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Caught doing illegal work — a lucky break for Ramachandran
By Benjamin Wong Arumugam Ramachandran first came to Singapore four years ago. For three years Ramachandran worked injury free, but seven months ago, during a routine construction job, Ramachandran injured his knee. At first, he was unwilling to report it, and tried to carry on working, hoping the pain would
‘The sweets were delicious’
Once in a while, Transient Workers Count Too succeeds in helping a worker get everything that is due to him. Not only is the worker happy, so are we. Deliriously. But there was a month in which everything looked very bleak for Hazrat (not his real name). His employer had
Thamil borrowed from legal assistant to survive
By Max Ang The modern urban environment is a tough and unrelenting place where the simplest of needs is monetised. Money is needed in the exchange for basic necessities, such as food and shelter. Without it, one can starve amidst plenty. Such is the predicament of Perumal Thamilarasan. Two years
Television’s a treat
By T K “Photo photo”, the men called out to the TWC2 volunteers to help take pictures, as they lined up beside the movie director, chests out, shoulders squared and faces to the lens. This was at the screening of "Television (2012)" by Bangladeshi film director Mostofa Sarwar Farooki. The film was
Over a year, the difference between $18 and $25 adds up to a lot of money
"You see my IPA," says Shipon as he leaves through a whole sheath of papers. "It say here my salary one month $650." The 'IPA' is the In-principle approval for a work permit and contains the terms of employment that the employer declares to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) at
65 percent of injured and salary-claim workers threatened with premature repatriation
For both groups -- those regularly working and those with injury and salary claims-- the threat of premature repatriation creates a lot of stress. It is the most important stress factor among working workers, and the second-most important, after being injured, among injured and salary-claim workers. Having uncleared debts incurred
Shoriful and Afroza marry by phone
Webmaster: Sometimes we need to be reminded that migrant workers may come from very different cultures. Shoriful's story about getting married may sound very strange, but is quite typical for men from Bangladesh. Money concerns also feature prominently, heightened by expectations that workers ought to be remitting large amounts of
Support TWC2 through our Lunch with Heart, 15 December 2013
Update, 29 November 2013: TWC2 wishes to thank donors for buying enough tickets to fill the 140-capacity venue. Of these, 50 tickets (already sold and allocated) will be used by the donors themselves and the remaining 90 are sponsored tickets for workers to enjoy the lunch. In fact another 54
Kabir refuses wrongly-calculated salary for nine months, now no job at all
By Lisa Li Before coming to Singapore, Kabir was promised that the job would pay $32 a day. But "when I start work , I no get 32 dollars, they pay only 28 dollars," he tells Transient Workers Count Too. "We hear of such problems quite frequently," says TWC2 vice-president Alex
Crime victim detained for months
By Keith W Yes, you read the headline right. The victim was detained -- so to speak. Muthunayagam Saju has been told by the police that he is not allowed to go home to India. He must remain in Singapore because they may need him in order to prosecute the