of his own making
On the morning of 29 September 2012 as he was about to start work, Dulal Abdul Hai found a crowd gathering to watch a fight between an Indian lorry driver and a Bangladeshi welder. Without pausing to consider the reason for the fight, he made the risky decision to intervene
Law students’ reflections 3: A peek into a different world
By Ashley Loh “Step out of your middle-class mentality” — this was one of the first few things said to us on our first day of attachment. My experience with TWC2 has definitely opened my eyes to a world that was rather different from my own. I was given many